Best of the blog

The Varsity Times Insider blog, a source for observations, news and game coverage, can be found at latimes.com/highschool.

Here are some excerpts we like to call “Best of the Blog”:

From the City Section

When it comes to recruiting, no one gets as much attention as Renardo Sidney, one of the most sought-after Division I basketball prospects in the nation. However, the big man from Fairfax isn’t the only underclassman from the City Section powerhouse whom scouts have been noticing recently.

Interest in Solomon Hill grows weekly. Make that daily.

The 6-foot-6 junior has emerged as a legitimate talent and it appears as if Texas is one of the early front-runners.

-- Sean Ceglinsky

From Los Angeles County

It looks as if the Lakewood Lancers should -- or very well could -- win the Moore League baseball crown (though I don’t want to jinx them). That would be one of the season’s biggest stunners. Maybe the biggest.

The Lancers began the season unranked, then bumbled to a 6-9 start. Very few would have predicted that Lakewood would win the league at that point. Especially the Moore League, which is one of the toughest and features last year’s mythical national champion, Long Beach Wilson.

No. 22-ranked Lakewood (18-10, 9-0) holds a 1 1/2 -game lead on No. 23 Wilson (22-5-1, 8-2-0). The Bruins have two games left and the Lancers have three. The teams play each other on the final day of the regular season.

Editor’s note: Lakewood and Wilson each won one more league game since this blog was posted.

-- Anthony Stitt

From the Valley/North

If history is an indicator, a participant from the Thousand Oaks tournament will go on to win a Southern or City section softball championship, but it’s not always the tournament winner. That’s good news for Thousand Oaks, which was runner-up to Hart on Saturday in the T.O. championship.

Still, you’ve got to believe that players today would rather be in Hart’s shoes after it scored a 3-1 victory over the hosts. Hart will try to become the first tournament winner to also win a section title since it happened in back-to-back years, Chaminade in 1999 and Cerritos in 2000.

-- Martin Henderson

From the Inland Empire

The stranglehold has loosened this season, but the Riverside Poly baseball team hasn’t completely lost its grip on the Ivy League race.

The Bears can still claim a share of the league title with two victories this week over first-place Riverside King, which came into this week with a two-game lead over Poly. King hosts the Bears [today] and travels to Poly for the regular-season finale Friday.

The Bears, who won the last three league titles by no less than four games, have two of the league’s top hitters in junior center fielder Jake Marisnick (.506 avg., five home runs, 19 RBIs) and Arizona State-bound middle infielder Austin Barnes (.485, three HR, 18 RBIs), but King is deeper in pitching with Danny Haiker (6-1, 3.09) and Mike Mudron (6-3, 1.30).

-- Dan Arritt

From the San Gabriel Valley

Junior Bryce Rutherford, who was moved up to the varsity baseball team last year and became its top pitcher, hit a two-run double in the eighth inning that was the difference in Arcadia’s 6-4 victory over Burbank Burroughs on Friday.

Burroughs Coach Tom Crowther said Rutherford, who pitched six innings to start the game, “did everything” for Arcadia. “Nobody else did much,” he added.

-- Jaime Cardenas

From Orange County

I think it’s safe to say that I’m not alone when I pronounce Foothill’s white [lacrosse] uniforms with yellow numbers as terrible, drab, unreadable and uninspired.

What’s the sense of wearing uniforms if you can’t be identified by adoring fans and nearsighted sportswriters? The guys up in the press box doing the timing, scoring and announcing are struggling too, so I know it’s not only me.

-- Martin Henderson