Baseball in prime position for playoff berth

Baseball in prime position for playoff berth

The Sierra Canyon baseball team has put itself in prime position for a playoff berth in the Division 1 bracket after a solid week on two fronts.

The Trailblazers took two of three games from Chaminade, winning 6-1 and 8-0. The lone defeat came Friday in a 6-3 setback.

That, coupled with St. Francis losing all three games to Crespi has Sierra Canyon comfortably in fourth place.

Sierra Canyon is 7-9-2 in league play. St. Francis is 7-11 in league play.

In Tuesday’s 6-1 home win, freshman Brayden Charness went 4 1/3 innings, giving up no runs with four strikeouts.

Armando Solorio pitched the final 2 2/3 innings, yielding only one run with two strikeouts.

Omar Cisneros was 3-4 with two runs scored, Ethan Munoz had two hits, two RBI’s and three walks.

Grant Werdesheim had a two-run single.

In the 8-0 win on the road on Wednesday, sophomore Caden Sramek threw a complete game shutout. In fact, Sramek had a no-hitter that was broken up with two outs in the seventh.

Oregon-bound Kheden Hettiger had two hits, including a two-run home run.

Cisneros and Mykhal Johnson each had two hits.

Friday’s 6-3 setback was highlighted by hits from Werdesheim, Etan Montes, Cisneros and Jake Levin.

League championship in sight for Trailblazers

The Sierra Canyon softball team is feeling good and right where it wants to be with one week left in the regular season before the playoffs begin the first week of May.

After a tough 1-0 nonleague setback against Burbank on Monday, the Trailblazers finished the week strong with Mission League victories against Alemany and Chaminade.

In the Thursday victory against Chaminade, Central Florida-bound infielder Izzy Mertes was the hero with a two-run walk-off home run for a 7-5 victory.

Lianna Lara had two home runs, including a two-run shot that tied the game at 5-5.

Maddie Debs homered, doubled and had two RBI’s.

Ava Debs had a double.

In Tuesday’s 6-1 victory against Alemany, Nina Peyton-Johnson put the game out of reach with a three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning after Sierra Canyon took a 3-1 lead thanks to a huge Alemany error.

Maddie Debs had a solo home run earlier to tie the game 1-1 in the third inning. Debs finished with three hits.

Mertes had an RBI.

Duke-bound Hailey Shuler had 10 strikeouts in earning the win in the circle.

In the lone setback early in the week, Maddie Debs threw a 3-hitter with 12 strikeouts in the tough luck loss.

Mertes doubled and freshman Natalia Areliz tripled, but Sierra Canyon could not push across a run.

Baseball team hits rough patch

Baseball team hits rough patch

The Sierra Canyon baseball team has hit a rough stretch here in the middle of the season.

The Trailblazers were swept this week by Harvard-Westlake, two setbacks coming in walk-off fashion.

The last of a three-game set ended Friday when Will Gasparino’s single to left was mishandled by the left-fielder and junior Bryce Rainer came in to score the winning run for a 4-3 victory.

Sierra Canyon trailed 3-1 before receiving two, two out RBI singles from Ethan Munoz and Grant Werdesheim to tie the score. Werdesheim’s infield hit to shortstop deep in the hole.

Sierra Canyon led 1-0 early on a Munoz sacrifice fly for an RBI, scoring Omar Cisneros.

Harvard-Westlake countered with three runs. James Tronstein doubled home Gasparino, Kai Caranto had a sacrifice fly scoring Thomas Lieb and Rainer had a sacrifice fly for an RBI.

Earlier in the week to open the series, Gasparino’s solo home run to deep left-center gave the Wolverines a 3-2 walk-off victory.

Sierra Canyon trailed 2-1 in the seventh before Oregon-bound Kheden Hettiger singled home a run with two outs to extend the game.

Harvard-Westlake won Wednesday’s game in Chatsworth behind five strong innings from Duncan Marsten in a 5-1 victory.

Etan Munoz had two hits for the Trailblazers and Caden Sramek gave up two runs in five innings.

Sierra Canyon is 1-8-1 in its last 10 league games and has two more 3-game series left against Chaminade and Alemany before the Division 1 playoff in early May.

Swim team finding groove

Swim team finding groove

The Sierra Canyon boys and girls swim program is enjoying some much awaited success in 2023.

The Trailblazers have won three meets this year and there is a quiet buzz surrounding the program and the anticipated future.

“We are seeing some really nice development,” Sierra Canyon head of swim program Courtland Day said. “Things are way better than in year’s past. We all can feel it.

Sierra Canyon has tripled its dual/tri-meet victories since last year.

A few standouts have been sophomore Chris Cain and the freshmen duo of Luke Haas and Anthony Kim.

Hailey Allado, another talented freshman, leads the smaller girls program.

Cain excels in the 100 and 50 freestyle. Haas is best in the 100 fly. Kim has done well in the 100 backstroke and 200 freestyle.

Haas has shown tremendous potential finishing in the top two in nearly all of his races.

“Luke has a real chance to be a league champion, Day said. “He has what it takes and has verb a club swimmer for a very long time.”

Allado leads the girls contingent and is best in the 100 breaststroke and the 100 and 50 freestyle.

Sierra canyon has one more regular season meet with Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday and then will compete for league and section titles later in April and May.

Softball stays hot

Softball stays hot

It was another successful week for the Sierra Canyon softball team.

The Trailblazers have hit a groove and won two more games.

Sierra Canyon started the week off right with an impressive 7-6 Mission League victory against Louisville in Encino.

Duke-bound junior pitcher Hailey Shuler had five strikeouts.

The Debs sisters stood out at the plate.

Maddie had three hits and an RBI. Ava had three RBI’s.

Nina Johnson had three hits and an RBI, Central Florida-bound junior Izzy Mertes had two hits and an RBI and Kendall Huddleston had an RBI.

Sierra Canyon only has one loss in league play with four more games remaining. The only setback came against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.

The bats came alive Thursday in a 18-8 nonleague victory against Heritage Christian of North Hills at Northridge Little League.

The Trailblazers blasted six home runs in the easy rout.

Shuler had two home runs, freshman Natalia Areliz had a home run and four RBI’s, Maddie Debs had three hits, including a home run and four RBI’s, and Nina Peyton-Johnson had two home runs, including a grand slam,

A breakout performance came from freshman Sophia Sarni. Sarni had three hits and two RBI’s. She was just a triple away from hitting for the cycle.

Sierra Canyon has three games next week and two games the following week to finish the regular season before the playoffs begin the first week of May.

The Trailblazers take on Burbank this Monday on the road at McCambridge Park in Burbank.

Softball looking strong in Mission League

The Sierra Canyon softball team has had a good start to the season and adjusting to play in the Mission League.

After knocking off Alemany and getting rained out with Louisville and Chaminade, the Trailblazers recently split a doubleheader with league favorite Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.

Sierra Canyon found itself down a run in the bottom of the seventh last Friday when with a runner on base, Madelaine Debs hit a walk-off two-run home run to give the Trailblazers a wild 5-4 victory and first place in league all by itself.

Central Florida-bound Izzy Mertes and Duke-bound Hailey Shuler each hit home runs and the game was tied 2-2.

Mertes finished with two home runs on the day. The score was 3-3 and Sierra Canyon had a golden opportunity with the bases loaded and one put in the bottom of the fifth.

However, Notre Dame got out of the jam and pushed across a run in the seventh to lead before Debs’ dramatic home run.

Tuesday’s revengame game went to Notre Dame 4-1.

Nina Peyton-Johnson hit a home run for Sierra Canyon’s lone run but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome two home runs from Oklahoma-bound Ella Parker (niece of LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts).

Sierra Canyon is now 6-3-1 and 2-1 in league.

The Trailblazers are back in action Tuesday with a league game against Louisville on the road and will host Heritage Christian on Friday, April 14 at Northridge Little League.

Softball picks up for Mission League win

The Sierra Canyon softball team finally is off of its lengthy break.

The Trailblazers hadn’t played a game since March 6th in a tough extra innings loss against Burroughs of Burbank.

Not only did Sierra Canyon take the field for the first time in more than two weeks on Friday, the Trailblazers came out on top with an impressive 5-2 victory against Alemany.

The win marked the first ever Mission League win for Sierra Canyon in its first game played in the new league.

Hailey Shuler was remarkable, throwing a 1-hitter with 12 strikeouts, Shuler also doubled.

South Florida-bound Izzy Mertes and freshman Natalie Areliz each had two hits.

Madelaine Debs doubled twice and had three RBi’s.

Sierra Canyon is now 5-2-1 overall.and 1-0 in league.

The Trailblazers have two important league games next week. Sierra Canyon will travel to Louisville on Thursday and host Notre Dame and Oklahoma-bound Ella Parker on Friday.

Baseball coming back to pack

Baseball coming back to pack

The Sierra Canyon baseball team has been humbled the past two weeks.

After starting out 8-0 overall and not losing to Crespi, the last two 3-game series against St. Francis and Notre Dame have been  rough going for the Trailblazers.

Sierra Canyon lost all three games against Notre Dame this week.

The scores were 4-2, 6-1 and 6-2.

The Trailblazers couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead Friday at home. Kheden Hettiger had a sacrifice fly and Ethan Munoz had an RBI single for Sierra Canyon.

However, Notre Dame tied it up and Ryan Limerick’s RBI single scored Adam Shlesinger for a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish.

Greg Pierantoni had a two-run single and Kai Gonzaga added a sacrifice fly to extend the lead in the sixth.

Munoz finished with two hits for the Trailblazers.

In the middle game loss, freshman Mikhal Johnson had the lone RBI for Sierra Canyon. Munoz and Brady Hewitt each had hits.

Munoz was good in the opener with two hits, including a double and RBI. Hettiger had a double and RBI. Omar Cisneros was 1-3 at the plate.

The Trailblazers are now 1-6-1 in their last eight league games after going the first six games unscathed.

Sierra Canyon will welcome a nice two-week Spring Break from the Mission League.

The Trailblazers will face Arcadia and LaCanada in nonleague contests in early April before finishing the season with three-game sets against Harvard-Westlake, Chaminade and Alemany starting April 11th.

Then, the Division 1 playoffs await, maybe.

Baseball drops 2 of 3 against St. Francis

The Sierra Canyon baseball team finally came down to earth last week in a three-game set against St. Francis of La Canada.

After going unscathed in its first 11 games, the Trailblazers finally lost.

Sierra Canyon dropped two games, losing 3-0 in the series opener and 4-1 on Saturday morning.

The lone victory was Friday’s 4-1 win behind two hits each from Omar Cisneros and Ethan Munoz.

Andrew Nelson, Ethan Montes and Brady Hewitt each had hits in the shutout loss.

Oregon-bound Kheden Hettiger had a solo home run in Saturday morning’s setback.

Hewitt had two hits. Cisneros and Grayson Gullage each had a hit.

Sierra Canyon is back at it again this week with a three-game set against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.

The Tuesday and Friday games will be in Sherman Oaks. The Trailblazers will host the Knights on Wednesday.

Sierra Canyon is 9-2-2 overall and 5-2-2 in Mission League play.

Dream season derailed by Etiwanda

Dream season derailed by Etiwanda

The Sierra Canyon girls basketball team was going for the best season in school history and an undefeated year.

Everything was going great. For the first 31 games. The Trailblazers beat every team in their way. Sierra Canyon traveled across the country and knocked down every challenge in its way.

Sierra Canyon won its first ever Southern Section Open Division championship with a victory against Etiwanda at Honda Center in Anaheim on February 25th.

However, as Sierra Canyon did to Etiwanda last year, Etiwanda returned the favor. Etiwanda came away with a 55-54 regional championship game victory on March 7th to deny Sierra Canyon a trip to Sacrmaento for a second consecutive Open Division state championship and gave the Trailblazers its only loss of the season.

Sierra Canyon finished 31-1, won the section championship and went through the Mission League unblemished.

JuJu Watkins averaged nearly 30 points per game and 15 rebounds. Mckinley Randolph averaged a double-double and Izela Arenas averaged close to 15 points per game. Arenas was superb in the playoffs.

Northwestern-bound Crystal Wang wasa force down low, Sofia Ruelas was a knock-down 3-point shooter and freshman Emilia Krstevski showed the future is bright.

Leia Edwards was another key contributor to a program that won 30 or more games for the second time.

Sierra Canyon coach Alicia Komaki is excited about next year.

Randolph, Arenas and Krstevski will form quite a trio.