With the school year finish line within reach, several spring sports teams extended their seasons with Section Tournaments. Softball, tennis and track and field athletes were in action recently in the postseason.
Lady Bruin Softball
Varsity girls softball players had a busy time last week, going all the way to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section finals in Division 6, ultimately falling in the finale. They played three games to finish their season.
On Tuesday, May 16, the No. 2 seeded Riverbank squad hosted a game in the quarterfinal round, welcoming Vacaville Christian High School’s Lady Falcons. They advanced with a 15-0 defeat, moving on to the semifinals.
As the higher seed once again on Thursday, the Lady Bruins welcomed Le Grand from Merced, sending them home with a 5-2 loss in the semifinal round, and advancing to the D6 championship game. The contest was played Saturday afternoon on the campus of Cosumnes River College in Sacramento.
There, unfortunately, Riverbank was unable to get past their opponent. Finishing second in the Section, the Lady Bruins fell to the Lady Bears of Summerville High School from Tuolumne County by a 4-1 final.
“We fell short to a strong Summerville team with a high-quality pitcher in Madison Cribbs,” noted first year head coach Jeff Borden. “We tip our hat to them; we couldn’t get the timely hits when we had our runners on base.”
Bruin Co-Ed Tennis
Riverbank coach Bruce Edwards reported that four of his doubles squads were able to compete on May 15 and 16 at Oak Park in Stockton in the Section playoffs. Unfortunately, he said, the highest any of them finished was fourth place, and he said the temperature on the courts those days was about 120 degrees, so some players may have been suffering some ill effects from the heat, with one playing a three-hour match, then an hour off, followed by another extended match.
The coach did mention how proud he was of the progress they all have made over the season.
Many of his players, he pointed out, had never played tennis before this season.
Edwards also said that a number of his players had been designated TVL All-League.
On the boys team, he listed Frank Manzo, Roberto D’Agnano, Arthus Schnebelen, and Victor Jacobo.
On the girls side, Jimena Cuellar, Ines Albert, Nathalie Garcia and Cinthya Pantoja were all named.
Track And Field
Last weekend two Riverbank Lady Bruin athletes traveled to the California Interscholastic Federation’s Sac-Joaquin Section Masters competition at Davis High School, in Davis.
Freshman Giselle Fernandez ran in the 1600-meter race, finishing eighth at 5:08.66.
Freshman Maya Guzman – who also plays softball – competed in the triple jump, finishing up in 14th place, with a leap of 34-feet, 3.25 inches.
