Sportstars
Hang 10
With Its First 10 Games, Clayton Valley Baseball Announced Its 2017 Presence With Authority Story By Mike Wood | Photos By Samuel Stringer Clayton Valley Charter High-Concord baseball is out of the gate quickly this season. How fast? Try a 10-0 start, with five shutouts. Thanks to a stingy... Read more
Pitch Count Matters: Know Your Limits
Pitch count matters. While good pitchers are in high demand even in youth sports, pitching too early and too often can have a lasting impact on the body. In fact, doctors at Baylor College of Medicine caution that throwing year-round at an early age could cause pitchers to be... Read more
Stamped of Talent
NorCal Softball Season Kicks Into High Gear With Loaded Livermore Stampede • With more top-end softball tournaments springing up each season, the Livermore Stampede is constantly under pressure to keep its reputation as the premier mid-season NorCal tournament. It will have no problem keeping that title this season. The 23rd... Read more
Big League Fun
Feel like you’re playing in the Big Leagues by taking in the type of views legends Babe Ruth or Ted Williams had at the famous replicas of major league ballparks at Big League Dreams in Redding. The 30-plus acre complex features scaled-down replicas of Boston’s Fenway Park, New York’s... Read more
Special Days for Disabled and Handicap Youth
Folsom High School Baseball Team Becomes “Baseball Buddies” for Challenger League Youth. As you know by reading SportStars, Little League Challenger Program is for Youth with Disabilities and Special needs. Starting at 11:30 a.m. at Ernie Sheldon Park, Natoma Station Drive, Folsom, CA, the Folsom High School varsity baseball team will become... Read more
Heat Wave
A “Rebuilding Year” Didn’t Cool Off Mission Viejo Softball. Will Any Opponent Have An Answer For The Diablos In 2017? Story By Mark Tennis | Photos By Patrick Takkinen/SoCalSidelines.com If you are building an elite high school program in any sport — especially one that is nationally-ranked virtually every... Read more
Rising Son
Growing Up Amongst Major Leaguers Gave Darren Baker An Edge — But The Jesuit Standout Made Sure He Would Forge His Own Path Story By Jim McCue | Photos By James K. Leash Darren Baker may have been born with a baseball in his hand and grew up in... Read more
NorCal Preseason Softball Top 20
1. Pioneer-San Jose (25-3) It all starts with pitching and Holly Azevedo is arguably NorCal’s best coming into 2017. Just how good is the UCLA-bound fireballer? Over the last two seasons, she’s surrendered just six earned runs in 361 innings while compiling 587 strikeouts and 53 wins. But no... Read more
Almost Perfect
Few Programs In The State Have Had The Continued Success Of Buchanan-Clovis — And It’s Not Stopping Anytime Soon Story By Mark Tennis | Photos by Cary Edmondson In his 19 years as the head baseball coach at Buchanan High in Clovis, Tom Donald has become familiar with perfection.... Read more
Freedom’s March
Junior Pitcher Vanessa Strong Leads A Talented Freedom Roster Still Burning With Motivation Following An Emotional 2016 NCS Title Run. Story By James G. Kane It was, in retrospect, love at first sight. The diamond. The ball. The strike zone. The target. And the batter, of course. Don’t forget... Read more
NorCal Preseason Baseball Top 20
Here’s how we see the NorCal baseball landscape to start the 2017 season. 1. DE LA SALLE-CONCORD (25-3) Some of the most competitive games on the Spartans schedule each year are the intrasquad games played at Saturday morning practices. It’s in those games where De La Salle builds its... Read more
Tell your athlete to track that fly down and rob the other team of a home run – without worrying about crashing into cyclone fencing and risking possible injury.   How? Glad you asked! Creative companies are the heart and soul of America and one such company, Grand Slam... Read more