By Ron Vrooman
The Alhambra Moors, winners of nine straight going into their Division 6 semifinal game against St. Bonaventure, finally met their match in the Seraphs on Thursday. The Seraphs scored single runs in the first and fifth innings, and pitcher Ashlyn Flinchum did the rest, throwing a two-hit shutout to defeat the Moors, 2-0.
The victory sent St. Bonaventure (19-6) to the division championship game next Saturday. The Seraphs’ opponent will be Orange Vista (17-4), which beat Lompoc, 6-0, in the other semifinal matchup.
Despite the playoff loss, 2021 was a historic season for the Alhambra varsity. First-year head coach Gilbert Ramos and assistant Christine Valenzuela took a team which went 1-4 in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season and led it to its best record in decades or—possibly—ever. The Moors won an Almont League co-championship with the Schurr Spartans and ended up with an overall mark of 16-2, surpassing their 15-win seasons in 2016 and 2018.
Junior right-hander Hailey Yoshida was the Moors’ pitching ace, and their leading run-producers were senior shortstop Priscilla Hernandez, senior catcher Celeste Cortez, and Yoshida.
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@ Congrats: You’re way too kind; it’s all about the program as far as I’m concerned. I’m not even going to touch the “engineered pandemic” thing, but perhaps we’ll be pretty much back to normal by this fall.
I hope the AHS football and softball programs can continue to build on their recent successes. It should also be mentioned that the boys’ basketball and baseball teams made the playoffs during this difficult spring.
It’s always great to see programs have breakout seasons, and doing so in the midst of the engineered pandemic makes it even more noteworthy. Shout-out also to our longtime buddy Ron Vrooman for his matchless prose….I can see a Pulitzer on the horizon.