CERRITOS -- It's late, and I've had a long day (yes, it started with a workout, thank you very much), so I'll keep this short.

It was a pretty successful day for Kern County at the CIF Track and Field State Championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Friday. All of the athletes who were supposed to reach today's finals did so, and there was maybe even a pleasant surprise or two for the locals. Let's look at bullet-point style:

AND YOU EXPECTED SOMEONE ELSE? Shafter's Anna Jelmini and Foothill's Dayshan Ragans have been touted around the state as the odds-on favorites to win the girls and boys shot put and discus double state championship, no small feat. They both looked the part on Friday, with Ragans needing only three throws in the events combined to reach today's finals (the top nine in each event advance to the finals). He ripped off a 60-2 shot put throw on his first attempt and passed on his final two and hit a 203-7 on his first discus throw, fouled on the second and then passed the third. Jelmini advanced with marks of 47-1 and 166-7, easily making her the top seed in each. Kern County as a whole put on quite a show at the discus competition.

A LONE TRACK STAR: I didn't expect it to be a good day for local runners, but there were a few "bubble" candidates to reach the finals on the track, and none of them came particularly close to qualifying. Not so for North's Anthony Mitchell, who pulled off one of the meet's surprises by winning the second heat of the boys 800. That gave him automatic entry into the finals, where he'll be the No. 2 seed. That means prime lane choice for a confident guy that should at the very least finish in the top six and reach the state podium.

TWIN JUMPING JACKS (AND A JILL): So get this. Out of all of the boys triple jumpers in California, only 28 made it to the state meet. Two happened to be from the same school, Ridgeview. That's not terribly uncommon. But what are the odds that Wolf Pack senior Chris Kelly and freshman Johnny Carter would finish the preliminaries with the exact same mark? Both had a top jump of 47-10.5 and tied for fifth in qualifying. If they tie again tomorrow, I ought to put the numbers together and play Mega Millions or something.
On the girls side, Centennial's Alana Alexander scraped her way through the triple jump prelims, coming from the No. 5 seed to finish eighth. Good enough for the first day, but she'll want to get on the podium today. In another surprise, she also placed eighth in the long jump -- pulling off the rare feat of qualifying from the first heat in a field event. She was nowhere to be seen on DyeStat's list of the top 25 marks in the state coming into the meet.

DISTANCE GURU: As good as Foothill's Chris Schwartz has been in the 1,600 and 3,200 this season, he and the Trojans coaching staff decided to pull out of the shorter race at state so Schwartz, the Div. I cross country champion, could focus on the two-miler. Whether that strategy pays off we'll find out Saturday. There are no prelims for the 3,200, so Schwartz rested today while most of his competition -- including favorite German Fernandez of Riverbank -- ran prelims for the 1,600. Some will run again in the finals tomorrow before the 3,200. If Schwartz can place high and Ragans wins his throwing events, Foothill might bring back a team medal to Bakersfield.

There. I said it would be short and it wasn't. Check back tomorrow for more.

MURRIETA — I owe an extra-large visit to the exercise room here in my hotel tomorrow morning before breakfast. A footlong sandwich from Subway, a couple of cookies and a small pizza for dinner isn't my way of doing things normally.

Of course, I did walk some six, seven miles today out at The SCGA Golf Course here in Murrieta. So did Stockdale's Pete Fernandez, who also took 70 strokes during his SoCal Regional Golf Championships round. That was just few enough to get him into a six-way playoff for the final four state-qualifier spots.

It took two holes, but one of the six dropped off on the first with a bogey and another on the second. Just like that, with two pars, Fernandez is one of the elite six individuals from SoCal to head to Tuesday's state tournament in Santa Maria. A big SHZ congratulations to Pete, who's the first Kern County state qualifier since Bryan Hogan, also of Stockdale, made it two years ago.

This is a pretty big deal — only 48 golfers in the entire state make it, and half of those make it because of their team (not to say there aren't some worthy individuals in there too).

Also a big deal is the state track and field championships, which are Friday and Saturday up (or down, to those of you back home in Bako) at Cerritos College in Norwalk. What, you think they pay for me to stay in a hotel if I wasn't working in the Southland again tomorrow?

Anyway, here's a list of some local stories to watch at the state track meet. Check out my story in Friday's Californian or here at bakersfield.com for some more details. Qualifying for all events except the 3,200 meters, which only has finals, are Friday. Finals are Saturday.

— Dayshan Ragans and Anna Jelmini. What, you thought I would start with the national-anthem singer? Ragans, from Foothill, and Jelmini, from Shafter, are hands-down the best chances for Kern County to bring home a state championship. In any sport, any time soon.
Shoot, they might even bring home two each. They each have the best mark in the state in the discus by a large, large margin, and also have the best mark in the shot put (though it's not as clear-cut for either in that event). Either could have won state last year (Ragans was second in the discus, Jelmini fourth in discus and seventh in shot), but this year they really are the favorites. This is the last step for a couple of marvelous seasons.

— Freshman phenoms. Friday morning's story in the Californian talks about this a little more, but there are two Kern County freshman with top-five seed marks in their events: Ridgeview's Johnny Carter in the boys triple jump and Stockdale's Alex Collatz in the girls discus.
Collatz probably won't win — thanks to Jelmini for that — but she's also qualified in the triple jump, which makes for a remarkable combination, especially for a freshman. I talked with Stockdale coach Dave Losinger earlier today, and he's already daring to dream of how good she can be. Oh, and yes, Alex Collatz is the daughter of Alan Collatz, the Cal State Bakersfield All-American and head track coach.
As for Carter, he's really come out of nowhere. He only started jumping last summer, was academically ineligible for the first part of this freshman season and then competed in mostly frosh/soph meets for the first part of the year. Now he's come out of nowhere and has — get this — the best seed mark heading into state. Can he win it? Sure. But I'd say a top five would be pretty darn good.

— Jumping jacks Alana Alexander of Centennial and Tyler Thompson of Shafter, who are both qualified in both the long jump and triple jump. Thompson gives Shafter, a town of about 12,000, has two elite athletes, in two events each, making waves at the state track meet. Pretty impressive.

— Check out Liberty's Amanda Klinchuch, a pole vaulter extraordinaire, who never gets press because the pole vault ends so late. She begins the meet with 2 p.m. qualifying on Friday. Then check out some great 1,600 relay teams to end the meet — Stockdale girls, Liberty and BHS boys.

I'm sitting here at my desk keeping an eye on the Pistons-Celtics NBA playoff game, which is the fifth game in a seven-game series, and I'm feeling a little sorry for some high school golfers.

Those headed down to the Southern Cal Regional Golf Championships in Murrieta tomorrow (Thursday) have one round to make it to state. No second chances, no room for bad shots, definitely no mulligans.

"It's a one-day tournament," Bakersfield High coach Kevin Reynier said. "One bad swing, out of bounds or in the water, and it goes from being a longshot to an even bigger longshot."

Reynier calls it a longshot because only the top six individuals from this one-day event at the par-72 SCGA Golf Course, advance to the state meet Tuesday in Santa Maria. The top three teams also go, but even after you take out those 18 players, six of the remaining 106 go to state (that's less than six percent, which some of you math whizzes probably didn't need me to tell you).

Last year, on the same course, you needed a 69 just to get into a playoff to make the state meet. Garces' Stephen Hale was the closest from this area, shooting a 71.

Here are the guys who will give it a shot this time around (score at section final in parentheses):

Bhavik Patel, Bakersfield (67)
Pete Fernandez, Stockdale (73)
Matt Hunt, Stockdale (74)
Max Schmidt, Liberty (74)
Manav Shah, Centennial (75)
Blake Brown, Liberty (75)
Stephen Harmer, Garces (75)
Connor Huser, BHS (75)

Check back tomorrow for an update and a glance at state track.

Ensley Gammel started celebrating Centennial's Division I Central Section softball championship before her final pitch even reached the plate.

It was a strikeout, resulting in the Golden Hawks' 2-1 victory at Madera on Friday in front of an overflow crowd that mostly consisted of blue-clad Coyotes supporters.

Quite a spectacle, but the game was really a crowning moment for Bakersfield, which swept the D-I baseball and softball titles (Stockdale came back to beat Clovis 7-6 in eight innings in a baseball thriller Thursday). That doesn't happen very often.

Gammel struck out 11 for Centennial and, aided by good defense, worked her way out of several jams. Madera pitcher Vanessa Salinas was nearly as good. She shut down the Golden Hawks in six of seven innings but couldn't close the door on CHS' only serious threat. With runners on second and third and two outs in the fourth inning, Centennial catcher Vanessa Medina punched a single into left field to score McKenzie Joseph and Gammel. That'd be all the Hawks needed.

Great week for the big schools, but Kern County struggled in many of the lower divisions. South baseball (D-III), Bakersfield Christian baseball (D-V) and West tennis (D-II) all lost in their championships this week, and teams like North baseball and softball (seeded No. 2 and No. 1 in D-II) and Wasco softball (No. 1 in D-IV) lost before they could play for the title.

In the end, the county claimed only six section team titles in eight sports, all of which have multiple divisions: Stockdale baseball, Centennial softball, Garces Div. III softball, Garces Div. III tennis, Bakersfield Christian Div. V tennis and Shafter Div. II track.

Of course, Bakersfield also swept the singles and doubles individual titles in tennis (Stockdale's Jeremy Quiroz and Bakersfield High's Michael Rodriguez and David Mossman) and won a handful of titles in boys and girls track and field and swimming.

Early next week, we'll turn our attention to the state level, where golf and track are still going. If you missed my eariler posts, you can click this link and see why it bothers me that we won't see some local baseball and softball teams trying to make statewide waves, too.

Anyway, after next week, I'll do some 2007-08 wrap-ups, one for each sport, and then we'll eventually start looking ahead to the fall. I'm planning a team-by-team look at Kern County football for the blog.

I'll leave you with a list of the state qualifiers in boys golf and boys and girls track. Again, check back Tuesday and Wednesday for some more detailed information.

Boys golf — SoCal Regionals, Thursday at SCGA Golf Course in Murrieta
LOCAL QUALIFIERS — Bhavik Patel and Connor Huser, Bakersfield High; Pete Fernandez and Matt Hunt, Stockdale; Blake Brown and Max Schmidt, Liberty; Stephen Harmer, Garces; and Manav Shah, Centennial.

Track and field — State Championships, Friday (qualifying) and Saturday (finals) at Cerritos College in Norwalk
Local qualifiers
BOYS
Foothill's Dayshan Ragans, shot put and discus; Foothill's Chris Schwartz, 1,600 and 3,200; BHS' 400 and 1,600 relay teams; Liberty's 1,600 relay team; Ridgeview's Johnny Carter and Chris Kelly, triple jump; Liberty's Isiah Purvis, 200 and 400; North's Anthony Mitchell, 800; BHS' Emmanuel Turner, 100; Frontier's Matt Darr, shot put; Shafter's Tyler Thompson, long jump and triple jump; BHS' Isiah Griggs, high jump; West's George Robbins, high jump.
GIRLS
Shafter's Anna Jelmini, shot put and discus; Centennial's Alana Alexander, long jump and triple jump; Frontier's Taylor Jackson, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles; BHS' Brushay Wandick, 200; Stockdale's 1,600 relay team; Stockdale's Alex Collatz, discus; Taft's Carey Tuuamalemalo, discus; Liberty's Amanda Klinchuch, pole vault.

Good thing you weren't like the guy sitting next to me at the Stockdale-Clovis section championship baseball game Thursday evening. He got up and headed out with two outs and nobody on base in the seventh inning, with Stockdale down 6-3 and about to become bridesmaids again.

Well, this stinks for him, but it's great for Stockdale and for Bakersfield: The Mustangs staged the most dramatic of two-out rallies to tie the game, then won it on K.C. Hobson's single to the wall in the eighth. It's Stockdale's first Central Section baseball title, and the first time Kern County has won back-to-back big-school baseball titles since 1952-53. (Bakersfield High did it then; Centennial and Liberty won titles in 2002 and '03 when brackets were split into Yosemite and Sequoia Divisions; last year, Centennial was the champ).

The rally went like this: With two outs and the Clovis fans on their feet, Scott Denesha bounced a tricky ball down toward third base. It bounced barely in fair territory, so the Clovis 3B had to field it. He couldn't come up with it cleanly, and Denesha reached on an error. Then Hobson blooped a ball into short left-center field. Clovis SS Derek Oliver nearly made a spectacular diving play to end the game, but the ball tipped off his glove and he rolled over on it. That brought the tying run to the plate.

Imaad Nuriddin didn't tie it, but he sent another soft liner into the outfield, this time to right. Denesha came around to score, and compounding matters for Clovis, Hobson and Nuriddin were able to move up to third and second because Clovis tried to get an out at the plate and the ball got away. Greg Osteen then lined a 1-2 pitch into center field to tie the game. He moved up to second on a third error.

Clovis made three errors in the inning, but none was really egregious except for the decision to throw home and let the runners move up. No, Clovis didn't choke this one away; Stockdale found some magic in its bats and wouldn't die.

Meanwhile, South High couldn't turn a similar trick up in Fresno in the Division III championship. The Rebels lost 11-3 to McLane.

Friday, Centennial (at Madera in D-I) and Garces (home against Kerman in D-III) will batlle for softball titles, and Bakersfield Christian, which had its game moved to 7:30 Friday night because of its graduation tonight, is at Fowler in the D-V baseball final. The softball games are at 4:30, and if they're half as exciting as Stockdale's comeback victory in baseball, we're in for a treat.

Can two rivals root for each other? If Bakersfield wants to sweep the Division I baseball and softball Central Section championships, folks at Stockdale and Centennial will have to. A day after the Mustangs baseball team held off Clovis West 5-3 in a D-I Valley semifinal, Centennial stymied Stockdale 3-0 in the softball semis.

These are a couple of pretty impressive teams, and they've been the most consistent in their respective sports all season long. Now there's one more step to go. No. 1 seed Stockdale plays host to No. 2 Clovis, which had a crazy game of its own Tuesday, in the baseball championship at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. At the same time Friday, Centennial visits No. 1 Madera for softball bragging rights.

My take? I like Centennial to win the softball title. The Golden Hawks have won 18 in a row, swept the tough SWYL and are playing better than ever. They split two games with Madera in an early-season tournament in Visalia, with Madera winning 1-0 and Centennial 10-0 (how is Madera the No. 1 seed again?). Regardless, I like CHS to win the rubber match Friday.

As for baseball, I don't think I want to go there. These playoffs have been so crazy so far, and yet we've still got a 1 vs. 2 match-up in the championship. The only thing I'll predict is a close game.

Other section finalists:

Division III baseball — No. 5 South at No. 2 Fresno-McLane, 4:30 Thursday
Division V baseball — No. 3 Bakersfield Christian at No. 1 Fowler, 7:30 Friday

Division III softball — No. 2 Kerman at No. 1 Garces, 4:30 Friday

Forgive me for returning to a subject I've harped on before (and this probably won't be the last time, so ignore me if you like), but let's talk about the California Interscholastic Federation.

Why, oh why, do we have random sports with state championships and others with none? As great as local rivalries are, one of the best things about high school sports to me is when the best teams from your area go measure themselves against the best teams from the rest of the state. L.A.thinks its sports teams are better? San Francisco? San Diego? Maybe they are, maybe not. Let's go find out.

I'm bringing this up because baseball is my baby, so to speak. I love baseball, and even though I played different sports in high school and am better at different sports, baseball probably will always be at the top. And Bakersfield has great baseball. Centennial is out of the section tournament early this year, but I would bet the Golden Hawks are perennially among the best teams in California. Stockdale, most years, can put itself in the same boat. Maybe some others too. But we have no way of finding out. Same thing with softball.

Take a look at golf, where Bakersfield High's Bhavik Patel played a great round yesterday at a rough-n-tough Riverbend course in Madera, and so he'll now get to try his luck agains the rest of Southern Cal. Same with seven other city golfers who qualified yesterday.

But then look at tennis, where Stockdale's Jeremy Quiroz dominated the Central Section until the championship, where he was able to gut out a victory against Visalia-El Diamante's Josh Lorentzen. The BHS doubles team of Michael Rodriguez and David Mossman also are section champions. So where to now for Bakersfield's conquering heroes? Well, home, I guess. Or back to the practice courts. Isn't there something wrong with that picture?

(Yes, there are out-of-school events, like the Ojai Valley tennis tournament, where guys like Quiroz can test himself. But why make an outside orginization put it together? Isn't that what the CIF is there for?)

Look, I know California is a big state and that can make things difficult. But the CIF does a great job of putting on some events. The wrestling finals, as anybody who's been to Rabobank Arena in late February/early March knows, are exciting, well-planned and really fun to watch. We have a state tournament in track and field, so why not swimming? In basketball, where there are more teams than anything, so why not in baseball? In volleyball so why not softball? In football — where the logistics are more difficult than anything — so why not soccer?

Yes, it would require a lot of planning and a lot of travel and money. But I think there's a way to get it done, and I'd sure love to see it.

It's championship week for high school sports here in the Central Section, and I've mentioned before this is my favorite time of year. It comes along three times, and for a fortnight at a time, the games and events don't just mean something — they mean everything for a lot of these kids.

First things first. Let's dole out some congratulations from last week. Garces (Division III) and Bakersfield Christian (D-V) both successfully defended their team tennis section championships.

More notably, perhaps, is that Bakersfield is home to the best singles player and best doubles tennis teams in the Valley. Stockdale's Jeremy Quiroz absolutely breezed to the singles championship, where he was nearly shocked by Josh Lorentzen of Visalia-El Diamante. Lorentzen looked out-classed for the first few games of the match, but he quickly stepped up his level. After Quiroz took the first set 6-3, Lorentzen broke Quiroz's serve — first time that had happened all tournament — and won the second set. Lorentzen broke Quiroz's serve twice more in the third and deciding set, but the Stockdale junior fought back and earned himself a well-deserved section title.

Doubles? Well, Michael Rodriguez and David Mossman of Bakersfield High decided they'd play doubles to stay away from the likes of Quiroz, Lorentzen and Bakersfield Christian's Alex Nichols in the singles draw. The move paid off handsomely when the Drillers beat the Clovis West team of Vince Paganetti-Stefan Loop 6-4, 6-2 in the section championship. The West High team of Tim Donaldson-Kevin Lott recovered from a heartbreaking semifinal loss to take third.

Other congratulations — Stockdale's Emily Irvin and Tehachapi's Michael Halaska, who each won Valley swimming titles (Halaska twice). Several other local swimmers did a fine job at the section meet at Clovis West. Also, in case you missed it, Shafter's boys won a Division II track and field title a couple of weeks ago.

Now, who will we be celebrating at this time next weekend? A quick look at the possibilities, day-by-day:

Monday — Central Section Individual Golf Championships, Riverbend Golf Course in Madera, 11 a.m.
Don't sleep on this event. Stockdale's Pete Fernandez and Bakersfield High's Bhavik Patel both have the potential to bring home a section title, and several other golfers could be in the mix with a great day. Also at stake is a trip to the SoCal regionals the following week. The top 12 golfers not on a qualifying team (those are Clovis West and Clovis-Buchanan) will head to Murrieta on May 29.

Tuesday — No championships going on today, but it's baseball semifinal day, which means big-time drama around town. Here's the local schedule, with all games at 4:30 p.m.
Div. I — No. 4 Clovis West at No. 1 Stockdale
Div. II — No. 3 Visalia-Mt. Whitney at No. 2 North
Div. III — No. 5 South at No. 1 Fresno-Washington Union
Div. V — No. 3 Bakersfield Christian at No. 2 Liberty-Madera Ranchos

Wednesday — It would be quite a coup for West High's tennis team to win a Div. II title at Visalia-El Diamante at 4 p.m. today. First of all (as noted above), the Miners have some unbelievable players. But the Vikings have already performed a Houdini act just to get this far. They won a 5-4 quarterfinal decision against Fresno-Sunnyside and another in the semifinals against Hanford. In that one, West trailed 4-2 after singles play, and trailed by a set and two breaks in one doubles match before coming back. We'll see what they can do against the top seed.
Also Wednesday are the softball semifinals, all games 4:30 p.m.
Div. I — No. 3 Stockdale at No. 2 Centennial (yep, a big one)
Div. II — No. 4 Visalia-El Diamante at No. 1 North
Div. III — No. 4 Tehachapi at No. 1 Garces

Thursday — Baseball championships. If Stockdale wins Tuesday, it'll be at home against either Clovis or Clovis East.

Friday — Softball championships. Either Stockdale or Centennial will be there, either at Madera or at home against Buchanan.

It's been an eternity since my last post here — if you hadn't noticed, we had a pretty big throwing story we ran this week, and we wrapped up section track finals. Anyway, my apologies. I promise to make up for it with a nice, long, involved playoff glance here.

Let's start in baseball. The story of the Central Section playoffs so far is Centennial — the defending champions bowed out in their first game, a 12-5 quarterfinal loss to Clovis East on Thursday. I often think it's unfair to place baseball teams in a single-elimination tournament because this sport, above all others, is suspect to randomness and luck. But I don't think that's what happened here. I really got the feeling Clovis East could — and maybe would — beat Centennial in a best-of-five or best-of-seven series. That's a good team with quality pitching depth, a solid defense and an opportunistic offense.

So that will leave Stockdale, a 2-1 winner against Madera in the quarters, to carry the Bakersfield flag in the Division I playoffs. The top-seeded Mustangs scored twice in the bottom of the seventh inning to escape. Now they'll have to run the Clovis gauntlet. They play No. 4 Clovis West, a walk-off winner over hard-luck Liberty, and the other semifinal is Clovis East against No. 2 Clovis.

In Division II, North High did a fine job backing up its No. 2 seed with a 7-1 victory against Ridgeview on Thursday, but the Stars will have their work cut out for them Tuesday against Visalia-Mt. Whitney.

No. 5 South is into the semifinals for the second straight year in Division III. The Rebels, finialists last season, play at No. 1 Fresno-Washington Union. The only other local team to reach a semifinal is Bakersfield Christian, the No. 3 seed in Div. V, which ran up a 24-0 blowout of Fresno Christian in its first game. The Eagles play at Liberty-Madera Ranchos in the semis.

On to softball. After a couple of shutout wins today, the table is set for a Stockdale-at-Centennial throwdown on Wednesday in the Division I semifinals. The third-seeded Mustangs scored in the first inning and held on to beat Clovis 1-0, and Centennial routed Clovis West 10-0. The Golden Hawks have won the teams' first two meetings, and they'll have to do it a third time to reach the Valley championship. The other semifinal Wednesday is No. 4 Clovis-Buchanan at No. 1 Madera.

A couple of other divisions have Kern County teams in the championship mix, with North, the top seed in Div. II, pounding Hanford 13-3 today. The Stars face Visalia-El Diamante, the fourth seed in the semifinals at home. In Div. III, Tehachapi faces Garces on the road for the right to play for the title. Top-seeded Wasco was a Div. IV casualty. The Tigers' great season came to an end at the hands of No. 9 Reedley-Immanuel.

Before any of that is decided, we'll know who the individual tennis champions of the section are. Stockdale's Jeremy Quiroz cruised into the singles semifinals today, as did the West High doubles team of Kevin Lott and Tim Donaldson. BHS' best doubles team, consisting of Michael Rodriguez and David Mossman, survived a tough second set to make the semis.

Semifinals and finals will be contested Saturday morning, 9 and 11 a.m., at the Bakersfield Racquet Club. Should be a good show with a few locals involved, if you're thinking of coming out. One conspicuous absence will be Bakersfield Christian's Alex Nichols, the defending singles champion and this year's No. 2 seed. BCHS coach Frank Thiessen told me Nichols was suspended for the remainder of the tourney because of discliplinary issues. That's a tough pill to swallow for Nichols, who at least learned his lesson while it's still his junior year. He'll have one more shot at it.

Finally, and you'll have to head up to Clovis West in the morning to watch this, it's the section swimming finals. In today's preliminaries, Stockdale qualfiied for the finals in 26 boys and girls events. Also looking strong are Bakersfield High, Frontier's girls and Tehachapi's boys. There's a few locals in almost every race, and a good chance for a Bakersfield swimmer to come away with a title in almost every race too. Should be a good time.

We'll talk golf and team tennis next week, plus, of course, some more baseball and softball. If you're headed to tennis finals tomorrow, I'll see you there. Swimming fans, look for my colleague Jeff Evans to make an appearance. It'll make for a fun day either way.

UPDATE — Checking back in with Division III and IV news.

Kern County is well represented in D-III, but I don't know how far any of the teams will go. South, which reached the championship game last year before falling to Dinuba, is the highest-seeded K.C. team at No. 5. The Rebels host Tehachapi in the first round, with the winner likely traveling to No. 4 Selma on Thursday. Elsewhere in D-III, Highland and Garces were given first-round home games as the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds. Hmm. Neither had a great season, but that's what you get for being a D-III team in a league full of D-I teams.

In D-IV, a couple of SSL teams, Taft and Wasco, are the Nos. 5 and 7 seeds in a 9-team bracket.

ORIGINAL POST

They've just unveiled the Central Section baseball brackets, and we've got a bit of a surprise. Stockdale, which got blasted 19-10 by Centennial on Wednesday and split the league title with the Golden Hawks, got the No. 1 seed in Division I anyway.

My guess is the Mustangs did enough before this last week to merit the top seed. They lost three times all year — to Centennial, Liberty and Bakersfield High.

Meanwhile, Clovis was given the No. 2 seed and Centennial slid to the No. 3. Tough luck for the Golden Hawks, who'll have to go on the road perhaps in each of the final two rounds if they're to defend their section title. Of course, the No. 3 seed is the same post CHS started from last year.

Liberty was rewarded for a strong season with the No. 5 seed and will open at home against No. 12 Visalia-Golden West on Tuesday. BHS is a surprising No. 7 seed and drew perennial power Clovis-Buchanan, the No. 10, in a first-round home game Tuesday. Stockdale and Centennial have byes into Thursday's quarterfinals.

Other notable seeds: Div. II, North is a No. 2 and Ridgeview a No. 10, so they could meet in the quarterfinals. I'll update this when the D-III, iV and V brackets are relased, which should be shortly.

In softball playoff brackets, which were released earlier today, SWYL champion Centennial is a No. 2 seed and Stockdale a No. 3. If they meet in the semifinals, CHS will be looking for its third victory over a tough team. Not easy to do. Madera is the No. 1 seed.

Kern County has a team seeded to make the softball finals in every division but V, with North the No. 1 in D-II, Garces the No. 1 in D-III and Wasco the No. 1 in D-IV.

A big, big weekend in Kern County sports coming up. The last of the league titles will be decided tomorrow when SWYL play in baseball and softball finishes up. (Actually, 11-0 Centennial has already wrapped up that league title, regardless of what happens Friday).

Here's the spring league champs as we know them so far (I don't know who won the SSL titles in swimming, unfortunately, so if anyone has the answer there, I'll gladly update):

SWYL boys golf — Stockdale
SEYL boys golf — Bakersfield High
SSL boys golf — Bakersfield Christian

SWYL boys tennis — Stockdale
SEYL boys tennis — Bakersfield High
SSL boys tennis — Bakersfield Christian

SWYL boys swimming — Stockdale
SEYL boys swimming — Liberty
SSL boys swimming — ??

SWYL girls swimming — Stockdale
SEYL girls swimming — Bakersfield High
SSL girls swimming — ??

SWYL boys track — Stockdale
SEYL boys track — Bakersfield High
SSL boys track — Shafter

SWYL girls track — Centennial
SEYL girls track — Bakersfield High
SSL girls track — Taft

SWYL softball — Centennial
SEYL softball — Liberty and Garces
SSL softball — Wasco

SWYL baseball — TBD (Centennial and/or Stockdale)
SEYL baseball — Liberty
SSL baseball — TBD (Bakersfield Christian or Taft)

Centennial and Stockdale are both 10-1 in SWYL baseball play with a game left. If both win (Golden Hawks play at Frontier, and the Mustangs host West) or if both lose, they'll split the title, having split their season series. If one should win and the other lose, obviously, we'd have a solo winner.

It's a similar situation in the SSL, where Bakersfield Christian plays at Wasco on Friday, and Taft is at Shafter. Difference there is the Eagles swept the season series.

So there you have it. Lots of similar names in there. No Souths, Norths, Wests, Foothills or anything like that. But that's the way it seems to be. A few of the schools hoard most of the athletes. And yes, I know money is a big part of it too. Swimming, golf and tennis, and to a lesser extent softball and baseball, take money to play at a young age, so the schools in the better neighborhoods are going to dominate there.

Also this weekend, tennis playoffs heat up, with quarterfinals and semifinals in team compeition Friday (the big ones are Stockdale hosting Clovis and BHS traveling to Clovis-Buchanan in Div. I and Frontier and Garces clashing in a D-III semifinal at 4 p.m. at BC). The individual tournaments begin Saturday, with doubles play at BHS and singles play at the Laurel Glen club on Ming Avenue.

Plus, we find out seeding for baseball and softball playoffs Saturday. Let the games begin.

Here's a quick update on the home run race I blogged about on Friday, which at first glance might appear to be over. Jarret Martin blasted three home runs, including a dramatic go-ahead shot with two outs in the seventh inning, giving him the Central Section record for home runs with 17. According to section historian Bob Barnett, the previous record was Mike Holbrook's 14 for Fresno-Hoover in 1966.

But this race is really just beginning. First off, there's always the possibility that Martin's teammate Dusty Robinson could get hot and catch him. Robinson has 13 homers, the same number he finished with last year.

And then there's the state mark. Centennial has two regular-season games remaining and, though the Golden Hawks will probably get a first-round playoff bye, could still have as many as three playoff games (if they keep winning, of course). That means Martin could still equal or surpass the California high school record of 21 home runs, which, according to Cal Hi Sports, was set in 2002 by Lakeside-El Capitan's Chris Walston. Right now, Martin's 17 homers ties him for eighth on the list, which you can see on this page (you've got to be a Rivals.com subscriber to view it).

Meanwhile, the playoffs already are set to begin in boys tennis, with a few Kern County teams capable of making some noise.

Let's start in Division V, where Bakersfield Christian is the defending champion and the odds-on favorite to repeat. The Eagles are a tennis power in a down year for other small schools (there are only five teams in the bracket too). I'd be shocked if BCHS isn't crowned again.

Things are more interesting in the other divisions. Stockdale drew the No. 4 seed and Bakersfield High the No. 6 in D-I, meaning both schools have their first dual at home but will face difficult road challenges if they want to keep going. Both the Mustangs and Drillers have lost to several Fresno-area teams seeded above them, but it's been close the whole way.

West is the No. 3 seed in D-II, and we could have an all-Bakersfield semifinal in D-III, where Garces is the No. 2 and Frontier the No. 3. If both get by their first-round matches Wednesday, that one will be at Bakersfield College (Garces doesn't have its own courts) at 4 p.m. Friday. Also, Taft is the No. 3 seed and Tehachapi the No. 5 in D-IV.

The first-round duals (quarterfinals in D-III and D-V) are Wednesday with the next round Friday. Section finals are next Tuesday in III and V and May 21 for the other three divisions.

I'll talk more about the individual tournament, which begins Saturday at Laurel Glen and BHS, later in the week. For now, suffice it to say Stockdale's Jeremy Quiroz and Bakersfield Christian's Alex Nichols, the defending champ, are seeded 1 and 2 in singles.

A heads-up to all you history buffs out there. Jarret Martin has already done, and Dustin Robinson is about to do something that hasn't been done in the Central Section in 42 years.

It's a home run chase between two Cetennial players, something out of the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa, magical-summer-of-1998 annals. (You know, minus the whole tainted-by-steroids thing). Right now, Martin has 14 homers and Robinson 13, and the record is 14. Centennial is playing right now against North, so by the time you read this, the record could have fallen.

According to section historian Bob Barnett up in Fresno, the home run record for a season is 14, a feat Mike Holbrook of Fresno-Hoover accomplished back in 1966. The closest anybody has come since was Robinson, when he hit 13 last year. Robinson's already got 13 this year, with four games Barnett said two players have never hit 12 in the same season, much less two teammates. (A big thanks to Bob, by the way, for digging this stuff up for us).

By the way — say what you want about Centennial's small home field or the way the wind blows, but nobody's hit this many before, and it's still a pretty darn impressive feat. And it's not like these guys don't hit 'em on the road — they both homered Wednesday at South and both homered at Stockdale earlier in the year, too.

And if (when) Robinson or (and) Martin breaks the record, it'll be fun to watch the Golden Hawks in the playoffs, when they'll try to defend their section title and we'll see who comes out on top in the home run race of '08.