Sacred Heart gets all-league credit
GLENDALE — The following are odds and ends from the local sports scene.
TOLOGS SECURE
ALL-LEAGUE HONORS
Though the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy softball team didn’t qualify for the playoffs for the second season in a row, three players recently were named to the All-Mission League.
Alanna Pires was named to the first team, while Lauren Torres and Kelly Trueblood earned spots on the second team, as voted on by the league’s six coaches.
Pires, a senior third baseman, batted .410 (25 for 61) with three doubles and 13 runs batted in for the Tologs, who finished 9-15 and 3-7 in league for fifth place. In 22 games, Pires scored 15 runs.
“She was our best player and leader,” Sacred Heart Coach Kirk Nishiyama said. “I’ve run out of adjectives in talking about her.
“She became a different hitter when we moved her into the No. 3 spot in the lineup this year. She always came through with the big hits.”
Torres, a junior infielder, batted .283 (15 for 53) and tied for the team lead with two home runs. She also registered a team-best 18 RBI despite missing several games early in the season while helping the school’s soccer team capture the CIF Southern Section Division I championship.
Torres added three triples and four doubles and scored 13 runs in 17 games.
“She struggled early after coming back from soccer, but then caught fire during the second half of league,” Nishiyama said. “She’s a tremendously gifted athlete who is also very versatile.”
Trueblood, a junior first baseman, hit .268 (15 for 56) with two doubles and seven RBI. She scored eight runs and collected 146 putouts in 22 games.
“She proved to be excellent defensively,” Nishiyama said. “She was also very consistent with the bat.”
HUBINGER IS
ALL-STAR MVP
Bound for Pepperdine in the fall, St. Francis High senior catcher David Hubinger represented the Golden Knights one last time Saturday at Birmingham High.
In the City vs. Southern Section All-Star Baseball Game, Hubinger led the Southern Section to a 15-3 victory, its first in the series since 2008.
Hubinger was named the game’s most valuable player after driving in three of his team’s runs in a two-for-three performance. Hubinger entered the game in the seventh and hit a two-run double before registering an eighth-inning run-scoring single.
AREA QUINTET
IN PRESTIGIOUS SHOWCASE
Four area baseball standouts — all of them coming off all-league junior seasons — recently took part in the Southwest Future All-Star Series at the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy in Compton.
Crescenta Valley High’s Troy Mulcahey, Kyle Murray and Elliott Surrey, along with St. Francis’ David Olmedo-Barrera, were selected to take part in the showcase event that features top high school baseball juniors throughout Southern California performing in front of college recruiters and pro scouts.
It took part Friday through Sunday, with the opening day featuring 60-yard dash runs, batting practice and a home run derby. Saturday and Sunday saw the players — who were divided into four teams — play in tournament fashion.
Olmedo-Barrera was a first-team All-Mission League infielder as a junior after an All-Area sophomore season. Mulcahey and Surrey have been three-year varsity standouts for the Falcons, both on the mound and at the plate, while Murray jumped onto the scene as a junior after plying his trade at the junior varsity level.
PALADINI, FIRE
STRUGGLING IN MLS
Former St. Francis High standout Daniel Paladini and the Chicago Fire are off to a rough start in the current Major League Soccer season.
On Sunday, the Fire defeated the Columbus Crew, 1-0, to stop an 11-match winless streak.
The Fire, which travels to face the New England Revolution on Saturday, is 2-4-8 with 14 points and in sixth place in the nine-team MLS Eastern Conference.
Paladini, a 26-year-old midfielder, tallied just six minutes and took one shot in the win over Columbus. For the season, he’s played in eight games with seven starts, notching 622 minutes and 21 shots.
Paladini was picked up by the Fire in January after spending two standout seasons with the Carolina RailHawks of the United States Soccer Federation’s Division 2 league. He was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2006. He moved on to Chivas USA where he got his first eventual MLS action in 2008, playing in eight games and starting in five, tallying one goal.
Paladini will return to Southern California when the Fire take on Chivas USA on July 2 at the Home Depot Center before a July 9 match against the Galaxy at the same venue.