Boys Tennis
Laguna heads to the CIF’s Southern Section Division 4 playoffs this week seeded second in the 36-team tournament. Breakers played this past Wednesday against wild-card foes Schurr or Gahr who completed the previous day for the right to travel to Laguna. If the Breakers prevailed they would play on Friday, May 11. Quarterfinals are scheduled for May 15 with the tournament concluding the following week. Last year the Breakers lost to Viewpoint (Calabasas) 11-7 in the finals. The Patriots are top seed again this season and have dashed Laguna’s title hopes twice in the past two years. Laguna has advanced eight times to a section final, winning crowns in 1973, 80 and 82.
Breakers won the programs 39th league crown this season in 78 years of boys tennis at the high school.
This past week the Orange Coast League individual tournament was held on the Breaker courts. Teague Hamilton won the singles title and Morgan Lebby took home the finalist medal after Laguna’s top two players squared off in the final with Hamilton winning 6-1, 6-2. Hamilton finished League play with a perfect record, while Lebby only lost two out of 21 league matches this season. Zach Pratto, Laguna’s No. 3 singles player lost to Lebby in the quarterfinals.
In doubles, Jared Boetes/Matt Meisberger lost a very close match in the semifinals, splitting sets 5-7, 6-3 but losing the third set tie-breaker 7-10. They came back to third overall with a 6-0, 0-6, 10-7 (third set tiebreaker) win against Estancia, which placed fourth. The team of Casey Kimball/Andrew Koumas beat Godinez in the semifinals (6-7, 6-2, 10-6 )(third set tiebreaker), but lost to the top Costa Mesa team of Tam Le and Max Nguyen in the finals 6-3, 6-1.
Baseball (15-8, 8-5)
Laguna has qualified for the playoffs as the league’s third place team with a 7-1 victory over Godinez (5-8, 9-14) last Friday, May 4, at the Grizzlies’ diamond. Jackson Rees picked up the win as Steven Harrison hit a home run and Alex Iannotti a triple. Laguna finished league play this week and will learn their playoff journey on Monday.
Statistical Leaders through May 4 (23 games)
Batting Average: .427 Blake Hester
Hits: 32 Blake Hester, Grant Wilhelm
Runs Scored: 21 Grant Wilhelm
RBI’s : 24 Grant Wilhelm
Doubles : 8 Robbie McInerny, Blake Hester
Home Runs: 4 Robbie McInerny, Steven Harrison
Pitching Wins: 7 Grant Wilhelm
ERA: 1.59 Grant Wilhelm
Team Batting Average: .317
Softball (14-7, 5-3)
Breakers entered the final week of league play guaranteed a playoff with a dramatic 6-5 win over Godinez last Friday, May 4, at Thurston Middle School. Breakers scored the winning run in the eighth inning to pull out the win. The season concluded this week with games against Costa Mesa (4-18) and Saddleback (4-18). Softball playoff pairings will be released on Monday, May 14. This year will be only the third time the school has made the playoffs, losing to West Torrance 4-0 in 1990 and 16-7 to Magnolia last year.
Track and Field
Scott Wittkop’s boys team surprised defending champion Godinez 192 -144 to capture the 2012 Orange Coast League track championships and league title last week at Hulst Oval. The title was the Breaker’s fourth in the past five seasons and the 18th overall in the 78 years of track and field at Laguna.
Laguna Meet Individual winners:
Boys 100M Nathan Lancaster 11.67
Boys 200M Nathan Lancaster 23.58
Boys 400M Tyler Nichols 51.71
Boys 110H Spencer Anderson 15.91
Boys 300H Christian Menes 42.07
Long Jump Nicholas Bevilaqua 20-11
Triple Jump Nicholas Bevilaqua 40-10
Discus Ricky Delatorre 136-03
Breaker’s 4 x 100M Relay of Lancaster, Anderson, Nichols and Barton won with a time of 45.29
The girls squad were edged by the Grizzlies again this season with Godinez scoring 136 points to 126 for Laguna. Costa Mesa was a distant third at 70.
Girls Individual winners:
Girls 800 M Janie Crawford 2:25.09
Girls 1600 M Natasha Strickland 5:16.49
Girls 3200 M Natasha Strickland 11:51.26
CIF D-IV Prelims are Saturday, May 12, at Carpinteria HS.
Boys Volleyball
Breakers began their 39th straight trip to the playoffs with a match this past Tuesday with Malibu at Dugger Gym. The Sharks were the fourth place team from the Tri-Valley League. Should seedings hold (Laguna is seeded third) Breakers would be in quarterfinals on Saturday, May 12, and hoping to advance to a semifinal showdown with Corona del Mar next Tuesday. Breakers will need to get to semifinals in order to qualify for the state regional tournament.
Last Friday a large crowd turned out at Dugger Gum for the 29th annual alumni match that ended in a draw. The starting alumni squad of Leif Hanson, John Burns, Luke Morris, Lance Stewart, Chris Hoffman and Nick Aronoff took the initial set from the Varsity 25-20. The youngsters came back to win set two 25-11 and the third set 29-27. Alumni won the final set 15-8
The evening included a tribute to Mark Wells ’88 a first team-All-Pacific Coast League selection as a senior who is battling cancer. Mark’s high school coach Lance Stewart provided an emotional pre-game talk about Mark’s fight. Quicksilver donated the special alumni shirts for the evening with a special patch honoring Wells.
The contest provided a number of family match-ups between nephews and uncles, and cousin vs. cousin.
Who played: John Burns ’76, Frank Scott ’78, Lance Stewart ’81 * All CIF , CIF POY, Scott Capobianco ’81 John Croul ’81 Leif Hanson ’83* All CIF, CIF POY, Mike Brennan ’83, Steve Blue ’83 * All-CIF, , Kurt Blanton ’85 * All-CIF, Mike Stafford ’85 * All-CIF, Chris Whiting ’85, Doug Mauro ’85, Matt Kessler ’86 * All-CIF, Scott Seymour ’87 * All-CIF, Malcolm Gapp ’88 *, John McKeown ’89 *, James Kimball ’96*, Nick Aronoff ’03, Trey Chapel ‘04 * All-CIF, Luke Morris ’05 * All-CIF, Chris Hoffman ’05, Tyler Kesler ’11 – (1st team All League *)