Plate Appearances

GLENDALE — The Glendale Community College baseball team had a taste of what it was like to win last season. This season, the Vaqueros want to savor more of the same. Last season’s 23-21 record was the winningest mark thus far in Coach Chris Cicuto’s four-year tenure and was a shot in the arm for a program that won just nine games the year before. There’s still room for improvement, however, as the Vaqueros finished eight games below .500 in the Western State Conference and fell short of their playoff goal.

BASEBALL B urroughs 9, Arcadia 6 : The Indians scored seven runs in the top of the seventh inning Tuesday to earn a win against host Apaches, who were undefeated in the Pacific League. Burroughs (6-7, 2-2 in league) sent 11 batters to the plate in the seventh. Shane Murphy led off the inning with a double and also had a single in the frame. A.J. Dupre had a two-run double and Cale Hamilton had a run-scoring single in the seventh. Burroughs vs. Upland (doubleheader )

MCCAMBRIDGE PARK ? In a colossal showdown that pitted the area?s, the Pacific League?s and CIF Southern Section Division III?s best softball teams, it was a game that lived up to the hype. And, fittingly, it was a game that came down to the best against the best. In the top of the seventh inning of a scoreless stalemate, Crescenta Valley High standout slugger Baillie Kirker stepped into the batter?s box to face Burbank ace Kristin Peraza. What followed was a dramatic nine-pitch at-bat that ended with Kirker pulling a double to the left-field fence, leading to the only run of Crescenta Valley?

FREDDY SANCHEZ (Burbank High; third baseman; Pittsburgh Pirates): The former Bulldog and Glendale Community College star is getting his share of playing time in his first full season in the major leagues. The 27-year-old infielder has been steady on offense and has impressed many with his defensive skills. At the plate, he is hitting .278 (66 for 237) with 12 doubles, two triples and a home run in 79 games. He also has driven in 18 runs, scored 21 runs and walked 14 times.

Freddy Sanchez remembers where he was when he watched Kirk Gibson's home run in the 1988 World Series. He reminisces about the days when his dad, Fred, would take him to Dodger games, sit in the pavilion and watch their heroes play. Those were the memories he savored as a kid. Now a mature 28-year-old, Sanchez couldn't help but have the same giddy emotions when he returned to Dodger Stadium as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. "I've played at Yankee Stadium, I've played at Fenway Park and I've played at Wrigley Field," said Sanchez, a 1996 Burbank High graduate who attended Glendale Community College in 1997-98.

Jeff Tully Last season, there were questions whether Jeff Cirillo and Freddy Sanchez would be playing with major league baseball clubs for the 2005 campaign. And it was a longshot at best that the two would both be playing on Opening Day. However, not only were the two suited up for Opening Day festivities Monday, but the former local standouts were competing against one another, as Cirillo's Milwaukee Brewers took on Sanchez's Pittsburgh Pirates.

Burbank softball team places fifth in World Series : An under-10 softball team from Burbank achieved a monumental task by advancing to the National Softball Assn. World Series. Competing against all-star teams, the Superior Babes — a squad made up entirely of Burbank players — finished fifth in the tournament last week an Reno. In an opening-round game, the Superior Babes drew the No. 1 seed, the Washington Acers, and fell, 5-1. It was another tough result in the second game for the locals, as they fell to the No. 3-seeded Central California Dirt Dogs, 4-1. Burbank came back blazing in the next game, however, beating the Sunnyvale Wicked, 2-1, to advance into the winner’s bracket.

LA CRESCENTTA — As the reigning league champion and front-runner heading into Tuesday's games, the Burroughs High softball team has made it clear that the Pacific League title will go through the Indians this season. On Tuesday, however, they made a stop in Crescenta Valley, which now holds a few more cards in its quest to knock off the Indians after a 5-2 win that pulled the two teams into a first-place tie with four games left. "Burroughs has a great team, and any time you're playing a great team you have to step up and it's the little things that win the game for you," said Crescenta Valley Coach Dan Berry, whose team bounced back from an 8-2 defeat in the teams' first meeting March 31. It was a variety of things, some big — a pair of two-run home runs — and some little, like a run-saving defensive play by Crescenta Valley late in the game, followed by one fateful Indians pitch that was never intended to be anywhere near the strike zone, that swung the game in favor of the Falcons, and the league title back into play.