Although the visiting Longhorns, as the 13th seed in the playoffs, were viewed by many as heavy underdogs, they played exceptionally well and kept up with the Eagles the entire game. However, LAHS still came out with a 7-5 win, thanks to senior Nolan O’Such’s clutch hitting and pitching in the late innings.

Before the game, LAHS had just come off a winning series against Palo Alto to share the DeAnza league title.

“We told ourselves not to do anything different, play the way we’ve been playing all year long,” catcher senior Shuyo Chang said. “We tried to stay comfortable from both sides of the field and just treat it as another game.”

The Eagles did just that. Thanks to senior Joseph Chedid’s outstanding outing, LAHS had no pressure on defense. Joseph carried a no-hitter through 4 and ⅔ innings with five strikeouts.

On the other side of the diamond, things were different. The Longhorns went through 4 different pitchers in the game, together giving up 11 hits, 5 walks and 7 earned runs in total.

“Depending on the pitcher, we kept on changing our batting stances, adapting to how they threw and I guess that helped us get hits,” Shuyo said.

It was not until the bottom of the second inning that the Eagles offensive came alive. Sophomore Chase Eller singled to left to score junior Dominic Gachina. Later in the same inning, junior Steven McLean grounded out to second to score junior Conrad Rogers to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead early on.

Although the Longhorn’s bats were often silent, their star player, junior Sam Dalaplane, came into the game in the bottom of the third to take over the mound. He not only quieted down the Eagles offense, but also came up with the team’s most important RBIs in the game. Sam went two for two with two doubles, driving in three runs. One of those doubles tied the game at the top of the sixth inning.

It was then, at the bottom of the sixth inning, that senior Nolan O’Such came to save the day. With the game tied five to five, Nolan hit a clutch two run single to left scoring Steven and Joe to give the Eagles a two run lead. This was the dagger.

“It was a clutch situation,” Nolan said. “He pitched an inside fastball and I was able to get a good swing on it.”

Nolan then came up to the hill to shut the door on the Longhorns. After Lehigh senior Scott Mercer reached base on a single with one out, Joe once again closed the game in double play fashion, as he did in the closing game of the series against Paly. Joe caught a laser in the hot corner off of sophomore Kyle Morrison’s bat for one out, then threw another laser to first to tag the runner out at first ending the game.

Nolan was the winning pitcher throwing for two innings, allowing two runs, three hits and striking out two.

“I switched up pitches a lot,” Nolan said. “I had trust in my cutter and it’s good to mix [the pitches]. My goal was to pound the zone, throw strikes and make sure I had a lot of movement in my fastball.”

The Eagles now look ahead to their next opponent, the St. Ignatius Wildcats from San Francisco. They are ranked number five in CCS going up against the number four LAHS.

“We just plan to attack every game, we don’t care who the opponent is, we play our game,” Nolan said. “It’s not about the opponent, if we play our game we can beat everyone out there.”

The Eagles will play at Washington Park in Santa Clara, on Saturday, May 19. Ace senior Luke Wiechec will be on the mound for the Eagles.

Wednesday and Thursday had their share of close games. In a heated matchup between Stupid Wet Fire Local and The Bon Bon Warriors, The Warriors were able to come from behind with a series of clutch catches, allowing them to move on.

“They had won one and we had won one, and on the third game, they just caught every single ball we threw in 10 seconds,” Stupid Wet Fire Local player Andrew Thomas said.

Close victories by Balls of Fury (2-1), Team What (2-1) and Bay Area’s finest (2-1) all provided plenty of excitement for students watching in the gym.

Top teams to watch out for include the The Purple Cobras and The Berries. The Purple Cobras, comprised of senior Luis Mejia and juniors Daniel Ponce, Chris Quijano, Luis Melo, Ruben Hernandez and Glenda Vargas, won 4-0 against Alec’s Aggressors. The Berries, comprised of freshmen Pat McColl, Lambie Lanman and Rebecca Andrews, Mr. Bjorkland, and sophomores Max Wilber and Gavin Paradise, will also be a team to watch out for after winning 3-0.

Top seeds Chef Game and Pancakes, who will play on Monday, should also be able to move on without issue.

However, for many the tournament isn’t competitive. Many students go out to have fun and to show off costumes, in hopes of winning the annual costume contest. Teams Menn of Shewitz, who donned yarmulkes and stars of David, and Stupid Wet Fire Local, who was decked out in animal costumes, have been some of the best-dressed teams so far.

“It was a lot of fun,” Menn of Shewitz member sophomore Sam Lisbonne said. “We had a lot of fun with our costumes, and a lot of fun with our celebrations. Maybe we’ll get some divine intervention.”

Only 32 teams now remain, and they will fight for a spot in the sweet sixteen in matches on Friday, May 18 and Monday, May 21. Be sure to stop by the gym to check out games over the next couple of days- the dodgeball tournament is something you won’t want to miss.

“I’m excited to see how it turns out,” junior Andrew Thomas said. “There are some pretty good teams out there.”

“I think the [2011 Honor Roll] is prestigious,” Assistant Principal Perla Pasallo said. “It gets our name out … [and] it just adds another facet to who we are.”

The Honor Roll program uses only achievement data from high schools to establish trends regarding the reduction of achievement gaps.

CBEE President Jim Lanich believes that the honor roll provides an incentive for other schools to try to become better at reducing discrepancies in their achievement gap.

“By highlighting [honor roll high schools], recognizing their achievement and giving them a voice we hope other schools can learn from them and replicate their proven practices throughout the state,” Lanich said.

While the Eagles were able to come out strong in the end, they initially had a rough start.

“I think there were a little off at first today, it might have been nerves, but they got over it,” Coach Todd Barreira said.

Senior Ali Goldberg gave up only a couple of hits, striking out three batters and only two giving up balls. Sophomore Natalie Hollenbaugh nearly matched her, striking out two batters and giving up only two balls.

“It was also kind of nice to have players in the lower half of the inning hit through,” Barreira said. “We had [senior] Lindsey Axelrod come through with a hit, Nikki Klepper have a hit, and Natalie have a hit.”

While the varsity softball team has dropped no games up until now, it will refrain from becoming overconfident and underestimating its upcoming opponents.

“You just got to take one game at a time,” Barreira said. “I don’t know want them looking ahead because that’s when you underestimate who your playing. So you got to go in there respecting everyone you’re playing.”

In order to make sure that the softball players do not tense up in their match against Gilroy on Saturday, May 19, the future practices will be cool-downs.

“Just trying to get the players to relax a little bit more so that they’re not as tense going into their game,” Barreira said. “We’ll do some relaxing tomorrow, we kind talked about this a little bit, have an easier practice.”

[Photos by Ciera Pasturel]

And after two days of initial games, the tournament promises to be a good one. Powerhouse teams The Avengers, Syrup, Panda Express and YMT have all advanced to the second round with byes, so we have yet to see the strength of the top seeds. However, teams such as Free Stop Sign (which won 3-0) and The Goon Squad (which won 2-0) have shown promise after first round domination.

ASB should be commended for successful seeding so far–no powerhouse teams have been eliminated prematurely due to poor matchups, and most games have played out as predicted. But there have still been many exciting games–Chunche’s Revenge took down the ASB Dodgers in a heated battle today, and many other matches have been close.

The first round, which will cut the number of teams to 32, will take place until Thursday, May 17. On Friday, May 18, the intensity will pick up as strong teams match up against each other, contending for a spot in the sweet sixteen.

Be sure to keep visiting lahstalon.org for game scores, pictures, videos and more.

“I was really proud,” sophomore Amy Shannon said. “It felt great to know that people enjoyed my work and and thought that it was good. It basically told me that my work is good and that I could possibly have a successful future in a field that I love – which is a wonderful thing to realize.”

This competition gave artists at LAHS a chance to gain real-world experience in competing, while creating pieces they enjoy.

“I like art because it makes me think in a way that other subjects don’t,” Amy said. “It encourages the growth of my creativity. It offers a distraction from everyday life and makes me see the world in a way that I otherwise would be incapable of. Generally, I feel like it has increased my level of happiness and taught me to enjoy and value life more.”

The LAHS students who participated in the competition are listed below:

Angella Lazora Abbey (People’s Choice)
Mitra Ahy
Aryamitra Bake
Yan (Bonnie) Chan (1st Place, Drawings & Prints)
Emily Cheng
Tessa Cheng
Kelly Heaney
Elise Hu
Sophia Huang
Nikki Klepper
Liza Koulikova
Joseph Mann
Kelly Medina
Ciera Pasturel (1st Place, Photography)
Matthew Ruehle
Amy Shannon
Harpreet Singh (2nd Place, Photography)
Aya Suzuki
Julie Tseng (First Place, Paintings)
Nicole Vendelin
Lorraine Watkins
Elise Witham

The team, which dominated the El Camino league this year, held its own as it competed against the top teams in the area, such as Palo Alto High School, Bellarmine Preparatory School and Sacred Heart Preparatory.

“This is the first time we’ve had a real showing at CCS in a very, very long time,” junior Ian McColl said.

On the boys’ side, Ian, freshman Sean Nguyen, junior Oliver Kask and seniors Matt Orton and Adam Warmoth all competed in the CCS Semifinals on Friday. Both the 200 free relay and 400 free relay teams, comprised of Ian, Matt, Adam and Sean, passed through the prelims on Friday to take 10th and 13th respectively in the CCS Finals on Saturday.

Individually, junior Oliver Kask passed through the prelims in the 500 with a time of 4:52. Oliver took 16th overall in the CCS finals.

On the girls’ side, sophomores Amanda Choy, Paige Casas, Casey Charleton and Casey Vanneman and seniors Amanda Chron, Cathie Zhang and Alyssa Waln all competed in the preliminaries on Friday. Although none of the girls advanced to the finals, their presence at the semifinals was a huge step up from the participation last year.

The team’s overall success can be attributed to dedicated seniors and a stellar freshman class, all of which helped lead the team to victory.

“We have a lot more swimmers this year who are dedicated senior year, instead of seniors not showing up to practice and just technically being on the team,” Ian said. “And also, we have a good freshman class. Sean is incredible.”

“I think it’s really important in schools because people our age say things without thinking about what they’re saying, and those things can be really offensive to members of the LGBT community,” junior Emma Murray said.

Many participants of this event wore stickers as a reminder that they would remain quiet throughout the day. Some of them sported small signs on their shirts that explained to others their reason for silence. With a large turnout this year, Emma believed that the Day of Silence at school had been very successful.

“I think it went well, Emma said. “Lots of people were silent to show support and lots of people who weren’t silent showed support for those who were by wearing information about Day of Silence and learning about Day of Silence in general.