Results

CIF State Track and Field Championships

Centennial's Tyler Painton pitched four solid innings and reached base six

times in leading the Southwest Yosemite League Senior All-Stars to a 14-4

CLOVIS -- Johnny Carter was ready to walk off the field Friday at Veterans Memorial Stadium before coaches persuaded him to turn around and give the long jump one more try.

Boy, is he glad he did.

The strength of Bakersfield's high school baseball leagues will be on display at 7:10 tonight for the Kern County Senior Baseball All-Star Game at BC's Gerry Collis Field.

Five members each from SWYL powers Stockdale and Centennial, plus two from Division II Central Section champion Frontier headline the West roster, which will be coached by Stockdale's Greg Showers and Bakersfield Christian's Tom McCormack, who also has three seniors playing.

There are 32 events at this weekend's CIF State Track and Field Championships at Clovis-Buchanan High, and Kern County athletes will be major factors -- if not heavy favorites -- in six of them, all field events.

Preliminaries in field events start at 3 p.m. today, with running event prelims slate to go at 5. The top nine in each event advance to Saturday's finals, which begin at 4:30 p.m. for field events, 6 for running.

MURRIETA -- Two years ago, Centennial's Manav Shah missed a playoff at the CIF Southern Cal Boys Golf Regional by a stroke.

So he worked in the offseason, came back and lowered his score by three. Good enough to get him in the playoff, but once there he bogeyed the first hole fell short of the state tournament.

It's a combination sure to test Southern California's best golfers: An unforgiving course and a razor-thin margin for error.

Stockdale's team and four Kern County individual golfers compete this morning in the CIF Southern Cal Regional Championships at the par-72 SCGA Golf Course in Murrieta. The event starts at 8 a.m.

As Dylan Kessler, the younger brother of national football recruit Cody Kessler, looked at the hats on the table, he tried to draw out the suspense as long as possible.

There were five hats, each with the logo of a college choice for the Centennial junior: Alabama, Washington, UCLA, Pitt and USC.

LAKE ISABELLA -- While a large part of this mountain community waited Tuesday to congratulate them and make plans for a trip to the Southern Section championship, Kern Valley's softball players gathered in a circle in center field.

Out there, they were trying to figure out what exactly had just happened: A 9-0 victory over San Juan Capistrano-Capistrano Valley Christian in the Division VII semifinals.

For once winning was of secondary importance. Instead, the Kern County Senior All-Star Softball Game Tuesday night at Bakersfield College was more about providing local seniors a final chance to shine in front of friends and family.

And that's exactly what several of them did, including Bakersfield Christian's Kayla Brisby, who had three hits in leading the American team to a 4-2 victory over the Stockdale-laden National team Tuesday night at Bakersfield College.

Blaze 11, Rawhide 10

At Sam Lynn Ball Park

Six members of Stockdale's Division I Central Section champion softball team plus coach Amanda Hockett will lead the National Team against the American Team tonight in this year's version of the Kern County Senior All-Star Softball Game.

The game begins at 6:30 p.m. at Bakersfield College.

Blaze 2, Visalia 1, 10 innings

At Sam Lynn Ball Park

HANFORD -- The opportunities were there for third-seeded Tehachapi to earn its first Central Section softball title.

But Hanford West junior pitcher Breanna Young wiggled out of every threat the Warriors mustered.

CLOVIS -- Some would have taken it as a bad omen when the Stockdale softball team's van blew a tire Friday afternoon on Highway 168, just minutes from Buchanan High and the Central Section championship game.

The Mustangs just took it as the first of many challenges. Several hours and 15 innings later, they had a 1-0 victory against Buchanan for the program's second section title and first in Division I.

FRESNO -- The final chapter in Wasco's storybook playoff run included everything but the happily ever after.

The Tigers' Central Section Division IV championship game against second-seeded Fresno-Washington Washington certainly had plenty of drama.

It was deja vu for Bakersfield Christian, which fell short of claiming its first Division V Central Section title, finishing runners up to No. 2 Fowler for the second time in three years.

The top-seeded Eagles lost to the Redcats 9-5 in the Division V championship battle under the lights at Eagles Field on Friday.

Baseball

Central Section playoffs

Baseball

Central Section playoffs

VISALIA -- It didn't seem right somehow, but for Frontier's baseball team, it sure felt great.

The scene was Thursday at Golden West High. Such a long journey was ending so quickly, an hour and a half culminating with two outs on one swing: A groundball to Mike Polley, a quick step on second base and a zip to first.