Kendra Salangsang of San Lorenzo Valley High School has been named Pitcher of the Year by Maxine Richards, wife of the late Santa Cruz County softball icon Wayne Richards.

San Lorenzo Valley High School athletes practice during the summer to keep sharp.

Fishing is good in Monterey Bay and the surrounding waters. Ocean fishing continues to host an array of opportunities, and freshwater fishing remains strong in the reservoirs of Central California. A local favorite and a great standby fishery is rockfish, as local boats continue to catch limits constantly.

“The state soil of New York is named for the place where a man lost his finger to a rattlesnake. The finger lays quiet in the ground,” writes Aimee Nezhukumatathil. “The snake’s great-great-grandsnakes still chitter through this soil.”

Raindrops on roses and clusters of cherries,

There are 384 Little Leagues in Northern California, which is considered a state by the national Little League organization. Of those 384 leagues, 330 fielded 10- and-11-year-old All-Star teams this year. After several dozen divisional and sectional tournaments in which only one team advances to the next bracket, just six teams in Northern California are left in the hunt for a state crown.