Latest news with #Barons
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Early lead vanishes for Fountain Valley baseball in CIF semifinals
SANTA ANA — Fountain Valley High baseball coach Gerardo Gonzalez has been around long enough to know that high school sports are about more than just the wins and losses. Gonzalez, three years into his second stint as Barons head coach, smiles when he talks about senior leadoff hitter Anthony Zamora, for example. 'He was a little kid and grew up,' Gonzalez said of Zamora, who played on the junior varsity team last year as a junior. 'He just kept his head down, worked his rear end off, worked out in the weight room and just had a fantastic year.' Zamora hit his first home run of the season on Tuesday, blasting the first pitch he saw over the fence in left-center field. Mater Dei rallied late, however, earning a 5-4 home win in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs to end Fountain Valley's season. The Monarchs (19-13) advanced to play West Ranch in the Division 2 title game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Cal State Fullerton. Fountain Valley (18-14) was trying to make its first CIF final since 1996. Zamora's solo shot gave the Barons a 4-1 lead in the top of the second inning, but they couldn't hold it. 'We didn't add to our runs and we gave them that opportunity,' Gonzalez said. 'Kudos to them. That's a good ball club. At this point, everybody's a good ball team. They're a good Trinity League team, and we're a really strong Sunset League team. I just feel that at the end of the day, when we walk away from this game, our kids aren't very happy and I'm not very happy because I think we should be playing in the championship.' Fountain Valley took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, with Zamora and Mikey Patterson lacing back-to-back singles. After Zamora scored on an errant pickoff move, Tyler Peshke was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Starting pitcher Josh Grack then helped his own cause, roping a triple to deep center to score two more runs. Grack was out at home plate on the play. 'It was a very good feeling just to do your job and see your team just roll with it,' Zamora said. 'It's absolutely insane, honestly. Everybody just giving you compliments because you started it, there's nothing like it, man.' The offensive outburst didn't last, though. Mater Dei senior pitcher Landon Gordon, who came on before Grack's triple, landed the win in relief. He retired the side in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth. 'Landon is a guy we trust,' Mater Dei coach Richard Mercado said. 'He's a four-year varsity guy, and he was Trinity League Rookie of the Year his freshman year with a 0.8 ERA. He's been through everything, he's got ice water in his veins and he's just a guy we would trust in any big moment. That's why we had him out of the pen, because we know we can rely on him to come in and throw strikes and be competitive for us as a team. That's what he did today.' Fountain Valley still led 4-2 headed into the bottom of the sixth. Barons reliever Logan Hunt got the first out before the hosts began to rally. Dylan Wetzel drew a full-count walk, then Brandon Thomas was plunked by a pitch. Bradley Beaudreau's dribbler in front of the plate went for an infield single for Mater Dei, loading the bases. After Brady Guth's run-scoring groundout, CJ Ciampa hit a sharp grounder to shortstop, but the throw was dropped to allow another run to score and tie the game. Mater Dei senior catcher Lawson Olmstead followed with the eventual game-winning single to left, scoring Beaudreau. Thomas, normally the Mater Dei No. 1 pitcher, earned the save in the seventh, working around a two-out single by Patterson. Junior catcher Ethan Cortez was two for three for the Barons, while junior outfielder Isaac Lomeli added a hit. Gonzalez said his Barons went through adversity this season, with the starting shortstop quitting the team two weeks into the year and Patterson missing much of the year with an injury. They came together at the end, however, to help fuel a memorable run. 'First and foremost I told them that I love them,' Gonzalez said when asked his post-game remarks to the team. 'It's all about relationships here for us. We have a moniker at our school, 'Barons for Life,' and they know that they're always welcome back. Even as the game was going on, I had 50 ex-players right there watching the game, which was awesome to see.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Accessibility upgrades coming to Rickwood Field
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — The city of Birmingham is investing $900,000 into Rickwood Field. The city said the money will be used to make the facility more accessible. According to the Gerald Watkins, the executive director of the Friends of Rickwood, the ballpark was grandfathered into not having to meet Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. Now, it's choosing to make upgrades thanks to support from the city and in anticipation of some big games that are coming up. New regulations for hemp businesses could soon happen across Alabama if bill becomes law He said these are necessary upgrades that make sure everyone can enjoy baseball at Rickwood Field. 'We want the ballpark to be seen by as many people as possible, and we don't want those with special needs to have difficulties here,' Watkins said. 'So we are really happy those things are going to happen and as we come up on a very ambitious summer. We are going to have the SWAC tournament next week. We have the Barons coming back June 4 to play the Trash Pandas, the World Police and Fire Games, and we have the East-West Game.' There's no timetable for when these improvements will be made, but Watkins said temporary improvements will be made for events in the near future. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Ottawa Citizen
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Ottawa Citizen
First goal boosts Barons to semifinal series win over Napanee Raiders
Article content A goal that was scored with nearly 40 minutes still left to play was being called the game's most important one as the Napanee Raiders and Hanover Barons clashed Thursday night in Game 7 of their Provincial Junior Hockey League semifinal. Article content Coming only 40 seconds into the second period on a power play, the tally snapped a scoreless tie and gave the Barons just the boost they needed to down the home-ice Raiders — despite there being almost two full periods (39:20) remaining. Article content Article content The teams traded the next two goals of the middle frame, leaving Hanover with a 2-1 lead, and then the visitors outscored the Raiders 3-1 in the third (including an empty-net goal) to capture the game, 5-2, and the best-of-seven series, 4-3. Article content 'They are a hard team to play against when you have to open up and let your guard down defensively to push for more offence. We tried to continue to come back with offensive pushes, but they continually answered, and that is what good teams do this time of year.' Article content Barons star forward Mark McIntosh, who chalked up four points (two goals, two assists) in the game for a series-high total of 15 points (seven goals, eight assists), netted the momentum-generating first marker and then drew an assist on Kyle Maloney's goal at 13:02. Napanee's Blake Aylesworth, at 16:27, narrowed the gap to 2-1. Article content Article content To lead off the third period, McIntosh, a 21-year-old from Elora who paced the Barons in the regular season with a 28-44-72 scoring line and enters the PJHL final with a league-high post-season scoring line of 23-31-54, scored on a power play at 7:07. He was followed 53 seconds later by Napanee's Trent Williams, making the score 3-2 in Hanover's favour. Article content Hagerman was proud of the way his team played during the regular season and playoffs. Article content 'Yeah, this was a close-knit group that came together after the Christmas break like I have never seen before,' he said. 'They never let adversity get them down. They constantly just worked and put the team first day after day. This was a special group that I hope made the community proud.' Article content Napanee entered the break (Dec. 23 to Jan. 1) in third place in Tod Division standings, seven points back of the eventual pennant-winning Frankford Huskies. The Raiders went 13-1-1 the rest of the way to finish second, just two points behind Frankford and 10 ahead of the No. 3 Amherstview Jets.
Ottawa Citizen
30-04-2025
- Sport
- Ottawa Citizen
Napanee Raiders comeback falls one goal short
Article content A two-goal surge in the final 67 seconds of the second period boosted the Hanover Barons into a 4-1 lead and they survived a two-goal assault in the last few minutes of the third to beat the visiting Napanee Raiders, 4-3, and force a seventh and deciding game in their Provincial Junior Hockey League semifinal. Article content With the series now tied 3-3, Game 7 is scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m. and is expected to be played in front of a full house of 1,000-plus at Napanee's Best and Bash Arena. The winner will advance to the Clarence Schmalz Cup final against the Essex 73s, who beat the New Hamburg Firebirds in the other semifinal, 4-1. Article content Article content Napanee and Hanover traded first-period goals, with Raiders defenceman Erik MacNiel opening the scoring at 7:57 on a power play and Barons forward Mark McIntosh replying 15 seconds later. Article content Article content Curtis Arnold put Hanover up 2-1 at 6:12 of the second period, setting the stage for a late-period offensive outburst that proved to provide the Barons with enough goals for the win. McIntosh, with his second goal of the game and league-leading 21st of the post-season, scored at 18:53 and was followed at 19:59 by Ryan Colquhoun. Article content 'We were playing a very solid game and creating lots of chances in the second period … and in the last two minutes we made two mistakes that led to two goals, simple as that,' Napanee head coach Ben Hagerman said. Article content '(Hanover) is so powerful offensively that they do not need many chances to score, and as soon as we gave them too much time and space and allowed them to skate through the neutral zone, they were able to capitalize, and that was truly the difference in the hockey game.' Article content The score remained 4-1 until the last two-plus minutes of the third period. Napanee's Andrew Carr, at 17:13, notched his team-leading 17th marker of the post-season, and Michael Patrick, at 18:41, tallied to make it a 4-3 game and keep the Raiders alive. A head contact penalty to Christos Chronis 18 seconds later, however, ended the threat. Article content 'I was proud of the way the guys continued to play hard and push to create scoring chances,' Hagerman said. 'We actually had some really good opportunities to score before our second goal as well. After the third goal, we had lots of momentum, and puck possession … unfortunately we took a penalty and that made it really challenging to score.'
Miami Herald
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Trump, Heritage Foundation's rosy view of Gilded Age ignores bloody reality
The recent commentary, 'What made America great in the Gilded Age,' by Mario Loyola of The Heritage Foundation is an ahistorical journey into the absurd. Loyola opens by asserting that President Donald Trump is correct in saying, 'We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913,' and then proceeds to proclaim the 'genius of the Gilded Age' because it was free 'from the stifling burdens of progressive government and tax policy.' He then expresses his wish that Trump will use the Department of Government Efficiency team to strip away the progressive reforms of the past century. First of all, I'm not sure whom Trump meant when he said 'we were at our richest from 1870 to 1913,' because, by most measures, more than half of the U.S. population lived in poverty in 1900. We the people were not doing so well at that time. As for Loyola's praise for the Gilded Age, I can only say he ought to be glad he didn't live in it. While he admits the 'period had its dark sides — political corruption, 'Robber Barons,' child labor, and environmental degradation,' Loyola's list of concerns falls well short of the mark. He fails to recall the joys of Reconstruction violence, forced displacement and wars against Native Americans, disfranchisement of African American men, the onset of Jim Crow, lynching, the struggle for suffrage and women's rights, and, lest we forget, blood-soaked labor disputes. Since Loyola's piece focuses on economics, let's concentrate on that last item in my list. Why was the Gilded Age racked with workplace turmoil? It has a great deal to do with the absence of those dreaded progressive reforms Loyola detests. Workers in the Gilded Age had virtually no workplace safety protections, compensation for injury, minimum wage, right to organize, no old-age safety net, and were governed at the state and federal levels by the aforementioned corrupt politicians funded by the robber barons. While these unfettered conditions may have allowed the United States economy to grow rapidly, the American people paid for that with their flesh and bone. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in 2023 there were 5,283 workplace deaths across the country. In 1913, the workplace death toll was 23,000 for just industrial workplaces. The nation had four times more deaths in just one economic sector in a population that was less than a third of what it is today (under 100 million then, compared to 340 million now). The families of only half of those killed on the job received any compensation in 1900, with an average payout of only half a year's salary. Such limited compensation was hardly enough to replace a crucial breadwinner for a typical household, and many never recovered from the loss. Tragic events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, where 146 people burned alive or died after leaping from the flaming building's ninth floor, happened because government allowed employers a free hand to do as they pleased. Such conditions, combined with the 'dark sides' of the Gilded Age, produced an environment that allowed Americans to have an average life expectancy of 47.3 years of age in 1900. Pressed to the wall by a largely unregulated economy, poverty level wages and poor work conditions, late 19th and early 20th century workers fought, often quite literally, for and gained benefits such as the five day work week and eight hour day that have improved our lives steadily. While the fireman-held safety nets failed to save the women who jumped rather than burn during the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, the economic safety net created by progressives in response to the horrific conditions of the Gilded Age has provided greater longevity and better security for generations of American workers. We ought not let the overly rosy and outright false (Franklin D. Roosevelt's court packing scheme was never implemented) historical memory of Loyola, the Heritage Foundation and the DOGE cuts they advocate strip away those hard-won benefits. The separate and unequal world of the Gilded Age that Loyola and the Heritage Foundation romanticize benefits only the new robber baron billionaires who lined up behind Trump during his inauguration. Allowing them to reimpose it would, just like his inauguration, leave average Americans on the outside looking in.
