RICHMOND – For the past 10 years, Salesian has dominated its league.

The Pride typically outscore their Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division opponents and have a record of 79-2 within the league because the 2015-16 season.

But on Tuesday, in front of a packed home gym, Salesian engaged in a dog fight with a brand new take a look at St. Mary's-Berkeley. In the tip, the Salesians' defense stepped up greatly within the second half to secure a 64-50 victory and their sixteenth win within the annual Rock game.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “St. Mary's is vastly improved and they play great. We had to play well to win this game.”

Junior guard Isaiah Davis added, “Getting a game like this will help us in the playoffs for sure. There were times when our league wasn’t great, but St. Mary’s made us better.”

Junior guard Elias Obenyah led Salesian with 15 points, 4 rebounds, two assists and three steals. Leon Powe added 11 and 7 rebounds and Alvin Loving and Carlton Perrilliat added nine points each. Davis did all of the little things for Salesian within the second half, totaling five rebounds, 4 assists and one steal.

Despite the loss, first-year St. Mary's coach Marshall Collins said he was happy with the best way his team fought until the tip.

“My guys just played hard,” he said. “Last year they lost by almost 50 points. … I'm proud of her. My team is young. I have six sophomores playing big minutes.

“I want NorCal to know we are here. We are the little stepchild in the corner that no one knows about. We come.”

The two teams played roughly evenly in the first half.

In the second quarter, Salesian looked like it was going to have a big win, as the Pride opened the period with a 9-2 run, capped by a steal-and-score from Obenyah. But after a timeout, St. Mary's, fueled by a persistent full-court press, went on a 9-0 run of their own to tie the game at 26.

At halftime, Salesian led 32-30.

After a fiery halftime speech from Mellis, Salesian appeared to focus more on defense. The Pride held the Panthers to just nine points in the third quarter. Turning up the heat on defense led to Salesian making easy shots on offense.

A transition 3-pointer from Powe increased Salesian's lead to 10 with just under three minutes left in the third period. Powe then ended the quarter with a Salesian steal, giving the Pride a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Salesian totaled 15 steals as a team.

St. Mary's cut the lead to 12 points in the final period, but Salesian's defense proved too strong and the Pride cruised to a double-digit victory.

“I think competing with a team like this boosts our confidence,” St. Mary’s senior point guard Jaden Jones said. “We will play them later in the season and we know we can compete with them.”

Jones totaled 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Sophomore forward Donovan Mikel scored 15 points to go and seven rebounds. Junior CJ Baltrip contributed eight points.

Basketball for boys

No. 6 Moreau Catholic 82, Mission San Jose 40

Kellen Hampton exploded for 30 points as the Mariners dominated Mission San Jose at home.

Dominic Walker 14 points added and Isaiah Clendin had nine for Moreau (10-2, 3-0).

Darsh Jayaram had 14 points to lead Mission San Jose, which fell to 9-6, 2-1.

No. 14 California 71, Alhambra 47

Brayde Kuykendall scored a team-high 13 points and Emeka Ifediora And Sankar siblings each had 13 to lead California to a stunning road win over Alhambra.

Torrance Avery, Jaimison Krause And Vincent Taylor each had 10 points for Alhambra, which fell to 7-5.

California finished the nonleague portion of its schedule with a 15-2 record and travels to Amador Valley to open East Bay Athletic League play on Friday.

No. 18 Liberty 65, Freedom 50

Liberty picked up its third league win of the year with a 19-point deficit from the standout sophomore Jaiden Miller.

Junior guard Dante Vigil 16 points added and Mekhi Reed had 12 points for Liberty. Arek Andrada Freedom led with 12 points.

Liberty (13-2, 3-0) is scheduled to play Weston Ranch on Thursday. Freedom, which fell to 3-12, 0-3, hosts Pittsburg on Friday.

Head-Royce 84, Athenian 60

In a matchup in last season's North Coast Section Division V title game, Head-Royce prevailed again.

Commander-in-Chief of the Royce Guard Micha is lifted up had 22 points and five rebounds. Nick Taubes added 18 points on 8 of 11 shooting and Mikael Akpala scored 12 points.

The Jayhawks won their first league game of the season and improved to 7-7 with a match against College Prep on Thursday. Athenian fell to 6-5 and will travel to St. Joseph Notre Dame on Thursday.

Buzzer racket for boys

Senior security guard Additional Kays scored a total of 23 points and led James Logan (3-11, 0-2) to a 63-56 upset win over American (6-8, 0-2) in overtime. … Foothill narrowly edged Heritage at home, 70-69. senior Vedant Mehta Foothill led with 20 points. Jace Bernard And Brady Lockrem each had 18 points for Heritage. … Monte Vista remained undefeated at home, defeating Berkeley 65-50. Collin Ellis had 20 points and Max Nishikawa And Ian Desai each had 12 points.

Basketball for girls

#4 San Ramon Valley 79, Alameda 47

Ella Gunderson had 23 points, five rebounds and five assists in SRV's blowout road win over Alameda.

Junior Alyssa Rudd added 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Kaitlyn Mills had 12 points and seven assists and Hania Bowes scored 11 points.

SRV (11-2) is scheduled to travel to Dougherty Valley for its first league game on Friday.

Mia Borja Alameda had a team-high 11 points, falling to 8-5.

#7 Piedmont 60, #17 California 55

Piedmont picked up another win, defeating California at home for the second time this season.

Freshmen Andrea Martin scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed six rebounds for Piedmont. Freshmen Jenelle Solis totaled 18 points, eight assists and three steals. senior Briana Webb did it all by scoring 14 points, grabbing five rebounds, dishing out three assists and totaling two steals.

California security guard Lauren Yee Despite the loss, she had a great shooting night as she had 21 points and made five 3-pointers.

Piedmont improved to 11-1 and will begin league play against San Leandro on Thursday. California fell to 7-6 and begins league play Friday against Amador Valley.

Freedom 50, Freedom 45

Freedom picked up its third league win of the season, defeating Liberty at home by five.

Eve Monzon had a team-high 14 points for Freedom. Freedom Guard Shyanne Smith had a game-high 16 points.

Freedom improved to 12-5, 3-0 and is scheduled to play at Pittsburg on Friday. Liberty fell to 6-8, 1-2 and travels to Piedmont on Saturday.

Washington-Fremont 46, Kennedy-Fremont 22

The Huskies didn't allow more than six points in a quarter as they defeated league opponent Kennedy by 24 points.

Washington's Mikaela Dumagan led all scorers with 17 points. Chloe Buchner had eight points for Kennedy.

Kennedy is now 5-4, 1-2 and will play at Newark Memorial on Thursday. Washington will enter Thursday's game against Moreau with a record of 10-3, 2-1.

San Leandro 40, Hayward 29

senior Ravyn Martin Had 18 points in San Leandro's 40-29 win over Hayward.

Elianna Sega scored 11 points for Hayward, which fell to 2-11. San Leandro improved to 8-3.

San Jose Sharks winger William Eklund will likely be amongst 13 forwards chosen for Sweden's participation within the four-nation clash. based on a printed report Monday on this country.

Eklund was asked to hitch the Swedish national team and accepted the offer, based on Expressen. a Swedish national newspaper.

The official 23-player rosters for Sweden and Finland will likely be unveiled Wednesday at 11 a.m. (PST) on ESPN and the NHL Network. The American and Canadian team rosters will likely be announced Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. (PST) on TNT.

Each country's squad – which incorporates three goalkeepers, seven defensemen and 13 forwards – needed to be submitted by Monday. It could be the primary time for Eklund to play for the Swedish men's national team.

Eklund, a 22-year-old Stockholm native, recently confirmed to the Bay Area News Group that he has had discussions with Team Sweden coach Sam Hallam, who was on the bench for Tre Kronor on the last two World Cups.

After Sunday's NHL games, Eklund was fourth amongst all Swedish-born forwards with 22 points, behind only New Jersey's Jesper Bratt (31), Los Angeles' Adrian Kempe (25) and Detroit's Lucas Raymond (24).

Before the Sharks' game against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, Eklund had 13 points in his last 11 games. Eklund has also improved his 200-foot game and develop into one in all the Sharks' most reliable penalty strikers.

Eklund, who was drafted seventh overall by the Sharks in 2021, plays alongside Macklin Celebrini and Fabian Zetterlund at San Jose's helm. But his ability to kill penalties and prevail against experienced teams was seen as Eklund's best hope of being one in all Sweden's 13 forwards on the event, with games played in Boston and Montreal.

Sweden plays Canada on February twelfth and Finland on February fifteenth on the Bell Center in Montreal. They will face the United States on the TD Garden in Boston on February 17 to conclude the round-robin portion of the tournament. The top two teams will play one another in the ultimate on February twentieth in Boston.

Expressen's report didn’t reveal which other players are within the Swedish squad. Zetterlund was also considered a candidate for a squad spot with nine goals and 19 points in 27 games this season.

Players already added to Sweden's roster include defensemen Gustav Forsling of Florida, Victor Hedman of Tampa Bay and former Shark Erik Karlsson of Pittsburgh. The aforementioned forwards were Filip Forsberg of Nashville, William Nylander of Toronto and Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers.

Sharks center Mikael Granlund is anticipated to be one in all the 13 Finnish forwards. He is a veteran of international hockey tournaments and has previously spoken about how much it means to him to represent his country.

Originally published: December 2, 2024 at 5:35 pm PST

The pitching performances of Blake Snell and Chris Sale on Monday night at Oracle Park weren’t only thrilling, they were microcosms.

Snell and Sale had 11 and 12 strikeouts, respectively, in Atlanta's 1-0 victory to open a key four-game series. Snell held the Braves hitless for six innings, and Sale lasted one inning longer than the Giants' left-hander.

For the primary time since 2010, Oracle Park hosted a game wherein each the Giants' starting pitcher and his opponent recorded not less than 10 strikeouts. Their combined 23 strikeouts were probably the most by a starting pitcher duel within the ballpark's 25-year history.

The game produced 33 total strikeouts — greater than another MLB game that season — a flaw in today's boom-or-bust baseball. Both Snell and Sale embody it as two of the era's defining starters: strikeout specialists who took advantage of the launch angle revolution and advances in advanced pitching science.

“There are a lot of misses, as you saw last night,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “I think both of them are very aware of where the game is going.”

Snell and Sale mix high fastballs that reach over 90 miles per hour with bending breaking balls that blow the spin rate scale. Snell has won two National League Cy Young Awards and Sale is the favourite to win the respect this 12 months.

They will not be the most effective starting pitchers of the last 15 years – that may be Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw. But in a way, they represent the evolution of baseball that has progressed probably the most.

Since the appearance of recent analytics, the creation of pitch labs like Driveline, and the shift to 3 real outcomes, Snell and Sale have been successful.

“The swings have changed,” Snell said after Monday's loss. “Before — luckily it was 2016 when I made my debut — but even before, it was just about average and finding a way to put the ball in play. Now it's about hitting, hitting home runs and doubles. For a guy like me who knows that, yeah, I mean, I should be pretty good at striking people out. Especially because they're trying to get far. So there's a lot more room for error because it's so hard to hit a baseball straight.”

Not every pitcher dominates the upper zone and resorts to maximum force to prioritize power over pitchability. Likewise, not every hitter goals for the fences with every swing. There are still great players like Logan Webb and Luis Arraez bucking the new-age trends. But they have gotten underdogs.

Snell and Sale rank first and second respectively on the all-time Strikeouts per nine innings leaderboard (and so they are separated by decimal points). The top 10 of the list is stuffed with energetic or recently retired pitchers. Current Giants left-hander Robbie Ray is third. Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer are fourth and fifth, respectively. Yu Darvish, Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole are also included.

The only two pitchers in the highest 10 who debuted before 2008 are Randy Johnson and Kerry Wood. The undeniable fact that batters are retired as often as Snell and Sale is a recent development.

Monday night at Oracle Park was a textbook example of how dominant Snell and Sale have been of their careers, forcing half-hearted swings and their arsenals freezing batters on throws up the center.

Twice, Snell struck out 4 Braves in a row. Sale struck out his eleventh and twelfth Giants within the seventh inning.

Sale totaled 39 strikes and whiffs, including 28 along with his slider. Snell was one back and in addition used his best off-speed bet – the curveball – for swing-and-misses.

One of probably the most common complaints about modern baseball is that an excessive amount of of the motion has gone away. With fewer balls in play, there are fewer net gems, fewer stolen bases, and fewer strategy.

But duels between outstanding pitchers can be fun. Sale and Snell showed that on Monday night. The duo at the highest of the all-time strikeout rate list were at their best.

“The fastballs from the top of the zone — they took advantage of that,” Melvin said. “It's always been hard to control them. There's swing-and-misses up there. Baseball in general is going that way, and those two guys kind of embody that. They also have really, really difficult breaking balls that they have to chase, and they come from the same spot as their fastball. And they have other tricks up their sleeves, too.”

Originally published: August 13, 2024 at 5:08 pm

SAN FRANCISCO — The reigning National League Cy Young winner and the favourite to win the award this yr met on a cold night at Oracle Park

The stars aligned for a pitcher's duel, and Chris Sale and Blake Snell formed a constellation over China Basin. And they did so in a playoff atmosphere against the Braves, who entered the race for the wild card a game and a half ahead of the Giants.

“Yeah, it felt a little different,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said after the sport. “Especially because of the quality of the pitching. It felt like there was something at stake with every at-bat, every pitch.”

Snell (6 ⅓ IP, 2H, 3BB, 11 K) held the Braves hitless for six innings and recorded his third game with double-digit strikeouts as a Giant. Sale never flirted with a no-no, but lasted longer than Snell and struck out yet one more batter than the Giants' left-hander. Snell and Sale combined to strike out 23 batters, marking the primary time since 2010 at Oracle Park that each starters recorded double-digit strikeouts.

With their dominant starters ready, the Braves closed in on the Giants, scoring the automated runner within the tenth inning to beat San Francisco 1-0. To start a decisive series, the Giants (61-60) and Braves combined for 33 strikeouts, with the difference being Travis d'Arnaud's game-winning sacrifice fly.

The Giants' defense was cleaner, that they had a greater run game, they usually threw in addition to Atlanta, but they still lost early in a series that might have wild-card implications given how tousled the center of the National League standings is.

“We played a really good game on both sides,” Snell said after the sport. “Take your hat off and get ready for tomorrow.”

Both Snell and Sale struck out six batters in the primary 4 innings. Snell brought in only two baserunners during that span and retired every other batter aside from walking Jorge Soler twice.

The best scoring opportunity either team had before the starters were finally eliminated got here in the primary inning, when the Giants sent runners to the corners with no outs after Ramon Laureano ran over a shallow fly and Mark Canha hit a single to center. But Sale effortlessly danced his way out of the jam and located a rhythm.

“When you look at the pitching against us, you just have to try to fight and force a run out,” Melvin said. “It didn't happen at the beginning, and we couldn't get any more across at the end.”

Snell threw his first profession no-hitter two weeks ago, but was never capable of see the sport through on Monday. Although he didn't allow a success until Marcell Ozuna's double within the seventh inning, he didn't have enough quick innings to maintain his pitch count down anyway.

But the left-hander definitely had his best stuff. After walking Soler – the Giants' former star player who was sent to Atlanta on the deadline – for a second time, Snell struck out seven straight players. He struck out the side within the fifth inning and froze Adam Duvall with a curveball up the center to finish the stretch.

That was a part of one among two sequences by which Snell struck out 4 Braves in a row. After battling injuries in the course of the first half of the season, Snell said he feels stronger with each outing; he has struck out 45 batters in his last 4 appearances.

Snell and Sale made baserunners a must. For one reason or one other, the Giants couldn't get to them. Marco Luciano stalled after a sharply hit grounder to 3rd base to open the fifth inning, and was eventually thrown out by a double-bouncer. To close the inning, Casey Schmitt hit a line drive back up the center, but Sale in some way caught the 104 mph comebacker on the mound.

Snell didn't allow even that arduous contact. With his 98th pitch, a curveball into the dirt, Snell ended the sixth inning along with his tenth strikeout of the sport.

The Giants had nobody within the bullpen when Snell got here to the bench for the seventh inning. He desired to stay in the sport, Melvin said. But moments later, Randy Rodriguez began warming up when Ozuna slid to second base with Atlanta's first hit.

Snell — MLB's most dominant pitcher over the past month — left the sector after hitting Orlando Arcia with a high fastball, inspiring a bat slam from the batter and a standing ovation from the Oracle Park crowd. Rodriguez then finished the inning with two consecutive strikeouts, keeping the 2 strikeouts Snell left him with standing.

Sale, who didn't walk a single batter, was barely more efficient than Snell, although he did allow yet one more hit. He surpassed Snell's strikeout total by striking out Matt Chapman and Jerar Encarnacion while getting through the seventh inning.

Before Monday night, Oracle Park had not seen a pitcher's duel like this since April 28, 2010, when Tim Lincecum and Cole Hamels struck out a complete of twenty-two batters.

Both teams' relievers picked up where Sale and Snell left off, sending the sport into additional time with a complete of 30 strikeouts – 15 per team.

A run within the tenth inning, a cut single and a sacrifice fly that scored the automated runner, gave the Braves the ultimate lead. In a historic pitcher's duel, an unearned run was the decisive point.

Originally published: August 12, 2024 at 21:28