Page 7 - Dinuba Sentinel E-edition 5-17-18

Sports
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“In the offseason we were working hard. Valley, first place, winning it, I knew we would because our hard work was going to pay off.”
- Daniel Martinez, Dinuba High track star
The Dinuba Sentinel
Thursday, May 17, 2018 Track & Field
Dinuba boys repeat as Valley champs in track
Five Emperor athletes move on to compete at Masters this Saturday
By Rick Curiel
finishes and one-third place finish to collect nearly half of Dinuba’s 76.5 total team points.
“In the offseason we were working hard,” said Martinez of the team’s effort this year. “Valley, first place, winning it, I knew we would because our hard work was going to pay off.”
Martinez follows a long line of top- ranked hurdlers for the Emperors’ track team. Starting with Xavier Jones in 2014, and continuing with Isaak Leppke and last year’s top hurdler Raymond Yan, Martinez will now be the fourth consecutive hurdler from Dinuba High School to go on to compete at the CIF
Central Valley Championships, otherwise known as the Masters.
“I knew I had to put everything I had into it,” said Martinez. “It’s my senior ye.IfeltlikeIhadalotonmesincewe had Raymond last year. So I felt I had to do it. Last year I knew I could lean on Raymond, I felt I didn’t have to push myself as much because I knew he was always going to be up there. This year I thought it’s just me and I have to push these guys and I want to do great.”
At last Wednesday’s Valley championship, Martinez pushed himself towards perhaps his best performance yet. He set personal records in both the
110-meter hurdles and in the long jump, taking first place in both events.
His time in the 110-meter hurdles was 14.82, shaving three-hundredths of a second off his previous personal record, which he set the week before at the Central Sequoia League Championships.
He outdid himself in the long jump competition, jumping a personal best 22’1.75”, almost five inches further than his previous record.
Martinez also placed third in the 200-meters race with a time of 22.86 seconds.
See Track, Page B8
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
After capturing their third straight league title on May 2, the Dinuba High boys’ track team continued their reign by taking the Central Section’s Division II championship last Wednesday. The Valley championship was the third in the last four years for Emperors’ track team.
Once again, carrying on a long-standing tradition of great hurdlers for Dinuba High School, Daniel Martinez was a force to be reckoned with all season long and last Wednesday was no exception.
Martinez captured three first-place
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
High School Softball
Lady Emps win league title
Dinuba enters Division III playoffs as No. 1 seed, will host quarterfinals game tomorrow.
into the game tied for the most wins in CSL, both with 16 victories.
And as one might have expected a game to go between the league’s top two pitchers, for the most part, the game was a pitcher’s dual. Yet, what might not have been expected was the game to go into the final inning scoreless.
The difference in the game could have been the bat of Dinuba High junior Kaily Manning, who went three-for- three at the plate with two doubles and a single.
Manning singled in the second inning on a base hit line drive up the middle. She then doubled in the fifth inning after shooting one up the third base line. Though she was able to advance to third base after tagging up on a fly out to right field, in both cases she was left stranded on base.
However, her third hit of the game would prove to be the charm the Lady Emps needed. With both teams heading
See Lady Emps, Page B8
Dinuba’s Daniel Martinez will be the fourth straight Emperor hurdler to compete at the Masters.
Dinuba High junior Kaily Manning was clutch at the plate during the Lady Emperors’ Central Sequoia League finale at Exeter this past Friday. Manning went 3-for-3 at the plate, coming away with one single and two doubles. She also provided the Lady Emperors only run of the game in the seventh inning when she was knocked in by junior teammate Felicity Morales. The run subsequently gave Dinuba a 1-0 victory over the Monarchs and earned the Lady Emps their first league title since 2010.
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
In their warm up game to what became the Lady Emperors’ Central Sequoia League title match against Exeter, Dinuba beat up on Immanuel by putting up 19 runs. In Friday’s game against Exeter, and a league title on the line, Dinuba scored just one run against the Monarchs.
But it was enough to earn the Lady Emps a 1-0 victory and, more importantly, Dinuba’s first league title in softball since 2010.
Dinuba came into the game in a three-way tie for first place in the CSL. Sitting at the top of the league was Dinuba, Selma and Kingsburg. With Selma and Kingsburg also playing each other on Friday, the Lady Emps needed to win against Exeter to secure a share of the CSL title.
As expected, both teams started their ace pitchers. Dinuba’s Kirsten Martinez and Exeter’s Brooklyn Blackmon came
By Rick Curiel
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
Emperors rally
past Kingsburg in
opening round
Dinuba travels to play No. 2 Independence today in Division III quarterfinals
left field would change the outcome of the inning, and perhaps the rest of the game.
The ball sailed off the bat of Kingsburg’s Caleb Buendia and appeared to have enough to get past Dinuba left fielder Josh Martinez. But Martinez made a beeline to the ball and was able to haul in the catch full speed. Vikings’ Ben Coito was able to tag up at third base and come in for a run but teammate Daniel Ingrao found himself rounding second base on the hit and had to sprint back to first.
However, after the play, and after an umpire discussion at the request of Dinuba High coach Brent Morrelli, it was ruled that Ingrao failed to tag second base on his return and was subsequently ruled out.
The Emperors then found themselves facing two outs but had runners on first and second, thanks to a couple of errors by the Vikings. Dinuba High senior Giovanni Olmos than outran the throw to first on a short hopper, allowing teammate Corey Cosper to come in for the tying run.
Dinuba then took the lead when Coito, Kingsburg’s pitcher, attempted to pick off Olmos at first, allowing Emperor senior Elijah Mayberry to steal home plate.
The Emperors would then rally off five more runs in the second inning,
See Emperors, Page B8
High School Baseball
By Rick Curiel
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
After losing their regular season finale at Exeter last Friday 10-5, the Dinuba Emperors’ baseball team would need a complete team rally if they were going to make a move in the playoffs.
Tuesday afternoon, as the Emperors hosted the first round of the Central Section’s Division III playoffs against Kingsburg, the team got that rally, and came away with an 11-4 victory over the Vikings.
Dinuba entered the playoffs as the No. 10 seed, after finishing the regular season with a 17-11 overall record and going 8-7 in the Central Sequoia League. They finished two games behind co-league champions Selma and Immanuel, and one game behind Kingsburg.
The Emperors lost their series to Kingsburg this year, with the Vikings edging out Dinuba 7-6 in their first matchup and then outscoring them 17-11 in the second.
With numbers like that, one could assume either team would have to put up runs to come out victorious this time.
Early in the game it appeared the Vikings would be the one putting up runs when they quickly put runners on the corners with just one out in the first inning. But a fly out to deep
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
Orosi High School junior Antonio Lupian, right, is congratulated by teammate Rafa Saldivar after scoring one of 11 runs in the first inning for the Cardinals last Thursday. Orosi went on to beat Wonderful College Prep Academy 18-2 for biggest win of the season.
Cardinals close out regular season with 18-2 rout
Orosi wasted no time getting started in their game against the Wolves. They scored 11 runs in the first inning alone, with runs coming from nearly every player in the lineup.
On an evening honoring seniors, the Cardinals’ only two on the team, Kevin Soto and Steven Arichiga, scored twice in the first inning. Teammate junior Talingo Frausto also scored twice in the opening inning and junior Valentine Quevedo tallied three RBI’s to open the game.
Orosi went on to win the game in a five-inning mercy rule victory and finished the regular season with a 9-5
See Cardinals, Page B8
By Rick Curiel
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
If you were to look at the Orosi Cardinal’s last ten games of their 2018 baseball season you’d see that the team finished off the regular season 8-2. Their only two losses in that span were to the two strongest teams in the East Sierra League, McFarland and Orange Cove.
Thursday, the Cardinals put an exclamation on their regular season by routing Wonderful College Prep Academy 18-2 at home, earning their first mercy game victory and their largest margin of victory of the season.