Uchida, Seidel earn top awards
Bits and pieces from the local sports scene:
Area softball players earn awards: Burbank resident Emily Seidel was a stalwart in the circle this past season for the Village Christian School softball team.
With a wealth of success, it’s not surprising that awards have been rolling in for the senior pitcher, who is headed to the University of Nevada, Reno.
This week, Seidel was named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Assn. All-Region West first-team. She earned a spot from a group of players representing seven states: California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
With her first-team selection, Seidel is in the running to earn NFCA All-American honors.
Seidel was also named to the CalHi Sports-ESPN Rise All-State Small Schools Team.
The pitcher earned All-CIF Southern Section Division V and All-Olympic League first-team accolades this season. Seidel had a 21-4 record, 321 strikeouts, 40 walks and a 0.47 earned-run average in 164 1/3 innings. In addition, opposing teams batted just 0.99 against her and she had 14 shutouts and allowed just 17 runs in 26 appearances.
Village Christian (24-6) advanced to the Division V semifinals, eventually losing to Whittier Christian, 8-0.
Also earning all-state honors was Burbank senior shortstop Kassy Uchida. Uchida, who is headed to Utah State, was named to the CalHi Sports-ESPN Rise All-State Overall third team.
The first-team All-Pacific League standout batted. 635 and had 47 hits, 29 runs batted in 30 runs scored, six doubles, five triples and three home runs. In addition, she had a .647 on-base average, a .973 slugging percentage and struck out just five times. On defense, she had a .953 fielding average and made five errors in 106 chances.
Burroughs has mixed results: The Burroughs High girls’ basketball team went 2-3 in summer-league games last week.
Burroughs began the week with a 40-30 victory against Calabasas. Chelsea Rhamdeow had 10 points, three steals and three assists, Lisha Elsenbach had nine points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals and Aysia Shellmire added six points and five rebounds.
The Indians followed that with a 39-34 loss to Antelope Valley in the Valencia League. Elsenbach had 10 points and Shellmire had seven rebounds.
In a Burbank League game, Burroughs fell to Bellarmine-Jefferson, 43-37. Elsenbach paced the team with 18 points to go along with seven rebounds and four steals. Rhamdeow added 11 points and Gabby Pineiro had seven points.
Burroughs enjoyed a big 41-11 victory against Taft in the Taft League. Shellmire had nine points and Nicole Williams added seven.
The week ended with a 40-28 loss to Agoura. Williams and Shellmire had seven points each.
Burbank drops two games: The Burbank High Connie Mack team had a tough week, dropping two games.
The Bulldogs (5-5) fell to Crescenta Valley 11-6, on Tuesday in a game they were leading. Burbank had a 4-0 lead until the fifth inning.
Dylan Mersola doubled and singled, Daniel Starkand also doubled and Chris Okimoto and Griffin Paul both went two for three with a run batted in to lead the 15-hit Bulldogs’ attack. Zack Spahr, Andrew Saldana, Mitch Camacho, James Johnson, John White, Steve Rodriguez (one RBI), Marc Hoffman ( two RBI) and Colson Cripps each had singles in the loss.
Starkand stated on the hill and finally gave up a run in the fifth inning, ending his scoreless-inning streak of 18 innings.
Burbank had no answer for Verdugo Hills on Thursday, losing, 13-0.
The only highlight was a single by Cripps with two outs in the seventh to break up a no-hitter.
Jeff Tully