Another successful weekend for IV sports
As evidenced by Sunday’s paper, I spent Saturday in La Jolla, watching the softball teams from Brawley Union and Southwest highs compete for CIF-San Diego Section championship at UCSD.
The Eagles and the Wildcats played back-to-back, with Southwest vacating the field quickly after its victory to make room for Brawley in the dugout along the third base line.
While these two teams faced off in a pair of intense league games, it was nice to see the camaraderie of the Imperial Valley alive and well at both games.
As Southwest played first, there were sprinkles of blue mixed in with the purple and yellow crowd and vice-versa for the Wildcats’ game.
What’s more exciting, is that collectively, both teams lose just three players to graduation, which may portend more deep playoff runs next season.
While the Wildcats and the Eagles competed for a CIF crown, the two remaining baseball teams in playoff action also competed on Saturday for their chance to try and reach the title game.
The squads from Imperial and Holtville highs have identical roads to the Div. III and Div. IV title games, respectively, as they both need to win Tuesday and Wednesday in order to reach the championship.
Having seen both teams play this season and finding their chemistry and dugout banter quite infectious, I hope to be covering those programs in title games as well.
In other championship news, Saturday turned out to be a big day for the Eagles as the school also had a handful of track-and-field athletes competing at the CIF-SDS finals at Mt. Carmel High.
At the track-and-field final, the Eagles were able to nab another CIF victory after senior Tyler Saikhon won the Div. I 110-meter hurdle event.
The 18-year-old took second in the 300-meter hurdle, and his teammate Alexis Paco de la Cruz took second in the shot put, earning them both spots in the CIF State meet later this week.
See future editions of the IV Press to learn how the rest of the local athletes fared at the CIF-SDS final.