Prep Rally: The high school sports season closes with a ton of title games
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Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. May Madness has arrived in high school sports, the final month of the 2024-25 season.
Month of championships
Get ready for a month of section, regional and state championships as the 2024-25 sports season comes to a close.
Here’s a look at the calendar and options to attend.
Dodger Stadium will be the site for the City Section baseball championships on May 24. It remains the most special destination every season for lucky City players who make it. El Camino Real, Birmingham and Venice are the early contenders.
Cal State Fullerton or Blair Field will host the Southern Section baseball finals May 30-31. Someone will have to eliminate Corona to win it all in Division 1. Pitcher Seth Hernandez has an astounding 88 strikeouts and just three walks in 42 1/3 innings. Make sure you take an afternoon off to see him pitch before he’s taken No. 1 or No. 2 in this summer’s amateur draft. He has a 98-mph fastball.
The Southern Section track and field prelims take place this weekend. There are so many male and female runners ready to unleash their best performances in the coming weeks leading up to the state championships at the end of the month at Buchanan High in Clovis.
Prepare for a month of excitement, surprises, tears of happiness and tears of disappointment.
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Baseball
Crespi clinched the Mission League championship by winning two of three games over Harvard-Westlake. Catcher Landon Hodge was impressive hitting. Sophomore Mikey Martinez turned in a stellar relief performance. Nate Lopez came through in the clutch. Here’s a report.
Santa Margarita claimed the Trinity League’s final automatic playoff berth with a win over Servite on Friday.
Arcadia wrapped up an unbeaten Pacific League season. Summit has won 19 consecutive games. Norco ended Big VIII League play with 11 wins in its last 12 games.
Birmingham dropped two games to Granada Hills in the West Valley League, which means the Patriots must sweep El Camino Real in a two-game series this week to win the title. El Camino Real has a one-game lead and is on a 12-game league winning streak.
Venice lost a nonleague game to San Pedro to drop to 24-2 but is unbeaten in the Western League. City Section pairings will be announced Saturday with Southern Section pairings Sunday.
Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.
It’s time for the annual warning that seems to be ignored yearly. Batting practice before Southern Section playoff games is not allowed and could result in forfeits. Parents and coaches have been known to break out their cameras to take video to prove the illegality. And protests must be made before the first pitch to the umpire. Then it’s up to the Southern Section to decide if the violation is deserving of a forfeit. Good luck and make sure your video is clear.
Softball
Orange Lutheran has clinched the Trinity League championship. Kai Minor leads the team with 40 hits, a .488 batting average and 31 RBIs.
It’s been a wild season in the Crestview League, where Garden Grove Pacifica (7-4) is trying to hold off El Modena (7-5), Anaheim Canyon (6-5) and Cypress (6-5).
Norco has clinched the Big VIII League title but lost for only the third time all season in a 7-4 defeat to Eastvale Roosevelt.
Rosary is 24-2-1 and 9-0 in the Pacific Coast League. Sophomore Jenna Caldera is hitting .570 with 49 hits.
In the City Section, San Pedro (7-0) has a two-game lead over defending City champion Carson (5-2) in the Marine League. Dahlia Davila is batting .509.
Granada Hills has a two-game lead over Birmingham in the West Valley League and is 21-3.
Track
Demare Dezeurn said he runs track to help his receiving skills in football.
“This is for football to get me faster,” he said before running the 100 meters at the Thursday’s Mission League track and field finals Thursday at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
His coach at Bishop Alemany, Terrell Stanley, said he gave Dezeurn permission to run a fast time. Dezeurn then ran a wind legal 10.32 seconds, second fastest in the state. Here’s the report.
Rodney Sermons ran a wind-aided 10.30 100 meters at the Baseline League finals.
The Trinity League finals were filled with top performances. Servite set a meet record in the 4x100 relay at 40.48.
Servite freshman Jaelen Hunter broke the meet record in the 400 at 46.32. There were nine runners who broke 11 seconds in the boys 100 with Servite’s Benjamin Harris running 10.45. Santa Margarita’s Leo Francis ran the 200 in 20.99. Eden Murray of Mater Dei won the girls 100 in 12.08
Beach volleyball
Rivals Mira Costa and Redondo Union faced off for the Southern Section Division 1 championship, and Redondo upset the top-seeded Mustangs in matches filled with drama. Here’s the report.
Venice won the City Section championship. Here’s the report.
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Notes . . .
Tragedy struck the Loyola High community with the death of tennis standout Braun Levi, the team’s captain who was killed in a traffic accident. He’s the report. . . .
The Southern Section baseball championship games will be played May 30 and 31 at Cal State Fullerton and Blair Field in Long Beach. . . .
Orange Lutheran has hired Nate Klitzing as its new boys basketball coach. He had been at Crean Lutheran for seven years and is a former Orange Lutheran assistant. . . .
Debbie Shaffer has resigned as tennis coach at Mater Dei. . . .
Savannah Seiler is the new girls basketball coach at Edison. . . .
Quarterback Derek Garcia from Ventura has committed to UNLV. . . .
Jeremiah Soifer, who was a longtime high school sportswriter during his days with the Riverside Press-Enterprise and recently inducted into the Norco High Hall of Fame, died last week. He was 80. He became a photographer in retirement. . . .
Former Oaks Christian running back Marc Tyler is the school’s first girls flag football coach.
Nathan Santa Cruz, a 400-meter runner at Venice, has committed to Cal Poly Poly. He was the player who came back from a serious football injury in 2022 that required brain surgery. . . .
Standout guard Isaiah Bennett from AGBU has committed to the University of La Verne. . . .
Junior receiver Luc Weaver of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has committed to USC. He ran a 10.68 100 meters at the Mission League track finals. . . .
Mater Dei pitcher Brandon Thomas has committed to Fresno State. . . .
Former Iowa wrestler Charles Matthews is the new wrestling coach at San Clemente. . . .
Brothers Bear and Tiger Bachmeier are transferring from Stanford to BYU for football. They were standouts at Murrieta Valley.
From the archives: Roman Martin
Former Servite infielder Roman Martin has become a standout in his sophomore season at UCLA.
He entered this week hitting .300 with 45 hits, three home runs and 33 RBIs.
He’s part of a Servite contingent that has been performing well for UCLA, including Jarrod Hocking and Chris Grotheus.
Here’s a story from 2022 of Martin hitting a grand slam.
Recommendations
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on Dodgers manager Dave Roberts adopting the Palisades baseball team and helping out the program after the school and field became unavailable after the Palisades fire.
From the Washington Post, a story on how Maryland is known for lacrosse but one county is playing catch up.
From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, a story on star Maranatha pitcher Zach Strickland.
From Floridatoday, a story on high school football coaches hoping for a raise.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time...
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
