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Softball: Southern Section removes Alhambra from playoffs

The Southern Section has upheld a protest by Duarte and removed Alhambra from the Division 5 softball playoffs for holding an illegal batting practice before defeating Duarte last week.

Duarte will advance to play South El Monte in a second-round game on Tuesday.

-- Eric Sondheimer

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Too Hip
Please change your name to Too Simple Minded or Too Hip for Elementary School. You equate driving in the winning run with an illegal bat to hitting wiffle balls during warm-up? You must have never played or coached a game of softball or baseball in your entire life.
Secondly, "Mr. Wrong is Wrong", the rule states that a violation MAY result in a forfeit not that it MUST result in a forfeit. Someone made a judgment call that ignored the practicalities of the violation, the spirit of competition and the any sense of justice. A fair penalty would have been to suspend the coach for the next game.
Lastly, thanks for the compliment about legalese. I'm not a lawyer but it does not surprise me that you are unable to comprehend a well reasoned argument. Maybe you shouldn't hang out in bowling alleys so often. It must be nice to be simple minded enough to perceive the world in such black and white terms ... fewer headaches.
Softball of all sports is a gray sport. Umpires make judgments. One game you get low strikes. In another you get high strikes. The problem here is that Duarte sailed a pitch over the head of Alhambra and the CIF-SS (and you) called it a strike.
Justice was done to Duarte. South El Monte beat them handily 8-4. Duarte fell apart under the pressure committing five errors. Maybe the players knew they didn't belong there.


@noibkeoni...what on earth is a former championship coach at the JC level doing coaching at Alhambra? Normally, you have to be a mediocre head coach at the JC level before returning to the high school level, right Jon Mack?

@ all of your legalese for people you are lucky enough to not put to sleep with such drivel at the local bowling alley.
Let's say that Alhambra got caught using an illegal bat..unintentionally, won by one run...on an rbi from the player using said illegal would be the guy saying that Duarte had plenty of other opportunities to win, and the outcome of the game wasn't affected by the unintentional use of the illegal bat....

I don't have a dog in this fight...but wrong is wrong..and the Alhambra coach should have known that


Addendum to my previous post.
For all of you "rules are rules" people out there. The CIF-SS Bluebook explicitly states that an incorrect application of baseball/softball rules by an umpire cannot be protested beyond that specific venue. So where does the protest go? To the umpire who made the erroneous call in the first place. Translation ... the CIF is not interested in the rules. Their primary interest is in their appearance. Doesn't it sound better to forfeit a team for conducting an "illegal batting practice" than to forfeit a team for hitting wiffle balls from five feet away?


Viteri must not think much of his team if he feels that all a team needs to do is warm up with wiffle balls in order to beat them.
The fact is, he was embarassed that an unrated team beat his highly over-rated team. Check the schedules on Max Preps. AHS played numerous playoff qualifying teams including Bonita and La Canada, two legit contenders for their respective division championships. Duarte padded their schedule, playing weak teams in order to get a higher seeding. Check the Almont league compared to the Montview league for toughness of schedule.
As a coach of baseball and softball for more than 15 years I would have been embarassed to take off the field what I could not earn on the field. Viteri should admit he failed to properly repare his team for playoff competition. South El Monte is likely to mercy them.
As for the CIF-SS, they are more concerned with their image than competition or justice.
Warming up with wiffle balls does not equal a defeat on the field.

No Ibkeoni

The Alhambra coach, a former championship coach at Mt. Sac, would not be looking through the rule book to force a victory. And with all the rules in softball, there is plenty of room to play every game under protest. The rule that Alhambra broke was intended to level the playing field for visiting teams that sometimes have to travel a long distance and won't have time for pre-game batting practice. If the rule was intended to to help the visiting team, how can the CIF rule against the visiting team?

Duarte was a very strong favorite - ranked #4 - and the Alhambra girls beat them on the field, plain and simple. The broken rule had no effect on the outcome. It's not as if an inelligible player was used.


ES always spends too much time on Duarte girls softball....I will bet he sleeps at the school or is best friends with the head coach


Another example of people loving to make choices and then complaining about the consequences...or blaming the person who called them on their poor choice.

It's like that show Cheaters...where the person who gets caught cheating blames the person who they are cheating on for having them followed in the first place.

Hey, win it on the field....if I were you, I'd be more concerned about the message the Alhambra coach was giving to his girls about following rules...and the embarrassment associated with getting kicked out of the gotta go a long way to get the CIF to act on something.


So what you are saying is that there should not be rules and just let the teams decide it on the field?

Let switch this around. What if Alhambra saw that Duarte was holding batting practice and Alhambra got the decision overturned? Would you be complaining? Nope, you would be commending the coach on knowing the rule book.

I read the Pasadena Sun article and it stated that the Alhambra team was throwing the ball 5 feet from the plate. That's not kneeling to the side of the plate and tossing the ball up in the air to the batter.

I coach basketball and don't know a whole lot about softball but I will say this. My school once lost a game because a team we were playing used an ineligible player and we knew the player was ineligible. We told the referee and the other coach that the player was ineligible. The CIF found out that the player was ineligible and the other team had to forfeit that game.

A win is a win. When someone tries to cheat or bend the rules knowing what they are doing is wrong need to accept the consequences if they get caught.

The CIF did the right thing here. Does it suck for Alhambra girls, yes but the coach knew that he was breaking the rules.

Win it on the Field

The rule that Alhambra broke was meant to level the playing field for visiting teams. Alhambra was the visiting team in this game and the batting practice in question was with wiffle balls. Too bad Duarte had to stoop to this level. I'm sure other coaches with more class would have let the girls determine the outcome on the field instead of relying on technicalities to advance.


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