Field Notes

Exciting New Improvements – Construction

What’s going on at the ballpark?

As we prepare for another season of Arden Little League baseball, the league is taking steps to further improve safety and spectator viewing pleasure. On January 16th, the league Board of Directors met to discuss and approve plans for modifications to our facilities. The proposed modifications were approved, and you can now see construction has already begun.

Don’t worry, we have the commitment from all parties that the work will be complete before games begin and that practice time will not be restricted due to the work. The safety of all our players will also be our primary concern, so construction times and proper marking of work zones will be will be top-of-mind to avoid any risks to the players.

Important Note: During try-outs on January 31 and February 6, please use the double gates on the 3rd base and 1st base fence lines to enter the Red diamond. Please DO NOT try and enter through the dugout areas.

The safety of players and fans is at the heart of this project. In addition, expanding the use of batting cages and bullpens will also benefit from these improvements. The following is a summary of the key updates you will see developing over the coming weeks:

• Reconfiguring dugouts on both Red and Blue — they will be longer and wider and allow for integrated shade panels on top.  They will also have two openings to the field as opposed to just one.
• Bleachers will be moved in towards home plate as the dugouts move out and down the lines.  We are also trying to double the seating capacity on the Red diamond.
• We will raise the fence height for safety down the foul lines on Red from 10 to 16 feet.
• We will build a safety screen for pitchers warming up on Red.
• Expand the batting cage into two separate cages to allow for two batters at a time.
• Rebuild the practice pitching mounds and make them bigger on the Red diamond.
• Rebuild the practice mound on Blue diamond.

We hope you enjoy these new improvements. Personally, I really like the idea of not having to try and look around the dugouts to see the game.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about the project at: info@ardenlittleleague.com.

Week in Review – May 25, 2009

May 19, 2009

Majors

REDS 3 GIANTS 2

• TRAILING 2-1 IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 6TH INNING, THE REDS CAME BACK AND SCORED TWO RUNS TO WIN.
• TOMMY KNAPP HAD THE GAME-WINNING DOUBLE FOR THE REDS
• WITH THE WIN, THE REDS FINISH THE 2ND HALF AT 5-1 AND HAVE THE INSIDE TRACK TO EARNING THE SECOND SPOT IN THE ARDEN LITTLE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP AGAINST THE ROCKIES (WINNERS OF THE FIRST HALF)

Week in Review – May 18, 2009

May 17, 2009

Majors

1ST Half Champions: ROCKIES

ROCKIES 17 GIANTS 3

• Rockies score 10 runs in the second inning and finish as first half champions with a 7-1 record.
• Max Buzzard pitched his first complete game of the season.

May 16, 2009

Majors

REDS 7 RED SOX 3

ROCKIES 2 GIANTS 1

• GAME ENDS WITH A TAGOUT PLAY AT HOME PLATE.

RANGERS 13 RAYS 9

• A.J. HOANG HITS A 3-RUN SHOT FOR HIS 4TH OF THE SEASON AS THE RANGERS TAKE TWO OF THREE FROM THE RAYS. SHAUN DHILLON ALSO HAD A HOMERUN AND LEADS THE MAJOR DIVISION WITH FIVE, INCLUDING FOUR IN HIS LAST THREE GAMES PLAYED.

May 14, 2009

Majors

REDS 5 ROCKIES 3

• The Reds scored all of their five runs in the first two innings and held on for a big win over the Rockies. The Rockies had their shot, but left five players on base in the 5th and 6th innings.  Andrew Wiesenfarth picked up the victory for the Reds.

May 13, 2009

Majors

RAYS 3 GIANTS 0

• Shaun Dhillon pitched a 3-hitter and added two homeruns in his first two at-bats. Dhillon now has registered four homeruns on the season.

May 12, 2009

Majors

RANGERS 11 RED SOX 3

• Two homeruns hit by A.J. Hoang. Hoang also had a double to go along with 6 RBI. Hoang is now tied with Taylor Avakian of the GIANTS for the homerun lead. Both players have three on the season.

Week in Review – May 11, 2009

Saturday, May 9th

Majors

GIANTS 4 RANGERS 3

REDS 7 RED SOX 3

ROCKIES 8 RAYS 4 (Game was suspended in the top of the 6th inning)

• Shaun Dhillon hit his second homerun of the season. Down 4-0, ROCKIES scored three runs in the 5th inning and five runs in the 6th inning to take 8-4 lead before game was stopped.

Thursday, May 7th

Majors

RAYS over the REDS

Wednesday, May 6th

Majors

ROCKIES 5 RANGERS 1

• Max Buzzard, Marco Petrucci, and David Cloninger combined on a 3-hitter.

Monday, May 5th

Majors

GIANTS 12 RED SOX 0

• Taylor Avakian hit his 3RD homerun of the season.

Week in Review – May 4, 2009

Saturday, May 2nd

RANGERS 14 RAYS 3

• Rangers produced a 7-run, 2-out 4th inning to break away from the RAYS. Jake Keaton picked up the victory on the mound for the RANGERS.

Thursday, April 30th

RAYS 7 RANGERS 5

• Shaun Dhillon picked up the win for the RAYS, but Bailey Wegener did have his first home run of the season for the RANGERS.

Tuesday, April 28th

ROCKIES 10 RED SOX 3

• Marco Petrucci and David Cloninger combine for two-hitter

May 5, 2009 – Forecast brightens:

May 5th the Rain delay appears to be over: Play Ball!

Week in Review – April 27, 2009

Majors

TUESDAY: RAYS 5 GIANTS 1

• Shaun Dhillon pitched for another win.

WEDNESDAY: RANGERS 11 RED SOX 0

THURSDAY: ROCKIES 2 REDS 1

• Marco Petrucci pitched a complete game 69-pitch, 12-strikeout game.
• Ethan Brown and Tommy Knapp of the REDS pitched a no-hitter.
• But lost the game on a throwing error to third base in an attempted rundown that scored two runs for the ROCKIES in the 5th inning.

FRIDAY:

• RAYS 9 RED SOX 4 — Shaun Dhillon hit his first homerun of the season.
• REDS 8 RANGERS 1 — Ethan Brown had a double and triple in this game.
• GIANTS 4 ROCKIES 0 — Taylor Avakian struck out 11 batters for the victory.

Week in Review – April 20, 2009

Visit our new Standings page for a listing of Wins & Losses.

Highlights

Majors

Congratulations to Auston Chastain who hit his first home run of the season Saturday April 18th.

ROCKIES 3 RAYS 2 (Saturday April 18, 2009): The Rockies handed the Rays their first loss of the season with a comeback victory. Down 2-0, the Rockies inched their way back to the game and got the game-winning RBI from Max Buzzard. Buzzard also was the winning pitcher, allowing two hits and striking out seven batters.

RED SOX 11 REDS 9 (Saturday April 18, 2009): The Red Sox got their first win of the season. (If anyone has a game summary for this game please use the Comments area below or send it to us at ardenlittleleague@gmail.com)

RANGERS 4 GIANTS 2 (Saturday April 18, 2009): A.J. Hoang hit a home run as the Rangers picked up a big win against the Giants.

RAYS 8 REDS 3 (Thursday, April 16, 2009): 3-3 until the 5th inning when the RAYS scored one run in the 5th inning and added four more in the 6th inning to stay undefeated at 5-0.

ROCKIES 20 RANGERS 7 (Tuesday, April 14, 2009): Rockies bang out 17 hits.

GIANTS 7, RED SOX 0 (Wednesday, April 15, 2009): Taylor Avakian hits his 2nd homerun of the season.

Juniors

A’s (Saturday, April 18, 2009): The Juniors, fresh off their first win of the season lost to the Rosemont Dodgers. Geoff Luoma and Toph Buzzard combined on the mound.

A’s 12 Cubs 0 (Thursday, April 16, 2009): The JUNIOR A’S picked up their first win of the season by beating the EASTERN CUBS, 12-0. The game was stopped after five innings due to the 10-run rule. The A’S had lost to the CUBS 8-1 in their first meeting. The A’s are now 1-3 with two games that still need to be completed. Matt Straka went the distance for the A’s. Their next game is scheduled for Saturday, April 18th against Rosemont with first pitch at 10 a.m. at Arden’s Valley Oaks White Field.

Arden Little League featured in local sports show

The SureWest Sports Show featured a short segment on Arden Little League recently. The show currently airs on SureWest cable channel 702, but can also be seen online on SureWestSports.com. The show features Mike Finnerty as the host and includes a variety of highlights, interviews with players and coaches, a trivia question, local sports writers as guests contributors to the show, and honors the top boy’s and girl’s athletes with a Players of the Week feature. The SureWest Sports Show brings a much needed focus on sporting events and achievements within the local communities of the Greater Sacramento region. To make the show different than other shows seen in the area, the show also includes coverage of youth sports.

To watch the video, click the “Number 7 – 04/06/09″ video on the “Watch the Show” page. The segment is about 8 minutes into the show.

Week in Review – April 06, 2009

Another week of play is in the books. Here are the latest standings and a few notes and highlights.

Majors

• Rays: 4-0
• Rockies: 2-1
• Giants: 2-1
• Reds: 2-2
• Rangers: 1-3
• Red Sox: 0-4

NOTE: Saturday’s scheduled game between the Rockies-Giants had to be re-scheduled (DATE: TBA)

Farm

Spencer Nitsos from the Yankees turned not one, but two, unassisted double plays in the span of three games last week. Way to go, Spencer!

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