A chance at a championship

The West Anaheim under10 Bobby All-Stars have been riding a hot streak lately, one they hope will carry them to a national championship. They qualified for the national championships, which begin with opening ceremonies this weekend in Buena Park, with a 6-S win in their regional qualifying tournament championship game in La Mirada. Hot was anapproriate term to describe the team then as well. We were playing a game at noon, and then at two o clock, said coach B ill Rivera about the La Mirada tournament. The sun was beating down and they only had a chance to get a quick rest and drink of water before they started again. Playing in those conditions required a deep team, and Rivera said that helped carry them through the tournament. Everyone (Hi this team contributed, he said. Everyone played their roles and handled themselves really well. Rivera said one of the secrets to the team s success is that the players have been ey finish each other s sentences and sometimes have the same responses in unison to questions. The team has been pushing to play the league s under-12 All Star team, but hasn t been able to schedule a game yet. The under-10 team thinks its older counterparts have been ducking them. The under-10 team seems to think that 'the under-12 team would be much more of a challenge than a team of boys. Boys can t play softball as good as girls can. Rivera thinks having three weeks of between the regional tournament and the national championship will be good. They were really excited after they won, but I think that s worn off a little bit and they re But I m sure they ll be nervous come the first game. As will Rivera. The coaching staff tracked pitches in practice to see who threw the most strikes to decide who would be the pitchers. Rivera s daughter Karina was one of the ones selected. Nowuse my daughter s up there pitching, he said. In its regional championship win over Rancho Santa Margarita, West Anaheim built a 6-0 lead going into the last inning, only to see it be whitled away to 6-S, when Kelly Lopez made a stab at a line drive to end the game. Rivera said winning a national championship would mean a lot for the league. You can advertise that you have a national champion, the girls talk to their friends and get them to play, it s all great, he said. The players don t really care that much about what winning the national championship would mean for the league. They just know what it would mean to them. I don t know what I d do if we won, said Stephanie Hunter of La Palma. I had probably faint right on the field. Anaheim continued to battle through the loser s bracket by beating up on Los Alamitos. Loveless had a double, whiel Sellars, Hogue, Rodriguez, Deleon, Warden, BelangeAnaheim. AUTORAQNG Butch Gilliland of Anaheim finished 12th at the Winston West Kidde Safety 200 at Pikes Peak International Raceway near Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sunday. Gilliland earned $6,564 for the race, giving him a total of 552,550 through 10 races. However, Gilliland fell to fourth in the Winston West series standings. Last year s series champion, Gilliland has 1307 points, 13 behind third place Kelly Tanner and 337 behind points leader Harvi The Stars won all six games in the tournament, defeating state and regional champions from Northern California, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico and Arizona to reach the finals. They won the championship with a 1-0 win over the Colorado Nike Rush. The Stars outscored their opponents 23-2 during the tournament and did not allow in goal in four of the six