Track and Field

CHS varsity boys and girls track teams easily defeated Glendora in a dual meet at CHS on Tuesday. The girls team won, 88-48, on strong performances in running events, particularly the longer distance races and from a solid results in jumping.

The boys also dominated in distance running, but their victory was a bit narrower at 81-55.

The victory caps a three-week series of events in which Claremont competed in sometimes heavy rain.

But the weather didn’t slow down the Pack as Sydney Hwang, Kalinda Reynolds, Azalea Segura-Mora and Tess Rounds set the fastest time to date in the 4×1600 meter relay at the California Relay last weekend at El Camino College.

Track also competed in the Redondo Union Invite on March 9 and the Brea Olinda on March 3.

“We have tapped it out for three weeks in the rain,”?Coach Veronica Amarasekara said. “We had a friendly meet with Damien,  which we enjoyed, and some nice but soggy invites.”

Wolpack baseball has tough 6-1 loss to South Hills

Claremont’s pitching and fielding were hot on Wednesday, but the Pack’s bats were not, as the boys fell 6-1 to visiting South Hills.

The Huskies, who are currently second in the Palomares League, wasted no time setting the pace when the lead off hitter, senior Brandon Dieter, doubled. Dieter advanced to third on a sacrifice ground ball by Will Medina and then scored on a wild pitch. Claremont got out of the inning with senior pitcher Jack Noble striking out the last two batters.

Noble got three up and three out in the second, but South Hills had more pain in store for Claremont in the third. Noble walked senior Nick Lugo, which brought up Dieter, who hit a very long RBI triple. Noble also walked Medina, who then stole second, followed by a walk for junior Nate Salas.

Claremont got their first out when senior Chase Corrington caught an infield fly which held the runners. However, Dieter tagged on a long fly ball by junior J.C. Garate. Another pop fly got the Pack out of the inning, resulting in a score of 3-0.

South Hills piled on two more runs in the fourth when Salas hit a two-RBI single.

The Huskies got their last run in the fifth when Garate singled and then took second on a fielding error by Corrington. Garate then stole third, sneaking under a tag from senior Brandon Frieson.

The call did not sit well with Claremont Coach Ron La Chase, who thought that Frieson had come around in time. When Coach La Chase protested and asked for better cooperation between the two officials, the umpire, who refused to identify himself, booted Coach La Chase from the game. The next batter up, senior Daniel Genna, scored Garate on a sacrifice fly.

“The only thing I asked was for help, I wanted the umpire to ask the home plate umpire for help and he wouldn’t and I refused to leave the field. It wasn’t anything nasty. I had to stick up for my boys,” Coach La Chase said.

Claremont replaced Noble with sophomore Eric Rohrer, who gave up two quick hits to open the sixth inning. He then got Garate to hit a ground ball up the left side for a Clarmeont double play. A pop up shut down any chance of more Huskies runs.

Credit has to go to senior Michael Ortega for pitching four no hit innings until senior Matt Ramirez singled in the fifth. Ortega’s performance was only marred by a handful of walks and hitting three batters, including Nate Rodriguez in the sixth inning.

That pitch prompted the South Hills coach to replace Ortega with senior pitcher Andres Quinones. This move was almost a game changer, as the Pack had Quinones’ number from the very start. With one out on the scoreboard, senior Luke Santia singled to right which advanced Rodriguez to second. Next up senior Jake Holcroft singled, scoring Rodriguez.

Claremont had runners at first and second with one out. Unfortunately, Jonah Paez popped up which brought up Frieson, who hit a very nice line drive that just barely went foul. Quinones did eventually get out of the inning by striking out Frieson.

The Huskies replaced Quinones with senior Henry Anaya for Claremont’s final at bat. The Pack was not able to muster much action, however, except when Marc Gonzalez took first on an error. Senior Shane Wilson came in to run for Gonzalez and next up Rodriguez hit a nice fly ball that unfortunately was caught.

Claremont also brought in a third pitcher for the last inning, junior Gil Velasquez.

“Our pitching was outstanding today, Jack Noble did an incredible job and battled through, Eric Rohrer came in and did a great job too. They battled and that is the kind of thing we want to see from our players day in and day out and we got it today,” Coach La Chase said.

Claremont lost their league opener to Glendora, 8-3, at home on Tuesday in a game that was rescheduled due to rain.

“We have been trying to figure out how to get all three aspects of the game going—hitting pitching and fielding. Today it looked like we had two of them going. We had three hits yesterday and three again today in 14 innings against two high quality baseball teams. It’s hard to win games when you are only getting six hits.”

With the loss, Claremont now falls to 0-2 in league play and 2-7 overall. Their league match against Bonita likely rained out Thursday after press time.

“We are going to keep pushing on, working hard to put all three of the elements together,” Coach La Chase said.

Softball

Claremont lost its home Palomares League match against South Hills, 13-6 on Tuesday. With the loss the team is now 4-4-1, and 0-2 in league. The Pack did well in the Katella Tournament last week, defeating Katella, 9-5 and Santa Ana, 16-1.

Boys Volleyball

Claremont defeated Anaheim, 3-0, last Wednesday at home but lost to Providence on Tuesday 0-3. The Pack’s record is now 9-7, with league play beginning on Tuesday with a home game against Damien.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com