SPORTS NOTEBOOK:
GLENDALE — The following are odds and ends from the local sports scene.
MENDOZA, VAQUEROS GET POSTSEASON ACCOLADES
Eight Glendale Community College baseball players earned All-Western State Conference honors, highlighted by sophomore second baseman Michael Mendoza being named to the first team.
Catcher Kevin Dultz, in-fielder Yuki Ishida, outfielder Chris Arredondo and utility player Yuya Okuda made the second team. Pitchers Byron Pacheco and Chris Turner and first baseman Laz Fonta received honorable mention.
Mendoza batted .387 (70 for 181) with a team-high nine home runs and 38 runs batted in this season for the Vaqueros, who went 24-19 and 14-14 in conference. Mendoza contributed 16 doubles and scored 43 runs to go along with a .646 slugging percentage.
“Mike can legitimately handle any pitch in any location and all velocities,” Glendale college Coach Chris Cicuto said in a statement. “He is a hitter that squares up on balls so often that it makes it difficult for a pitcher to throw any pitch throughout an at bat.”
Dultz batted .287 (35 for 122) with 18 runs batted in. Ishida hit .329 (49 for 149) with two home runs and 30 runs batted in. Arredondo batted .376 (35 for 93) with eight doubles and 15 runs batted in, while Okuda hit .313 (25 for 80) with three home runs and 20 runs batted in.
Pacheco went 4-1 with a 3.38 earned-run average in 17 appearances. He struck out 49 in 40 innings. Turner went 4-3 with a 4.30 ERA in 12 appearances. In 52 1/3 innings, Turner struck out 33.
Fonta batted .292 (45 for 154) with 12 doubles and 31 runs batted in.
GAMBURYAN SET TO MAKE DEBUT SUNDAY
Mixed-martial-arts fighter Manny Gamburyan, who trains at Main Event Gym in Glendale among other places, will make his World Extreme Cagefighting debut on Sunday.
The 5-foot-5 Gamburyan, a multiple-time Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran and former cast member of “The Ultimate Fighter,” will also make his debut in the featherweight class (145 pounds) after years of fighting at lightweight (155).
“It’s a good thing,” Gamburyan told www.fanhouse.com of being moved from Zuffa, Inc.’s UFC to the company’s sibling company WEC, which features smaller weight classes. “It’s good for me because I can compete in my own weight class now. With my height, featherweight just makes more sense than lightweight.”
On an undercard of an event headlined by WEC featherweight champion Mike Thomas Brown defending his title against Urijah Faber, Gamburyan will face off with John Franchi, who’s undefeated at 5-0.
“He’s a well-rounded wrestler and has a good submission game,” he told fanhouse. “He’s a gamer. He knows what he’s doing. He hasn’t fought anybody as good as me, though. I don’t see myself getting into trouble in this fight, but it’s a fight. Anything can happen.”
Gamburyan, who stole the show at a recent charity basketball game at Hoover High, went 2-3 in the UFC with his last two fights ending in defeat.
The card, which takes place at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, airs live on the Versus Network.
ERDMAN RUNNER-UP IN CANADIAN TOUR EVENT
Courtney Erdman, a 2000 Crescenta Valley High graduate, carded a final-round two-over-par 74 to finish second in her first Canadian Tour Event, held May 25-26 at Seymour Country Club in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
After firing an even-par 72 in the first round, Erdman entered the second day of play one stroke out of the lead. That’s where she finished the second round, as well, after a tense battle with Taya Battistella, who shot a final-round 73.
Erdman competed in two tournaments on the California Players Tour as a warmup to her debut on the Canadian Tour and won a tournament at Olivas Links Golf Course in Oxnard on April 27 before returning to also win at Victoria Lakes RiverRidge Golf Course in Victoria Lakes, May 11-12.
Erdman is set to play in the next two upcoming events on the Canadian Tour, June 8-9 in Guelph, Ontario and July 13-14 in Mirabel, Quebec.
If Erdman wins at least one of the next two events, or is in the top-seven on the money list by the end of the tournament at Mirabel, she will qualify for the Canadian Open, which is a Ladies Professional Golf Assn. event.
TOLOGS SELECTED TO COMPETE FOR SPOTS
Five members of the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy soccer team have been selected to compete for spots in the California Youth Soccer Assn. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program. The quintet will vie for selections on the U.S. Regional and National Teams.
All-Area selections Natalie Zeenni, Tera Trujillo and Katie Johnson, in addition to Jillian Jacobs and incoming freshman Sarah Teegarden, were named.
Zeenni, a defender, was selected to the 93s squad for girls born in 1993, while Jacobs, Johnson and Trujillo were picked for the 94s and Teegarden was picked for the 95s.
In terms of ODP, each age group selected between 40-50 girls from a pool of thousands of Southern California players. ODP is seen as the top identification and development program for American soccer players looking to compete at collegiate and national levels.