Page 14 - Dinuba Sentinel 6-21-18 E-edition

B6 | Thursday, June 21, 2018 Sports The Dinuba Sentinel Cal Ripken All-Stars tournament returns to Dinuba
A double up the middle by Matt Guido added the team’s sixth run of the game and he provided the seventh run after reaching home on a passed ball from third.
Dinuba kept piling on the runs and took the victory in the fifth inning on a 10-run mercy rule. The win put the Dinuba All-Stars in the winning bracket and set up a matchup with Kingsburg on Tuesday. A win against Kingsburg would have given Dinuba a first round bye as the No. 1 seed.
Said Dinuba All-Stars coach Jose Guido, “We have experienced coaches, experienced baseball players, great pitching, great hitting. It’s just a solid all- around team.”
The Cal Ripken All-Stars championship game will be played tonight at 7 p.m. at KC Park.
Dinuba’s 10-and-under Cal Ripken team is also looking for the same result. Monday they beat Kingsburg 1-0 in their All- Stars tourament opening game in Kerman.
Depending on how Dinuba does this week, they may also earn an invitation to the state tournament, which takes place July 1-8 in Bakersfield.
Dinuba Cal Ripken All-Star Pitcher Jose De La Cruz turned in a solid performance in Monday’s opening round victory over Parlier. He pitched a shutout game into the fourth inning and also provided offensive power in the team’s 12-2 victory.
Dinuba Cal Ripken All-Star Keine Prendez connects in the second inning, sending one into left field to score his team’s fourth run of the game. His hit was part of a stellar offensive performance that put Dinuba in the winner’s bracket.
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
It’s been seven years since Dinuba’s Cal Ripken League held an All-Stars tournament in town. That drought ended on Monday when the 12-and-under All-Stars team took to the field to hand Parlier a 12-2 opening game victory.
This is the second year for Dinuba’s Cal Ripken League, the first year that the league has had a homefield. This past season the games were played at the new field at KC Park.
Monday evening the 12U All- Stars used their homefield to their advantage, going up on Parlier 2-0 in the first inning. They then extended their lead in the second inning when a passed ball allowed Dinuba’s Jayce Prendez to come home from third. Teammate Keine Prendez made it 4-0 later in the inning by driving a ball deep into left field.
Dinuba then added three more runs in the third inning, with Noah Gonzalez leading off with a rocket off the left field fence for a double. Gonzalez later came home on a sacrifice grounder by pitcher Jose De La Cruz.
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
By Rick Curiel
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
Gladiators Youth Football taking singups
Lady Giants seek underdog upset
Sentinel staff report
Team is one
game away
from unlikely
title run
The upcoming season for the Dinuba Gladiators Youth Football program is just around the corner, with the season set to kick off on July
16N. ow until then the Gladiators will continue to take signups, including this Saturday when the group will be taking registrations from noon to 4 p.m. at Circle K in Dinuba.
The Gladiators are entering their third season as a Dinuba Youth program and this year will be playing in the Tier 2 Division of Valley Elite Youth Football.
They offer teams for grades kindergarten through eighth. Four teams are currently seeking players.
The Mighty Mights are for players in kindergarten throughsecond.ThePeeWees are for players in third through fourth grade. The Juniors and Seniors make up the programs’ most competitive divisions, with fifth and sixth graders playing in the Juniors’ team and seventh and eigth graders playing in the Seniors’ team.
This year, because the team received a generous donation, the Gladiators reduced their registration fee from $150 to $55 for players in grades kindergarten through sixth. As an added bonus for Seniors, players in grades seventh through eighth, play for free this year.
For more information, contact Sam Smith at 307- 3249 or Josh Sanders at 250- 8166.
By Rick Curiel
Dynamite
Continued from Page B1
Dinuba Majors
Division Softball
Championship
No. 1 Lady Dynamite vs No. 2 Lady Giants
@ Felix Delgado Park Friday @ 7 p.m.
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
Earlier in the season, as the Lady Dynamite team continued to win game after game, the only undefeated team’s coach Jesse Sanders was asked which team represented the biggest threat. Without hesitation, Sanders said it was the Lady Giants.
“We’ve been dominating all our games,” said Sanders back in May. “But the Lady Giants have been the only team to give us a run for our money.”
Now, the two teams will meet for one last game in tomorrow night’s championship game, with Lady Dynamite representing the No. 1 seed, and the No. 2 Lady Giants earning their spot by defeating the No. 3 team Lady Dragons 8-3 on Monday.
For the Lady Giants, tomorrow’s game may be like a David and Goliath matchup. This year the Lady Giants have only lost three games, two of which came against the Lady Dynamites. In their last matchup, the Lady Giants put up a fight and only lost the game 5-3. For the Lady Dynamites, it was their lowest scoring game of the season.
In Monday’s game, the Lady Giants took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
Lady Giants’ pitcher Alize Flores connects for a basehit during her team’s 8-3 victory over the Lady Dragons. The semifinals victory earned the team a spot tomorrow night’s Dinuba Majors Division Softball Championship Game against the Lady Dynamites. The No. 2 Lady Giants will need their best performance of the season in order to defeat No. 1 team. Team Lady Dynamite is undefeated this season and earned their spot in the championship by defeating the Running Rebels on Monday 12-0.
by bringing in four runs, three of which were driven in by catcher Madilyn Greany.
But as this season has shown for the Lady Giants, nothing comes easy. The Lady Dragons madeitagameinthetopof the second inning by cutting the lead in half. One run was driven in by Lady Dragons’ Samantha Contreras and the second ran came on a tag- up from third base by Kailey Cuevas.
Lady Giants’ pitcher Alize Flores was then able to end the rally by coming up with two big strikeouts.
In the bottom of the inning, teammate Alexis Diaz took advantage of a location on a first-pitch by sending it to right field, scoring Summer Reynoso in the process to give the Lady Giants a 5-2 lead.
The Lady Dragons managed to get back on the board in the top of third after Essence Garza
drove in a run on a coach-pitch single. But unfortunately for the Lady Dragons, this was not their season.
The Lady Giants went on to score three more runs in the bottom of the inning, with Flores leading the way with a line-drive up the third base line for a triple, scoring teammate Haylee Quintana for a 6-3 lead.
Flores was then driven home by Lady Giants’ shortstop Hazel Moreno, who sent a 2-2 pitch
streaming into the outfield to score her team’s seventh run of the game. Moreno also represented the Lady Giants’ eighth and final run of the game later in the inning after finding her way home on her team’s final hit of the game.
Five batters later the Lady Giants were on their way to the championship game.
They take on team Lady Dynamite tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
out the runner on first base. However, Lady Dynamite managed to put together a two-out rally that put four more runs on the scoreboard. Hitting in those runs were Lady Dynamite Kayla Serrano,
Villanueva and Eliza Rojos. Going into the third inning down 7-0, the Running Rebels needed to get some offense going in a hurry to keep their hopes alive. That offense
came in the form of a line drive down up the third base line by Rebels’ Marlaina Rejuejo for a double.
But the offense sputtered
after that, and
though an
added hit later
put runners on the corners with two outs, a force out at second ended their chances at a rally.
That left the door wide-open for the Lady Dynamite and they took full advantage of the opportunity, scoring two batters in on a base hit by Kayla Serrano to boost their lead to
eight. The biggest damage came after Cendejas later loaded the bases on dropped pop-up.
That brought up Ortega, who cleared the bases on ball driven deep into the outfield for an inside-the-park-grand slam. The score also ended the inning due to the league’s five- run-inning mercy rule.
Ortega then closed out the game by allowing only one hit in the fourth inning before
striking out the last three batters.
With the victory the Lady Dynamite will now play the No. 2 seeded team Lady Giants on Friday night in Dinuba’s Majors
Division Championship. The Lady Giants earned their spot in the championship game by defeating the Lady Dragons 8-3 on Monday.
Tomorrow night’s championship game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Softball