TheLounge
05-11-2007, 03:21 PM
It seems the Warriors magical run is about to come to an end. Leading by five with less than 30 seconds to play, Golden State failed to close out the Utah Jazz Wednesday night, ultimately falling in overtime.
The Jazz have a headlock on the best-of-seven series, leading 2-0.
Granted, the series isn’t over, but if both teams hold serve at home, Utah will win the series in seven.
A lot of discussion went into who the Warriors matched up better with —*Utah or Houston. The general consensus was Houston’s one-two punch, inside-outside game of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady would be too much for the Warriors to handle.
At least the Rockets played at a much slower pace. Utah is proving that it can play whatever game Golden State wants: If the Warriors want to turn it into a half-court game — which they don’t — the Jazz are more than happy to play at that pace. What is surprising me is that the Jazz are more than willing to play at the Warriors’ pace and with their rebounding prowess, they’re beating Golden State at its own game.
So with the series shifting to Oakland for games Friday and Sunday, Warriors fans are encouraged to show their love, like they did during the Dallas series. Although this time, the cheering should be for a big “thank you” for a great season because barring some kind of miracle, this series is all but done.
***
It’s been an interesting baseball season on the Peninsula this year. It’s been the year of the pitcher at both the high school and community college levels.
Let’s start at the high school level. Burlingame’s Paul Fregosi, after allowing just one run on three hits against Mills Wednesday, improved to 11-0 on the season and is only one win away from tying the Burlingame school record. Just as impressive, he has an earned run average of less than two runs per game.
Serra’s Marcus Pointer has matched Fregosi. As of a week ago, Pointer had not lost a game either, posting a record of 9-0.
The hurlers in the college ranks were just as impressive. Skyline’s dynamic duo of Greg Gonzalez and Danny Orlick had monster years. Each won 10 games with Gonzalez, a freshman, earning Coast Conference North Pitcher of the Year honors. He struck out 130 batters and compiled an ERA of 2.75.
CSM was paced by Joey Grant’s 9-3 record, but the emergence of Derek Thomas and Joe Orepeza gave the Bulldogs a boost this year. The two combined to go 7-0 with an ERA of 1.00.
Down south at Cañada, two pitchers who didn’t get much love out of high school, showed that you don’t have to throw 95 mph to be effective. Sophomores Brian Belli and Eric Fregosi each went 7-4 as the Colts qualified for the NorCal playoffs for the first time since 2001. Both were workhorses. They combined to throw over 200 innings with an ERA of 2.74.
***
Talk about bad luck. For the second year in a row, the Sequoia softball team had it’s fate in its hands. And for the second time, the Cherokees came up short.
Last year, the Cherokees held a two-game lead heading into the final week of the season, only to lose two of their final three —*including one to Menlo that gave the Knights the season sweep and the tiebreaker as both finished tied for first.
Wednesday, Sequoia had a chance to sew up an Ocean Division title with a win over Woodside. Unfortunately for the Cherokees, the Wildcats came up with a 3-2, nine-inning win to move into a first-place tie with Sequoia.
If they played in the Bay Division, both teams would earn automatic Central Coast Section bids. Since they play in the Ocean, only the league champ gets an automatic and more than likely the other won’t have enough points to get into the playoffs.
Since the two teams split their season series and both beat everybody else in the division, the automatic bid will decided by fate — the flip of a coin.
Just to make it fair, it should be the best 2-out-of-3.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.
The Jazz have a headlock on the best-of-seven series, leading 2-0.
Granted, the series isn’t over, but if both teams hold serve at home, Utah will win the series in seven.
A lot of discussion went into who the Warriors matched up better with —*Utah or Houston. The general consensus was Houston’s one-two punch, inside-outside game of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady would be too much for the Warriors to handle.
At least the Rockets played at a much slower pace. Utah is proving that it can play whatever game Golden State wants: If the Warriors want to turn it into a half-court game — which they don’t — the Jazz are more than happy to play at that pace. What is surprising me is that the Jazz are more than willing to play at the Warriors’ pace and with their rebounding prowess, they’re beating Golden State at its own game.
So with the series shifting to Oakland for games Friday and Sunday, Warriors fans are encouraged to show their love, like they did during the Dallas series. Although this time, the cheering should be for a big “thank you” for a great season because barring some kind of miracle, this series is all but done.
***
It’s been an interesting baseball season on the Peninsula this year. It’s been the year of the pitcher at both the high school and community college levels.
Let’s start at the high school level. Burlingame’s Paul Fregosi, after allowing just one run on three hits against Mills Wednesday, improved to 11-0 on the season and is only one win away from tying the Burlingame school record. Just as impressive, he has an earned run average of less than two runs per game.
Serra’s Marcus Pointer has matched Fregosi. As of a week ago, Pointer had not lost a game either, posting a record of 9-0.
The hurlers in the college ranks were just as impressive. Skyline’s dynamic duo of Greg Gonzalez and Danny Orlick had monster years. Each won 10 games with Gonzalez, a freshman, earning Coast Conference North Pitcher of the Year honors. He struck out 130 batters and compiled an ERA of 2.75.
CSM was paced by Joey Grant’s 9-3 record, but the emergence of Derek Thomas and Joe Orepeza gave the Bulldogs a boost this year. The two combined to go 7-0 with an ERA of 1.00.
Down south at Cañada, two pitchers who didn’t get much love out of high school, showed that you don’t have to throw 95 mph to be effective. Sophomores Brian Belli and Eric Fregosi each went 7-4 as the Colts qualified for the NorCal playoffs for the first time since 2001. Both were workhorses. They combined to throw over 200 innings with an ERA of 2.74.
***
Talk about bad luck. For the second year in a row, the Sequoia softball team had it’s fate in its hands. And for the second time, the Cherokees came up short.
Last year, the Cherokees held a two-game lead heading into the final week of the season, only to lose two of their final three —*including one to Menlo that gave the Knights the season sweep and the tiebreaker as both finished tied for first.
Wednesday, Sequoia had a chance to sew up an Ocean Division title with a win over Woodside. Unfortunately for the Cherokees, the Wildcats came up with a 3-2, nine-inning win to move into a first-place tie with Sequoia.
If they played in the Bay Division, both teams would earn automatic Central Coast Section bids. Since they play in the Ocean, only the league champ gets an automatic and more than likely the other won’t have enough points to get into the playoffs.
Since the two teams split their season series and both beat everybody else in the division, the automatic bid will decided by fate — the flip of a coin.
Just to make it fair, it should be the best 2-out-of-3.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.