Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• Yours truly usually sides with the officials on these things, but the opinion here is the umpiring crew at last week’s Servite-JSerra baseball game at Angel Stadium blew a call. The mistake was crucial to the game’s outcome.
• In the bottom of the seventh inning of a scoreless game, a JSerra player laid down a bunt with a runner on first, fell after a couple of steps toward first base, pointed at the Servite catcher, the plate ump called catcher’s interference and awarded first base to the batter. Repeated views of the video, going through it frame-by-frame, showed there was no contact between the batter and the catcher, and the batter did not trip on his bat, either. The runner who advanced to second on play later scored on a squeeze bunt to give JSerra a 1-0 win.
• Umps are human and will err, especially on bang-bang plays of the type described. Go to vimeo.com/89733134 and take a look at video of the play.
• The next thought goes like this: Did the batter merely stumble hurrying out of the box, as even players at the highest level do, and to cover up an embarrassing mishap try to convince the ump that he was tripped? Some emails, text messages and phone conversations suggest it was by design. JSerra coach Brett Kay said he would not conceive of such a play.
• Chase Calabuig of Capistrano Valley baseball is a patient guy. He has 11 walks in 48 plate appearances.
• The Michelle Carew Classic softball tournament begins Wednesday at Peralta Park in Anaheim. The championship game is April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Peralta Park. Among the teams in it is Esperanza, ranked No. 1 in CIF-Southern Section Division 1 and No. 3 in the county.
• Mission Viejo’s softball team is No. 1 in the county and in CIF-SS Division 2. The Diablos have beaten county No. 2 Pacifica twice, including this past weekend in the Best of the West Tournament championship game.
• NFL receiver and Orange Lutheran alum Austin Pettis has a charity basketball game tonight and a football camp Saturday at Orange Lutheran. The basketball game, preceded by a meet-and-greet and silent auction, is at 7 p.m. The free football camp Satuday is 9 a.m.-noon for players of ages 13-18 and from 12:30-3 p.m. for players of ages 8-12. Proceeds go to the Austin Pettis Foundation for youth.
• The people at the CIF-Southern Section office do not select All-CIF teams. Coaches do. All-CIF boys and girls basketball teams will be in the OC Varsity section of the Register on Saturday.
• There will be a college recruiting workshop Saturday from 10-11 a.m. at Mission Viejo Community Center. Registration is free at collegesportsquest.com.
• A Mater Dei win over Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland in Saturday’s CIF State Championships Open Division boys basketball game would give Monarchs coach Gary McKnight his 995th career win. Looking at Mater Dei’s 2014-15 schedule to plot when No. 1,000 might happen: The Monarchs open with a nonleague game against Santa Barbara, then play four games in the Corona del Mar tournament followed by four games in the City of Palms Classic Tournament in Florida.
• Today’s state championship basketball games in Sacramento will be televised by Time Warner Cable’s SoCal 101 channel. Saturday’s games are at Time Warner Cable Sports Net. All games will be streamed live at cifstate.org.
• The Huntington Beach boys volleyball team is No. 1 in the county rankings and San Clemente coach Ken Goldstone, whose team is No. 3, understands why. “You can’t take your eyes off of how good Huntington Beach is,” Goldstone said. Huntington Beach won the Orange County Championships title Monday with a win over No. 2 Corona del Mar in the finals.
• The Tritons are pretty good, too, and Goldstone is impressed by his players. “We have one returning starter and a lot of kids up from JV,” he said. “I’m so happy about how well we’ve progressed.”
• It’s league season now in boys volleyball, with two prime tournaments on the near and distant horizons: the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, April 18-19; and the Redondo Power Classic, May 2-3. The latter one has many of the top-ranked CIF-SS Division 1 teams in it, including No. 1 Huntington Beach, No. 3 Redondo Union of Redondo Beach, No. 4 Loyola of Los Angeles, No. 5 Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach and No. 8 San Clemente. “That’s the one that really prepares you for CIF,” Goldstone said.
• Drew Westling, son of Aliso Niguel football coach Kurt Westling, is the varsity football coach at Chula Vista. Drew had been Aliso offensive coordinator the past few seasons.
• Brant Cowser, who was an assistant football coach for years at Anaheim under Clare Van Hoorebeke, recently died. Arrangements are pending.
• For updates on basketball’s CIF State championships and breaking high school sports news, follow me at twitter.com/stevefryer.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
