Women’s badminton

As the spring semester at Skyline College comes to a close so does our sports teams’ seasons. It is time to review how the women’s badminton and men’s baseball team did this season.

The women’s badminton team finished with a record of five wins and four losses in conference play. Coming up this Friday, May 4 and Saturday, May 5, they are scheduled to play in the Conference Finals in Fresno.

This is a tournament to decide which individuals qualify to play in the Individual State Championships in San Diego on May 11-12. Only the top 8 singles finishers and top 6 doubles team from this weekend will represent Northern California in San Diego.

“Our goals were to qualify as many individuals to the State Championship as possible. So we’ll know that on Saturday,” Head Coach Jan Fosberg responded via email.

The team was more focused on trying to accomplish these small goals to improve their play. Hopefully this will help them win in process.

“I feel like the entire team improved a great deal from the start of the season,” Fosberg said. “Skills and strategy have both improved.”

They went out this season to improve their skills to become more competitive and hopefully put themselves in a position to win. They did just that as Coach Fosberg continues, “They all improved on moving their opponents around the court in singles and attacking the shuttle when playing the front in doubles. Angelica Completo comes to mind as someone who gained a good understanding of those strategies.”

The team improved a lot on their doubles as well.

“The doubles teams of Lori Ng/Denise Trinh, Thiri Htun/Angelica Completo and Jastine Pagaduan/Elizabeth Voa- Phamhi are peaking as we enter post-season competition. They are improving upon ‘staying on the attack’ in doubles and setting each other up for smashes.” Fosberg said.

Fosberg spoke to the skills and strategy they improved on. “Reducing unforced errors and working together will be the key to success in the Conference Finals,” Fosberg said.

Men’s baseball

However the men’s baseball team struggled a bit as they finished with an overall record, including non-conference games, of 11-28. Their record in conference play was 7 wins and 11 loses and they finished in fourth place. “We underachieve, could have done better”, Head Coach Dino Nomicos said about his team’s performance.

Nomicos continued to say, “We could have done better as a whole. Sophomore and some freshman underachieved in every aspect. (Pitching, batting, fielding, etc) of the game.”

In the beginning of conference play, Skyline struggled and would go on to lose their first three series giving them an overall record, half way through, of three wins and six loses. This quality of play was due to “Youth and pitching,” said Pitching Coach Tony Brunicardi about the team.

“We lost 15 games in the lost two innings, because we were not able to close out games like we had too. Next year theme is to close out games. Next year theme is to close out games.” Nomicos said.

In the second half of conference play, they got four wins and five loses, but they were more in quality. As they would win two out of the next three series against Gavilan College and Hartnell College.

“Joey Pledger, Roman Enriquez were very good this year and probably make all conference,” as Nonicos said.

The award ceremony for men’s baseball is happening Wednesday night on May 2.