ESHS Baseball: Falls Short in the Home Stretch

By Chase Bougeon

The ESHS baseball team ended this year against San Dimas in the quarter-finals, the final score was 8-11. In the weeks leading up to this game, the baseball team won a crushing victory against Chino Don Lugo (11-1) and a closer victory versus Palm Desert (6-4). All in all, the ESHS Baseball team had a successful season, with 23 wins and 9 losses. El Segundo made their way through CIF to the quarter finals.
            Many players from this year’s team had positive feelings toward the season “We really came together as a group of guys. The season was good overall, it’s never good to end the season with a loss but we’ve had a successful year,” said Junior Justin McCullough. The feeling of disappointment was not absent though some of the team’s feelings toward the season, as Senior Matthew Rowland put it, “I thought it went really good, but a little disappointing because we thought we would go farther than we did. Luck wasn’t on our on side, but everyone gave it one hundred percent. “  Sophomore Grant Palmer was positive about this season and optimistic about next year, “The year was a good season. The seniors really stepped it up. We have good players and should have a solid year next year.”

Softball Makes it to Finals! ...but Falls Short in 7 Innings

By Lena Hedayat

The Varsity Girls’ Softball team at El Segundo High School has crossed over several paths that led them to this victorious position. Winning game after game, the ladies began to fall into an easy win streak, achieving nearly an undefeated season. The girls celebrated as they made it to C.I.F. and proceeded through the playoffs nearly flawlessly. With building confidence on May 21, the Lady Eagles took on Saddleback and came out on top, ending the game 9-0. With this victory the girls became surer of themselves as they stepped onto the field for their next game against Indio on May 26. Without a mishap, the girls had this game in the bag, winning 11-7. Now reaching the end of the quarter finals, the ladies played on May 28 against Bishop Amat. This game ended up going for nine innings because at the end of the regulation seventh inning, the girls were still tied 0-0. In the end of the ninth, though, El Segundo managed to score a run and took the game, winning 1-0. Then on June 2 was the semi-final game facing Paloma Valley. This game would determine if the ladies would go onto finals or not. One run was made in the very beginning of the game by El Segundo, but as the game progressed, no more runs were scored. El Segundo played a smart game, and with senior Jenna Rich as pitcher, the team successfully kept Paloma off the bases. During the fourth inning, largely due to senior Samantha Heyman’s good tosses, the Eagles were sent the first three players up to bat from Paloma back to the dugout 1, 2, 3. In the second half of the fourth inning, when El Segundo was up to bat, sophomore Erin Burner, freshman Julia Smith, and junior Danielle Hannan managed to make good hits and got onto the bases, but unfortunately no runs were scored. The Eagles continued to keep their game strong throughout the next two innings and by the seventh everyone was on edge, as the score was still 1-0 and this was the last chance for the Eagles to make sure none of the Paloma players got to home plate. Smith successfully threw out the first two Paloma players from her third base position and Rich handled the third batter with three straight strikes.  With this last play, the Eagles ensured their place in Finals.
The Final game took place on Friday, June 5 at the Bill Barber Park in Irvine at the Deanna Manning Stadium. The ladies played a great game, but unfortunately they lost 3-5. The girls were down in the seventh inning, 5-0 and managed to score three runs. One home run was made by sophomore Gabby Valerio, a new student to the district this year. They played an excellent game though they were not able to come back in the end. Each Eagle took a moment to reflect on the past whirlwind season that seemed to have ended all too soon. “It was a really good year. Overall, we had a great record. I know we didn’t win the last game, but we had a great team and I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Captain Sam Heyman explained. Her fellow captain Jenna Rich continued in this vein, remarking, “This whole season has been amazing. We have surpassed all our expectations. We’ve had a great record going into finals. I’m really proud of the team…I think we really proved we can come back from behind and [displayed] our team chemistry and motivation.” Congratulations to a wonderful season and good luck to the graduating seniors!

Collage by Alex Miwa