SportsScope : Azusa’s Gladstone Leads Valley Teams Into Southern Section Baseball Playoffs

Gladstone High of Azusa, which suffered its first loss of the year in its regular-season finale against Pomona last week, is the top-seeded team from the San Gabriel Valley heading into the CIF Southern Section baseball playoffs, which start Friday.

The Gladiators, coached by Rich Remkus, are the No. 1 seed in the CIF 2-A Division with a 22-1 record. Gladstone, which won the Montview League title and has been ranked No. 1 in the state 2-A Division by Cal-Hi Sports News of Sacramento, is one of four valley teams seeded for the postseason tournament.

The others are Glendora, seeded No. 3 in the 4-A Division; Temple City, No. 3 in 2-A, and Webb, No. 4 in the Small Schools.

Gladstone and Temple City, which won the Rio Hondo League title and is 18-7, have drawn first-round byes and will open play in the second round Tuesday. The Gladiators will play the winner of Friday’s Bosco Tech-Rim of the Word game in the second round and Temple City plays the winner of the Valley Christian-Atascadero game.

Glendora, which tied with Upland for the Baseline League title and has an 18-7 record, will play host to Dos Pueblos (12-10), which was third in the Channel League, at 3:15 p.m. Friday in its 4-A opener. Webb, the Prep League runner-up at 16-5, will open against visiting Mammoth (8-9), the No. 2 team in the Desert-Inyo League at 3:15 Friday.

Among other top valley teams heading into the playoffs are Arcadia (21-4), Nogales (19-6) and Baldwin Park (15-6-1) in the 5-A Division; El Monte (14-7) and Mountain View (14-7) in 3-A and San Marino (18-3) in 2-A.

In first-round games at 3:15 Friday, Arcadia will be at home against Thousand Oaks, Nogales visits El Dorado, Baldwin Park plays host to Eisenhower, El Monte is at home against Canyon (Canyon Country), Mountain View is the home team against San Bernardino and San Marino plays host to Bloomington.

Second-round games are Tuesday, quarterfinals May 26 and semifinals May 30 in all divisions. The Small Schools and 1-A finals are June 2 at Blair Field in Long Beach and the 2-A through 5-A finals are June 3 at Dodger Stadium.

Five teams from the San Gabriel Valley have been seeded in the CIF Southern Section girls softball playoffs that start today.

Diamond Bar (20-2) is seeded No. 3 in the 4-A Division, Covina (21-0-1) is No. 2 and Walnut (17-5-1) No. 4 in 3-A, Arroyo (18-2) No. 3 in 2-A and Azusa (19-1) No. 3 in 1-A.

In first-round games at 3 p.m. Friday, Diamond Bar will play host to the winner of Wednesday’s Arcadia-Burroughs (Burbank) wild-card playoff contest and Azusa will be at home against Antelope Valley and Arroyo entertains Cabrillo.

Diamond Bar and Covina go into postseason play with outstanding pitchers. Diamond Bar, which won the Sierra League title,, is led by senior Bonnie Ebenkamp and Covina, Valle Vista League champion, by senior Mary Letourneau.

Ebenkamp has signed a letter of intent to attend Cal Poly Pomona in the fall, and Letourneau has signed with Cal State Long Beach.

Other top valley teams in the playoffs are Charter Oak (21-5) in 4-A, Temple City (16-5) and South Pasadena (15-5) in 2-A and Pasadena Poly (19-4), Western Christian (!8-5), Ramona Convent (13-3) and Alverno (11-3) in 1-A.

In first-round pairings today, Temple City is at home against Yucaipa and South Pasadena visits El Monte. On Friday, Charter Oak visits Millikan, Pasadena Poly plays host to La Reina, Ramona Convent entertains Bassett, Western Christian visits Connelly and Alverno plays host to Bishop.

The second round of 1-A and 4-A playoffs is Wednesday and the second round in 2-A and 3-A is Tuesday.

Junior sprinter Inger Miller of Muir High and long- and triple-jumper Juliana Yendork of Walnut head the San Gabriel Valley athletes who will compete in the CIF Southern Section divisional finals Saturday at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Field events start at 11 a.m. and running events at noon.

Miller, considered one of the premier high school sprinters in the nation, will be favored in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She has produced the top time in the nation this season in the 200 at 23.62 seconds and is no. 2 in the 100 at 11.59.

Muir, expected to compete with Hawthorne for the 4-A title, is also led by sophomore sprinter Taminika Terry in the 200 meters and sophomore Akua Sutherland in the triple jump and is among the favorites in both the 400- and 1,600-meter relays. The Mustangs have produced a Southern Section-best of 46.91 seconds in the 400-relay.

Sophomore Yendork heads a Walnut squad that expects to finish among the leaders in the 2-A title race. She has produced the top leaps in the nation this season in the long and triple jumps, although both were wind-aided.

She has produced bests of 20-4 1/4 in the long jump and 41-10 1/4 in the triple jump. She will also be among the favorites in the 200 meters where she had a strong qualifying time of 25.38 seconds last week.

Walnut also has one of the top weight throwers in 2-A in Kimya Phillips, who turned in first-place marks in the shot put and discus in the 2-A preliminaries at Gahr High last week.

Another top individual competitor in 2-A is junior Karen Hecox of South Hills in the 1,600 and 3,200, will be favored in both events after winning her heats in the 1,600 and 3,200 at the 2-A prelims next week.

The Cal Poly Pomona men’s basketball team has announced the signing of swing man Ken Scalmanini to a letter of intent.

At 6-4 and 190 pounds, Scalmanini was a top player at Santa Rosa Junior College last season and has also played at UC Davis. Scalmanini, who will be a junior next season, averaged 8.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists last season as Santa Rosa reached the state playoffs.

“Ken’s ability to pass the ball will make all of his teammates better,” Pomona Coach Dave Bollwinkel said. “Additionally, he gives us a better defender at the quick forward position.”