Centennial junior Tyler Burnes shot a 1-over-par 73 on Monday in the CIF Southern Cal Boys Golf Regional at Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena, finishing one stroke out of a playoff to determine the final state-championship qualifiers.

The top three teams and top nine individuals not on a qualifying team reach the state tournament, which is Wednesday. Burnes finished in a tie for 16th, needing a 72 to get into the playoff. He was at even par going to the 18th green, but he made bogey on the par-4.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Stockdale senior Blake Haney won't attend classes at Oregon until the fall, but his first valuable lesson came a few months early, on the track at Hayward Field on Saturday in the Prefontaine Classic.

Haney, with hopes of becoming the sixth American high schooler ever to break four minutes, ran a 4:10.41 in the International Mile, well behind the rest of a fast pack.

It was a successful finish to high school baseball careers for the Bakersfield Senior All-Stars Saturday night.

The 22-player squad representing 10 city schools overwhelmed the Central California Coast All-Stars 13-5 at Bakersfield College's Gerry Collis Field.

EUGENE, Ore. -- It's the fastest, and arguably the most prestigious, race of Blake Haney's budding running career.

He has the added pressure of trying to becoming the sixth high schooler in American history to break the legendary four-minute barrier in the mile.

The annual Senior High School All-Star Baseball Challenge will have a new look this season: Bakersfield All-Stars will take on a team from the Central Coast.

The game is set for 7:15 p.m. Saturday at Gerry Collis Field at Bakersfield College; player introductions will begin at 6:45.

CLOVIS -- Even for Blake Haney, winning the three longest races at the Central Section Track and Field Masters Championships at Veterans Memorial Stadium sounded difficult.

Turns out he had no idea.

VISALIA -- Everything was according to script for Golden Valley's baseball team Saturday except for one problem: Evan Sagariballa wasn't playing along.

Kerman shut out the Bulldogs 3-0 in the Central Section Division IV championship at Rawhide Ballpark, inducing a bases-loaded double play to end the game.

Caitlyn Emberson held the Central Section Division IV champion plaque high over her head while she and the rest of the Taft High softball team sang along to Queen's "We are the Champions."

The Wildcats celebrated their second straight section title on Friday, beating visiting Liberty-Madera Ranchos 6-0 in rematch of last year's D-IV championship game.

If there was any doubt as to how Centennial's softball game was going to approach its Central Section Division I softball final against Clovis-Buchanan on Friday, it disappeared with one mighty swing of Madison Aurin's bat.

Aurin crushed a long home run to left field to start the scoring, and host Centennial beat Buchanan 10-0 in a championship ended after five innings because of the 10-run mercy rule.

An overflow crowd spilled out of a room in Mira Monte's administrative offices on Thursday afternoon, but there was more than that.

Palpable joy and pride were in that room, too, because Braxton Huggins -- who had just become Mira Monte's first Division I-bound athlete -- was celebrating his signing to play basketball for New Mexico State.

Zach Ewing, The Californian's prep editor for the past five years, has been named sports editor, the company announced Thursday. Longtime hockey and motorsports writer Mike Griffith was named assistant sports editor.

Ewing, a native of Omaha, Neb., grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He covered Missouri football and baseball for the Columbia Missourian as an undergraduate.

Softball

Central Section playoffs

TAFT -- All season long the Taft High softball team has overwhelmed opponents with the stellar pitching of Arizona Pilgrim and an offensive attack that averages more than 11 runs a game.

It's been an unstoppable combination and it was once again on Wednesday, as the top-seeded Wildcats easily defeated No. 5 Fresno-Washington Union 9-2 to earn a third-straight trip to the Central Section Division IV championship game.

CLOVIS -- The bases were loaded, the ball was bound for the left-field grass and the scoreboard was poised to light up on Stockdale's side.

Then -- from out of left field and into left field -- Buchanan shortstop Sienna Swain came into the picture, extending her body to all 66 of its inches to dive and rob Stockdale's Aryka Chavez of a hit. When Swain made the catch, she snatched back momentum, and eventually victory, for host Buchanan, 7-3, on Wednesday in a Central Section Division I softball playoff semifinal.

When teams capitalize on clutch hitting, it dramatically increases their winning chances.

When teams struggle in that department, it can be a long day.

The biggest question mark Friday night was how Cal State Bakersfield would play the day after the players learned their coach was retiring at the end of the season.

"You don't know what's going to happen in that situation," said CSUB coach Bill Kernen after the Roadrunners routed New Mexico State 13-1.

Baseball

Garces 12, East 7

Jared Handel tossed six solid innings, allowing just four hits and striking out six to lead Ridgeview to a 6-2 victory over South on Friday.

"Jared threw the ball really well today," said Ridgeview coach Jason Hunsaker. "He threw strikes and kept them off balance. He played simple baseball."

Baseball

Stockdale 15, Bakersfield 5

Several of Kern County's top high school football programs look like they're moving in with tougher competition after the Central Section this week released tentative playoff division movements for fall sports.

Garces, which is already joining the rough-and-tumble Southwest Yosemite League, is slated for a move up to Division I. That would mean every team in the SWYL competes in Division I.