Outs

LA CRESCENTA - In Tuesday afternoon's CIF Southern Section Division III softball wild-card outing, Crescenta Valley High came out swinging and so too did Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. Problem for the host Falcons was, the Knights were sending line drives into the outfield, while the Falcons countered by swinging at bad balls out of the zone. It amounted to a four-run deficit for CV after an inning that ultimately set the tone throughout the Falcons' season-ending 9-4 loss to Notre Dame.

PASADENA - Both coaches had to laud the play of Crespi second baseman Vince Leoni when reflecting back on Friday's Mission League game between the St. Francis High and Crespi baseball teams. St. Francis' Tei Vanderford sliced a blooping line drive that looked like it was going to sail just over Leoni's head at second base, but he made a nice over-the-shoulder catch and quickly doubled up the Golden Knights' runner at second base. Leoni's play stranded a runner at third and preserved Crespi's one-run lead in the bottom of the fifth.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE ? Two outs were all that separated the Hoover High baseball team from the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division I tournament. Two outs too many. Visiting Arlington of Riverside rallied for two runs with one out in the top of the seventh inning to edge past Hoover in a 4-3 nailbiter in a wild-card game Tuesday afternoon at Hoover High. "Our kids played with a lot of heart and a lot of desire. That's all I asked of them before the game, to come out, play with heart and play to their potential, and I got it," said Hoover Coach Jim Delzell, whose team ended its season at 14-10 after a third-place Pacific League finish.

Hamlet Nalbandyan Kirsten Slouber is the new girl on the team, but the 15-year-old just might be the person to take the Glendale Senior Softball team to its second consecutive World Series championship. The reigning title holders had no problem moving into the championship game of the Little League Section 2 Tournament, all thanks to Slouber's dominance in the circle and the stellar defense behind her. Glendale, the District 16 representative, beat District 17's San Marino, 2-0, Sunday at Montrose Park as Slouber tossed a no-hitter.

BURBANK — At this point, Crescenta Valley High pitcher Nate Rousey might be the last guy the Burbank baseball team wants to see on the mound. The sophomore right-hander beat the Bulldogs for the second time this season on Tuesday afternoon, allowing one run on four hits over seven innings to lead the Falcons to an 8-1 Pacific League victory at Burbank. “I was just trying to get ahead in the count and let the defense work for me,” said Rousey, who received plenty of run support from Troy Mulcahey and Elliott Surrey, who both went four for four with a combined seven runs batted in. The win was Crescenta Valley’s 12th in its last 13 league games since dropping its league opener to Burroughs on March 23. The Falcons’ only loss in that span came to Arcadia, which clinched the league title on Tuesday with its win over Glendale.

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — It took a while for the Flintridge Prep softball team to get a feel for the timing of Providence starting pitcher Natalie Kasbarian. Once it did, the result was a five-run sixth inning, as the Rebels broke open a tie ballgame. That outburst was just enough to withstand a furious seventh-inning comeback attempt by the Pioneers, who fell one run short in the Rebels' 9-8 nonleague win on Friday afternoon at Flintridge Prep. "These girls have been working real hard, and what I like is that it was a total team effort," Rebels Coach Julie Jaime said.

TUJUNGA — After the bizarre ways in which several scoring opportunities were snuffed out early in Friday's District 16 9-10 Baseball All-Star Tournament game, anything seemed possible. Still, when the Vaquero All-Stars saw their best opportunity to overtake the Tujunga All-Stars abruptly ended by a triple play, the general reaction was one of stunned bewilderment in the moments following a 3-2 first-round loss at Tujunga Little League Fields. "That's never happened to us — not this year at least," said Vaquero Coach Hector Nuñez.

LA MIRADA — While it's hard to say that one play won or lost the game, it was one play that turned the tide against the Crescenta Valley Major Baseball All-Stars. The play was a groundball in the fifth inning hit directly to Crescenta Valley second baseman Corey Tavizon, who attempted to tag the Claremont runner on his way to second base. The umpire ruled there was no tag applied and the inning continued with no outs and two runners on base. Claremont would use the boost to score five runs in the frame and hold on for a 9-3 victory in the winner's bracket of the North Sub-Divisional on Tuesday in La Mirada.

The Crescenta Valley High varsity baseball team earned the right to play in the 41st annual Babe Herman Tournament championship game with a 2-1 victory over South Hills in a National Division game at Stengel Field on Tuesday night. The victory was the Falcons' 12th straight to up their overall mark to 12-0. A loss would have created a tie between four teams and caused some confusion. Something that Falcons' Coach Phil Torres wanted to avoid. The Falcon squad made sure that their coach would not have to worry about anything as good pitching and a couple of early runs were enough to defeat the top-seeded team in CIF Southern Section Division III. Pitcher Dustin Emmons improved to 5-0 with a solid performance, giving up only one run and allowing South Hills just five hits in six-and-two-thirds innings.

ALHAMBRA ? Saturday just wasn't the Tornadoes' day. It proved to be the Moors of Alhambra's day, however, as they defeated the visiting Hoover High baseball team in the Arcadia Elks Tournament final, 6-0, effectively wrestling away the championship from last year's titlist at Alhambra High's Moor Field. It came as the Moors (4-0) made the most of seven hits and five walks, while the duo of Joey Blanco and tournament Most Valuable Player Cesar Martinez combined to allow just two Hoover hits.

This is the third in a four part series exploring the impacts of heroin use on the greater Glendale area. On a Friday morning at the New Way Foundation rehab facility in Burbank, 20 men slowly crowd into a room. The stark white walls are covered in motivational posters. The blue door swings back and they sit down. Their offenses are varied. For some it's alcohol, for others heroin. For a few, cocaine or meth. Their backgrounds are varied too: They're Armenian, Indian, Latino, biracial and white.

For the first time since 2008, the Crescenta Valley High baseball team captured the Pacific League championship this season. The last time that happened was also the last time the Falcons (20-7) advanced past the first round of the playoffs. Whether or not history repeats itself this season will depend on how well the Falcons match up with Tustin, which visits Stengel Field at 4:15 p.m. today for a CIF Southern Section Division II first-round game. The first key, according to Falcons senior right fielder Troy Mulcahey, a veteran of the last three CV teams, is to approach the game with an appropriate level of focus and urgency.

LA CRESCENTA - In Tuesday afternoon's CIF Southern Section Division III softball wild-card outing, Crescenta Valley High came out swinging and so too did Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. Problem for the host Falcons was, the Knights were sending line drives into the outfield, while the Falcons countered by swinging at bad balls out of the zone. It amounted to a four-run deficit for CV after an inning that ultimately set the tone throughout the Falcons' season-ending 9-4 loss to Notre Dame.

ARCADIA — Having played the Apaches already this season, the Pasadena Poly boys' tennis team entered Friday's CIF Southern Section Division II second-round match armed with some firsthand experience against unbeaten Arcadia High. In the end it served less as a scouting report and more as a tool of prediction, as the Panthers fell by an identical 12-6 score the second time around on the third-seeded Apaches' home courts. "We were missing a couple players today, but the kids who played very well," said Poly Coach Howie Farer, who was without two of his starting doubles players due to family commitments.

Faced with an intimidating No. 2 seed on the road in its playoff opener, the St. Francis High boys' volleyball team didn't get off to the best of starts Tuesday night. And even though the Golden Knights rebounded to give host Esperanza pause in the second game of their CIF Southern Section Division I opener, the Aztecs finished off the job with a 25-13, 25-19, 25-15 sweep. "I would say their reputation, first," Golden Knights Coach Mark Frazee said when asked what spooked his team.

About 80 workers protested outside an AT&T dispatching facility in Glendale Thursday that was sparked, union leaders say, when a female technician refused to remove a union button she was wearing at work. AT&T and its union workers are in contract negotiations and one of the main sticking points is healthcare coverage, said T Santora, president of Communication Workers of America, Local 9003. In the last round of negotiations, workers agreed to pay 18% of their premiums, but the company now wants them to pay much more, Santora said.

It came down to a battle among senior services, Armenian nonprofits and a family counseling center as the City Council divvied up a smaller pool of federal grants Tuesday. In the end, senior services won. Every year, the city gets funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help pay for community social services that address the underserved. For fiscal year 2012-13, funding was cut 35%, leaving the city with just $296,000 despite having received nearly two dozen requests totaling about $1 million.

PASADENA — Both the St. Francis High and Pasadena Poly boys' volleyball team are headed to the same place — the CIF Southern Section playoffs. But Wednesday's nonleague tuneup match between the teams showed the Golden Knights' engine to be running pretty smoothly, while the Panthers may yet need some tinkering under the hood, as their struggles down the stretch of the campaign persisted. St. Francis seemed to catch Poly in a daze in the first game and although the Panthers recovered to make stands in the subsequent stanzas, the Golden Knights were still able to complete the sweep, 25-16, 25-18, 25-21, in the regular-season finale for both teams.

PASADENA - Throughout the regular season, Emile Ohanyan proved he could compete with many of the best players in the Pacific League. Now, the Hoover High boys' tennis player is looking to do the same in the league tournament. Ohanyan passed his first two tests Monday afternoon at Pasadena High, winning his first two sets to advance to the semifinals. Ohanyan, the fourth seed, started off with a 6-1, 6-1 win against 13th seeded Charbel El Khouri of Pasadena and then netted a shortened 5-1 second-round win against fifth-seeded Michael Whelan of Burroughs.

LA CRESCENTA - In its bid to climb back into the Pacific League title chase, the Crescenta Valley High softball team took a giant step with a 6-3 victory over Burbank, one of two teams along with Burroughs that the Falcons trailed going into Friday's games. The most telling tally behind the final score was the error count, 4-2, in favor of host Crescenta Valley, which did surrender an unearned run in the top of the second, but overall fared much better in the field that the Bulldogs.