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Recent Blogs

1. High school softball semifinal matchups

   BY ZACH EWING Californian staff writer

   Friday, May 18 2012 10:58 PM

   Tomorrow is the Central Section's Super Saturday, with section championships up for grabs in boys tennis, boys and girls swimming and boys and girls track and field.

   All three events take place in Clovis, with the tennis singles and doubles semifinals kicking things off at 9 a.m. at Buchanan. Here are matchups:

   SINGLES: (1) Ryan Andrada, El Diamante, vs. (4) Allen Wang, Buchanan; (6) Tim Roe, Frontier, vs. (2) D.J. Johnson, East

   DOUBLES: (1) Kyle Vo-Jacob Clark, Central, vs. (5) John Matthew Flores-Charles Tamer, Stockdale; (3) Samarth Gopal-Justin Yang, Clovis, vs. (2) Anthony Busacca-Matt Sewell, Liberty

   Swimming finals get going 10:30 a.m. at Clovis West, and then, back at Buchanan, the track meet starts at 4 p.m. (5 p.m. for running events).

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2. Baseball semifinal matchups

   When Bullard scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to nullify Kaidan Meadows' pitching gem (he had a one-hitter to that point) and beat Liberty 2-1, it was a bad break for a Kern County team.

3. Baseball, softball quarterfinal matchups

   A huge weekend in Kern County sports looms, and it starts tomorrow morning.

4. Baseball, softball seeding thoughts

   It's high school playoff season again, in case you hadn't noticed from this or that or this. But the most high-profile spring sports, baseball and softball, are just finishing up their regular season today. Playoff seedings will be determined in Porterville tomorrow morning for the diamond sports.

5. VIDEO: CIF Area track, live tweets

   Live tweeting from the CIF-Central Section South Area Track and Field meet at Liberty High School, along with plenty of video highlights from the running events.

6. League champions, anyone?

   An epic baseball game that ended in a 10-9, nine-inning decision for Frontier over Centennial today has all but decided the SWYL baseball race. Paired with Stockdale's 6-0 victory over Independence, that clinches at least a tie for the title for the Mustangs, who can win it outright by beating the winless Falcons again Thursday.
7. 

   Local sports every day in the merry month of May

   From a prep sports perspective, May is a big month. There are no fewer than eight spring sports in Kern County, and all of them have section postseasons that conclude in May (track and field and golf have state meets to come, but we'll let June worry about that). But it's also a big month on the college sports scene, and the Bakersfield Blaze's season is in full swing. The Amgen Tour of California also makes  areturn to Bakersfield this month.

9. CIF transfer rule could mean big change — but not here

   The Central Section (in Porterville) and Southern Section (in Long Beach) will both vote tomorrow to determine whether their section will supoort a potential CIF rule change that could quite dramatically alter high school athletics in portions of the state.

10. Arena Bowl live thread

    Black 39, Gold 27, final

11. Thoughts from Arena Bowl practice

    I still haven't totally decided how I feel about the Arena Bowl draft idea. When the all-star game for Kern County football seniors was simply East vs. West, you could identify with the teams — it was Bakersfield High, Garces and anything east of that against the newer west side of town. Now we have a nondescript "Gold" team against a nondescript "Black" team with players from every high school in town scattered on both teams. Does anyone (besides family) really care who wins?
12. 

    Fit to be tied: Prep tennis update

    "Fit to be tied" is about cliché as it gets, but I'm using it anyway because it has never been more appropriate. So there.

13. Arena Bowl next week

    It's a testament to the organization and persistence of Paul Press that the Arena Bowl is back for an 11th go-round. Kern County's unique high school football all-star game — it's the only one in the country played indoors with arena rules — survives because Press, an administrator in the Tehachapi school district, keeps organizing it.

14. Watch Tyrone Wallace dunk on an All-American

    (Note: I don't want to bury the baseball update I just posted, so be sure to check it out here. Now back to our regularly scheduled dunk-watching.)