November is here, and the Central Coast high school sports season is winding down.
There is still plenty of action going on. The Santa Ynez (Division 2), Lompoc (Division 3) and Nipomo (Division 5) girls tennis teams have all advanced to semifinals in the CIF Central Section playoffs.
Santa Ynez and Lompoc are the top seeds in their respective divisions. Nipomo is the No. 7 seed in Division 5.
Meanwhile, the Santa Ynez girls golf team has repeated as the Division 2 champion. The Pirates successfully defended their 2023 title Tuesday at the 2024 Division 2 Tournament at Valley Oaks Golf Course in Visalia.
Mackenzie Phelan led the Pirates to the 2024 title by shooting an 87. Phelan and current team members Katherine Becerra, Sierra Freedman, Addison West, Savannah Hudley and Kacy Caplan were all on the Santa Ynez team that won the 2023 divisional title.
The CIF Central Section football regular season ended Friday night. At press time, 12 CCAA football teams had qualified for the playoffs and two more, Santa Maria and Paso Robles, were playing Friday night to get in.
Playoff pairings are due out this weekend.
Coast Valley League eight-person football champion Valley Christian Academy will wait to see if it is assigned to Division 1 or Division 2 for the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Those parings are also due out this weekend.
Two-time Division 3 girls tennis champion Lompoc will host No. 4 Bakersfield Frontier Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the semifinals this year. Santa Ynez will host No. 5 Bakersfield Garces the same day at 2:30 p.m. in the semis in Division 2.
Nipomo will play at No. 3 Fresno Christian in the Division 5 semis Tuesday at a time TBA.
The World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers deserved the win they got in this World Series. Their hitting was better than that of the New York Yankees, their pitching was better, their defense was stronger.
Sign up to receive headlines in your inbox! Breaking News | Local Sports | Daily Headlines | Local Obituaries | Weather | Local Offers Click to Sign up!
That said, the Dodgers didn't get the clinching win in Game 5 with a "Comeback for the ages!," as one commentator declared. They got it because Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge dropped an easy fly ball and Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole didn't cover first base.
The Yankees should have kept all of the 5-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning that they had in the top of the fifth. Instead they, in effect, gave the Dodgers three extra outs in the fifth, and L.A. tied the game 5-5. The Dodgers went on to win 7-6.
Judge is one of the best baseball players ever. The Dodgers got a spark they never should have gotten because with one out, Judge dropped a routine fly ball.
I've seen Little League center fielders make that play many times.
It is elementary that, when a first baseman fields the ball well off the bag, the pitcher runs to cover first base unless the first baseman waves him off.
Instead, after striking out Shohei Ohtani with three pitches as nasty as any I can remember seeing for the second out with the bases loaded, Cole, one of the best pitchers in baseball, ran a few steps toward first after Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo fielded a ground ball, then stopped, apparently thinking Rizzo could get to the bag in time to get the out.
Rizzo couldn't. He started to throw to flip the ball toward Cole for the out then, stunned, stopped as he saw that Cole was nowhere around. The first Dodgers run scored.
One instant. I'm sitting there thinking, "(Cole) got out of it!" The next, my jaw about literally dropped.
I've seen Little League pitchers make the play Cole failed to make.
After the Cole lapse, consecutive two-run hits followed. The Dodgers rallied for two runs after the Yankees went back ahead 6-5, but the final should have been Yankees 6. Dodgers 2, with the Series heading back to L.A., and the Yankees with momentum.
Instead, the Dodgers can look forward to their long-awaited World Series victory parade, and the Yankees can look forward to a dreadful off-season.