Hanford Insider: Superior Dairy update & a Hanford West state championship!

SPEAKER_02 0:00

On

Welcome To The Hanford Insider

SPEAKER_02 0:01

this episode of The Hanford Insider, we get an insider's look into the restoration of Superior Dairy with Jacob and Andy Zonneveld. Rob will give you a look at some of this week's community events, and I'll be back with a recap of Hanford West softball's state title run. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, June 8th.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Each week we spotlight the people, events, and ideas shaping Hanford and Kings County, sharing the positive stories that bring our community together. I'm your host, Rob Bentley, so let's get things started.

Crackdown On Illegal Fireworks

SPEAKER_01 0:59

In community news this week, the Hanford City Council met last week and discussed the campaign to silence illegal fireworks this Independence Day. There'll be drone enforcements and fines up to ten thousand dollars for those who get caught using illegal fireworks this year. We'll have Chief Perkins on the show in two weeks to go over the It's Not Worth It campaign. For a complete recap of the meeting, visit the City of Hanford website at Hanford.city. At this week's Thursday Night Marketplace, it's Navy Appreciation Night, honoring NAS Lamore with a special flyover. Musical be provided by John Pemberton and the Shotgun Riders. Now

This Week’s Hanford Community Calendar

SPEAKER_01 1:41

let's take a look at this week's community calendar. On Tuesday, June 9th, Councilwoman Kember Reagan and the Hanford City Manager Chris Tavares will be holding the next Council Connect at 5.30 p.m. at 107 West 7th Street. The Department of Parks and Community Services has announced their lineup of Summer Movies in the Park. This Friday, June 12th is the first one of the season in the Civic Park. The movie Hoppers will be shown at dusk. On Saturday, June 13th, the Patty Dance Studio will take the stage at the Hanford Fox Theater at 6 p.m. For tickets and information, visit FoxHamford.com. The annual Juneteenth Festival will be held at the Longfield Center on Friday, June 19th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There'll be live performances, food vendors, arts and crafts, and special presenters. The City of Hanford's Freedom Fest and Fireworks Show will be held on Saturday, July 4th at the Hanford Softball Complex on Centennial Drive behind Sierra Pacific High School. The festival will be held from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and the fireworks show will begin at 9 15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online through Eventbrite. There's also special VIP seating and parking packages available. Contact the city at 559-585-2525 for more information. If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. It's the most comprehensive community calendar available.

Why Superior Dairy Is Historic

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Superior Dairy is a cultural landmark in Hanford since 1929, and it's a rare surviving example of the classic American dairy and soda fountain. Founded in 1922 by Justin Bowden, the dairy milk operation opened the ice cream shop in 1929, and yet despite the Great Depression, it survived. The Zonneveld family is a multi-generational dairy farming family based in the Leighton area, with roots in the local dairy industry going back three generations. In March 2025, they became the new owners of the iconic Superior Dairy Products after purchasing the historic business and property. The family actually had interest in buying Superior Dairy even before it officially went on the market in late 2024. Their background in dairy farming made the acquisition feel like a natural fit because of Superior's historic connection to milk production and handmade ice cream. And today we're fortunate to have on the show Andy Zonneveld and Jacob Zonneveld. Welcome to the show, guys. Thanks. Thanks for having us. Well, we are definitely glad to have you here because we've heard so much about what's happening at Superior Dairy. We've seen the trailer in the park, and we know that a lot is going on behind the scenes. And the purpose of today's interview is to kind of take a peek behind the paper and see what's going on and uh what we have to look forward to. So

Why The Zonnevelds Bought It

SPEAKER_01 4:54

let's start with you, Jacob. Uh, why is this so important to your family? You've obviously a big investment. Uh it's close to your heart with the farming industry, but why is it so important to your family?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

So our families always had discussions around, you know, how do we expand our business? And we've always been pretty into vertical integration. Um and our dad started, you know, expanding the dairy operations through farming and supplying feed to our cattle. So we grow most of our own feed uh that we supply to our herd. Um then we produce milk, and currently we ship that milk to Lando Lake. So it's always been a discussion of hey, you know, it'd be pretty cool if we can close that loop and start making dairy products ourselves. And um part of that, I went to school for dairy processing and worked for craft for a while to try to, you know, learn how that process goes and get experience in the industry and came back to work at the dairy and had further discussions of what that might look like. And we've always kind of been, hey, you know what, superior. We grew up going there and we love the place, and they'd be the perfect size to get in and do something like that and learn the business and grow it. So we've always had our eyes on the business, and we've even reached out and tried, you know, to purchase it before. And then when it finally came on the market, we decided, hey, this really fits, you know, what we want to do from a business, and it fits our values as a family. And we have ties here in the community, and we love, you know, the hospitality industry and meeting with people and food and that sense of community that brings. So uh just really fit our desires of a family, and that's why we decided to work together to move forward on that.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

And we're especially relieved that the buyers are a local agricultural family rather than an outside investment group. I think that says a lot.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, we we grew up going there after church on Sundays, we'd we'd go get ice cream Sundays, or you know, as far as like school events or or different events, we'd go with friends uh after sports and and have ice cream. And even our parents, when they were younger, I have stories of my mom. Like when they finally got a paycheck, they'd go buy a three-gallon tub of banana ice cream and take it home and eat it for the next two weeks. So it's it's always been a place in our heart. And uh I think there's a lot of families in the community that feel that way. And the fact that we can preserve that for them, there's there's nothing more we want than to preserve this for the community and make it an awesome experience for whoever comes and visits. Um, so that they they talk about and they come back and they share that story with other people as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

So

Restoring The Look And Feel

SPEAKER_01 7:43

now that you've gotten to work on the interior, put the paper up, you're working behind the scenes. We've seen the trucks out on 9th Street. What kind of things have you discovered? This is for both of you. I'm sure you've got stories to tell already.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, I'll I'll start off and then Andy can add to that. But uh, you know, it's it's a hundred-year-old building almost. Uh, so we knew from due diligence and everything else that there's gonna be a lot of work that had to be done. And um, you know, we're trying to do this as you know more of a restoration than a you know a redesign. We really want to preserve the building for what people remember it to be. But part of that is you can't just, you know, replace some booths or, you know, replace some floor. Once you dig in, there's a lot of things that are required from a code standpoint and everything else to where it really needs to be redone completely and it needs to be redone right so that'll last another hundred years for people to be able to enjoy. So we're trying to preserve the same styling from the era. So we've worked with uh DLB design in Viselia and really trying to preserve something that looks of the era, and we're preserving the tin ceiling, we're preserving the lighting, we're preserving the pink booths. So all those things that people remember, like we're trying to make that dine dine-in area as similar to what it was, but updating it and uh making the fixtures and finishes something that'll last and something that accommodates the business as well, so we can make sure that it's efficient and that it's going to continue to run uh well for the long future, right? So if you got anything to add to that.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

No, not much. I mean, you asked about the building and when we went in there. I mean, we got together as a as a cousin team and went and started our own little demo and started going into the attic and finding all the old artifacts that you know, hey, look at this, look what we see here. We found their old cartons that they're where they used to, all the different things they used to make, right? They're all tucked away. And you know, we started tearing down some of the walls the other day and we found some newspaper that's used as insulation for the night the 50s, right? And that was interesting. We open it up, and so okay, what is what what you what's the date on there? Okay, what was going on then? And it's post-World War II type of deal, right? So I don't know. It was it was fun to go through there and and just see what we could find. I mean, a lot of old glassware and superior dairy branded mugs and cups and stuff from different decades. So a lot of that stuff we have preserved. So it's yeah, it's been fun to go through.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

And while some of those things are cool, it also, you know, that's the reason why it needs to be updated. You can't be having that kind of a structure that's not gonna last another hundred years, right? So, but whenever we find things like that or artifacts, we've been saving those, you know, we've become a little more hoarders than we used to, just because we're we're sure. Throw it out. No, no, no, don't throw that out. Don't throw that out. Uh we should probably save it just in case, you know, because it's uh such an important memory to so many people. And I know there's a lot of people in the community too that have offered uh historical artifacts and stuff. So we're planning to have, you know, a section in the building too where we can display some of those things so that people can remember, you know. We're not trying to take this over and make it about us. We're trying to preserve, you know, the historical landmark that superior is in any way we can do that, and any way we can tell a story and preserve those things. Uh, I think that's what we're gonna try to do.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

So

Demo Surprises And Code Upgrades

SPEAKER_01 11:38

how far did you have to? I'm gonna say let's dig into it, but I mean, how to get this infrastructure in, uh, all this work that has to be done, how far did you have to go in the demolition process?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, so I mean, we did not think that we would have to do like a complete demo of the building, but once we got inside, there was some concrete work that was pretty patchy. Plumbing that's leaking everywhere. Um, so yeah, even the bathrooms stopped working because there was tree roots growing into the plumbing. Yeah. Off of ninth, yeah, those trees there just found their way into the some of the yeah. So really from a structural standpoint, you can't just patch that kind of a thing. So, and from ADA, all those different things, you gotta do it right. So, sloping and uh all that accessibility, yeah. Accessibility. So we're pretty much starting from the ground up. We're keeping, I mean, all the existing beam structures and trusses and all the roofing and all the brick walls and all that kind of stuff. That all remains, and we're restoring that. And I think our design has a really cool way of uh you know enhancing and showing that in the new new design, which is pretty cool. Most of that's in the back half of the building where the takeout area kind of is, but we're gonna expand that a little bit so that people can kind of see the building in its raw form for what it is. And I think uh the interior designer really did a good job of enhancing that. Uh, and I think people really appreciate that space.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

So, in general, how would you say things are going with your contractors in the city?

Permits, Contractors, And The Trailer

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Uh, you know, you had to get a lot of approvals, uh, different historical resources permits. How is that whole process going?

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah, I mean, it's any construction project's gonna run into you know road blocks that you have to maneuver and work around. But for the most part, I think things have been going pretty well. I don't really have any complaints.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

As far as us looking at a project like this, I mean, we work on farms, I mean, we we fix stuff, we we we build stuff too for a living, right? We we we build barns and other structures for our cows and whatnot and go through a permit process and deal with the county, mostly Fresno County and the other side over there in Leighton. And uh yeah, it's so you know, going through a process isn't as to us, it maybe isn't isn't all that daunting. It's just hoops to jump through and work to do. That's pretty much what it is. So it's been fine. Yeah, it's been it's been all right. There's a couple speed bumps here and there, but nothing we can't get over.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Yeah, and the I mean the city and parks has been accommodating. You see the trailer across.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask you about.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, yeah. So we do have plans to move our trailer back inside once some of that concrete work is done. But until then, they've worked with us to be in the park, which is a nice setting for the trailer. So we're very appreciative of that. Yeah, no, I mean they're normal permitting and processes, right? Every city's got them, and you got to follow through on all of them, and him and we've been working well together on that.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

You mentioned earlier the area, the takeout area is gonna be expanded, and there'll be tributes to uh the history of Superior Dairy.

Takeout Expansion And Outdoor Seating

SPEAKER_01 15:06

And I'm curious if you could kind of give us a little insight into what it might look like when the completion, uh, when it comes to completion, as they come in the front door, is there gonna be like an expanded dining area? What kind of things are are you gonna have in the in the new building?

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Yeah, so we wanted to preserve, I'll just briefly talk about the dine-in first. We wanted to preserve the dine-in as what it was because people appreciate that space. And they love having the classic, you know, glassware and the SOS and the different things that you can really only get from a dine-in experience. But we also wanted to create a new space for takeout that was more than just grab your stuff and go. So the back half of the that back, I guess it would be three quarters of the front half of the building. We're gonna have an expanded area, which is more like a takeout slash fast casual. So it'll be more like compostable materials, but you'll be able to go up and order food and ice cream, and it'll have seating for people on that side as well, um, for if they want to sit down and dine.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Has there been any thought given to uh outdoor dining, maybe some benches or table set out that you're able to set out on Dowdy Street?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah. So we're currently going through uh sidewalk um encroachment. What do they call that? Encroachment permit. Um, so we have a whole outdoor seating design that's been and that will be part of it. Um, because we'll actually in that back area, we'll also have the ability to walk in and out with uh kind of like bifold doors.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Like almost like a glass garage door. Oh, well, yeah, I've seen those. Yeah. That would be that would be on the library side on 9th Avenue, and that's where we plan to have the seating. You mentioned Dowdy, but it'll be on the library side on 9th, yeah. That makes more sense. Yeah, a little bit more room. So the front is gonna be, you know, the preserve, the traditional look at Superior Dairy. That'll it'll it'll be preserved the same way.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

So in the back, you had mentioned uh again the takeout counter and the little wall of history, as it were. And there's another new space you had talked about previously, too, uh kind of like a meeting room or party room, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

That's part of the bat the new takeout area. It would just be like a glass, maybe in door enclosure where you can kind of fold some glass uh doors around if you wanted to close off an area for a meeting room for a coffee group or uh a kid's birthday party or something, or try to provide uh a a quiet space for someone that they want to, you know, reserve and uh yeah, something a little different than uh everyone sitting in there being loud, they want a little a quieter spot.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

So it's it's in that same area, but it's a flex space that allows you to close it off or not close it off. If you know nobody's reserving the area, we'd like people to have more space to dine. So it's kind of a flex space that allows for both uses.

Preserving Artifacts And Telling History

SPEAKER_01 18:16

So going back to the history part of the building, and this is something that we had just finished discussing, in that air back area of Superior Dairy that we really only saw if we were lucky enough to visit the restaurants. That space has a lot of history products that they used to make and and sell there, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:37

I guess maybe we can take a walkthrough, like a visual walkthrough if people remember. You know, they would go, you would enter either on Dowdy, right? And that would be the dining area that my that what Jacob was talking about. And then there was a side door there on a ninth on the library side, and then there was the takeout counter right there, and you could order. Well, when you walk through those doors, those two big doors to go to the bathroom, right? That area now is gonna be part of the expanded restaurant. Now there was another set of doors back there that went into our warehouse. I'm gonna call it the warehouse area, right? So yeah, so that warehouse area in the back, no one really ever went into that. And that's where we make the ice cream and have some storage space and have chillers and compressors and all kinds of other things to keep the ice cream cold.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

So that space uh through those next double doors that goes into our warehouse area and our ice cream freezer and ice cream manufacturing area. Back in the day, that combined with some of the space where the current restrooms are, you know, I used to make all kinds of different dairy products: chocolate milk, fluid milk, cottage cheese, sour cream, buttermilk. And it was actually pretty impressive. They would have, I think, 55 local stores. I did a lot of uh newspaper article research uh when we uh took over the place because I think it's fascinating, all the historical value. I'm like, man, this used to be a pretty cool local company that was pretty expansive with home delivery and uh fleet of at least eight delivery trucks, all kinds of stuff. So um, as part of that like historical uh display, you know, we want to gather some of those items, you know, newspaper clippings and old uh, you know, milk cans. And some of those will be integrated into the design, actually. Like we have a milk can wall that we're gonna paint some milk cans, and it has the names of old dairies that they used to pick up milk from. And and they would just take these cans, pass them to the wall, dump them into a pasteurizer, right? And pasteurize milk for fluid milk and bottling and all that kind of stuff too. So so that'll be kind of cool in that back area. We're still trying to figure out where that historical display would go, you know. Is it these little islands where, you know, it's kind of in that takeout area where you can walk around a glass case, you know. But in the future, there's there's other phases of like expanding the ice cream production and allowing people to be able to see that. And as part of that area, there'll be like a hallway where we can display, you know, pictures on the wall. We can line the hallway with glass cases that can show some of those old processing equipment, some of the old bottles and and uh carts and that kind of a thing. Some of the stuff we found in the attic when we cleaned it out. Right. We even have like old inventory logs, handwritten things for like the the boudins, old, you know, a lot of cool stuff that I think people would appreciate seeing. Um, and then yeah, then they can see firsthand, you know, how we make ice cream and what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

So

A Bigger Menu And Dairy Vision

SPEAKER_01 21:46

getting back to the front of the restaurant, because it is a restaurant and not only serves ice cream, but it's going to be serving food. And we, you know, we have those tuna sandwiches that everybody's wanting. But uh, you kind of have a vision for The menu uh that is going to eventually develop into these products. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Yeah, we do. So as part of the renovation, there was never really like a full kitchen in the existing building. It was mostly cold sandwiches. They had some soups and that kind of a thing, and you know, chips and whatnot. So we were like, you know, let's preserve a lot of those menu items that people appreciate and have those available because people still love going in and getting the tuna. They love going in and getting the egg, salad sandwich. Um, but we also wanted to, you know, expand the menu with some hot items. So the new restaurant will have a full kitchen with, you know, charbroiler, griddle, deep fryers, stove, all that kind of stuff, so that, you know, we can slowly expand the menu uh based on people's tastes. But, you know, we're imagining something where you can get a burger, you can get French fries, you know, you may be able to get a steak sandwich, you know, and something also where it's like, hey, you know, how can we display dairy products in these foods? We're dairy family, right? And and we display and and show the ice cream in the restaurant, but why can't you do that with, you know, cheese or sour cream or uh, you know, other dairy products? So those are that's kind of our vision for what the restaurant looks like and and kind of how we approach it as a farm to table aspect um that I think people appreciate.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

As you mentioned that it it is superior dairy products plural. So, you know, you go into that, you know, we have a vision to expand the dairy products into something else. I mean, superior is known for its ice cream, but why can't it be known for a great cheese or or different products? Like Jacob had mentioned different cottage cheese are real hot right now. People love cottage cheese, um, you know, and different things. And and Jacob mentioned this at the beginning is he has you know a degree in this. He he he has a passion for dairy products, he worked for a big company learning how to do it the right way, right? And so why can't we do it? Right? Why can't we put the effort into making superior do more than just ice cream? So I think that'd be a vision for the restaurant too, to have value added to it where, hey, you ordered a burger and it has superior cheese on it that they made, or something like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:26

And when we're still working on a lot of that stuff. As I

How Superior Makes Ice Cream

SPEAKER_01 24:30

was getting ready for this interview, I asked some of my listeners uh questions, you know, what questions would you have for the Zonavelts? And one of the questions that came up, and we get this all the time the ice cream, has it always been made in back or was it ever outsourced? What's this what's the story on that?

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah, so we've always manufactured the ice cream flavors uh in the back. So currently Trevor Rose works for us and he's our ice cream maker, and uh he makes all the flavors, and that's also what allows us to do all the seasonal flavors that people like and the new ones that we've come up with. So, like right now we've got burgundy cherry, uh soon we'll be coming out with the peach, right? Those are all recipes that have been passed down for the longest time. And uh it also gives us opportunity to create some fun new ones like pistachio chip that that people like, yeah. Right. So uh yeah, definitely ice creams made in the back of house. We fill cartons and tubs out there, um, and we're trying to figure out ways to be able to expand offerings as far as like different sizes because we get a lot of interest in people wanting uh like pre-packaged five, six-ounce containers for you know, events or parties or schools or so we're working through you know equipment to be able to handle that type of a thing as well, to be able to expand offerings and and also expand different types of flavors, right? Like who doesn't love a peanut butter swirl and an ice cream? You know, so looking at what are ways that we can, you know, develop our manufacturing to allow for that type of a thing.

Restaurant Partners And Retail Reality

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Another question that comes up often is you know, we used to be able to go to the grocery store and buy the ice cream in the in the prepacks, but I noticed some restaurants in town are proudly announcing that they're serving Superior Dairy ice cream. What kind of partnerships do you have with the local restaurants for that?

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yeah, so there's quite a few local restaurants. You know, some of our biggest supporters are uh Java Heaven. Um, you know, Mickey Stoddard sells a lot through the Rolling Cones as well. Uh, we do ice cream through Toshicos. We even ship uh ice cream all the way up to Clovis Hospital, and they serve it to their patients there as well. So we have quite a bit of food service customers. And I think from a retail standpoint, you know, it's it's a balance of volume capacity and price, right? So distributorships and retailers are pretty aggressive. Um, and we need to make sure it makes sense with our overall business plan and our margins because we need to maintain profitability as well as a business. So as a cousin group, we've discussed that back and forth of, you know, do we do that now? Do we wait? What does that look like? So I'm not saying we're not ever going to be in retail or what retail looks like, but those are things that we're still working through.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

That grocery store thing's dog eat dog. It's it is, you know, it's I know people would love to have it back, but you know, we we did have a family friend that buys for grocery stores, not not in this area up and actually in Modesto area, and we kind of reached reached out to him and talked to him a little bit and kind of got the lay of the land. And okay, we let's get the store going first, right? Before we jump in through another couple hoops here. So uh definitely concentrating on the on the store and the rest the restaurant and the restoration of the place.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yeah, we want to get that back up and going as soon as we as soon as we can. Um, and then we've got lots of plans beyond that, but that's the focus right now.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

And I think the community honestly appreciates that. I know people get impatient and they, you know, they when are you gonna open? You know, and then they they want it like by 4th of July, they want you to be open. And uh it's not that easy. And uh I think the community definitely supports you, and I think they are gonna get behind you when you say that you want this building to last another hundred years or more. And uh I I think that that's so important. And just on behalf of the community, um, I want to thank you for what you've done and what you will continue to do uh in the future for generations. As you said, you have the fourth generation working in the trader, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty special. So

Reopening Timeline And What’s Next

SPEAKER_01 28:52

uh it's a multi-phase project, obviously. Uh you can't open the whole thing. So, what what kind of timeline do you think this looks like? I know you found some surprises uh in the initial demolition, but if you were to venture to say, you know, will we see Superior Dairy open in 2026, 27? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Yeah, so I mean we have a close working relationship with our uh contractor, which is Square One Development out of Vicelia. And their estimates, you know, right now, you know, it's gonna be at least a year from now. So, you know, our goal is to try to get you know the doors open in some capacity, right? There could be soft openings, whatever that looks like, you know, just to get customers or not customers, but our kitchen and staff prepared and all that kind of stuff for you know summer of next year. So that's the goal.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Yeah, and I think your social media is great. Um, the people that operate your Instagram, Facebook pages, they're really good at updating the community as to what flavors you have, where the trailer is gonna be located today, kind of thing. And I think that if people follow you on social media, they'll kind of buy into it, they'll feel like the oh, this is you know gonna be so exciting, and they'll they'll be able to stop in and grab an ice cream cone from the trailer when it's there, or you know, uh when you get closer to opening the doors, I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of momentum built there. So for sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Yeah, we appreciate all the community support for sure. Uh we know the experience isn't the same being in the trailer, but the ice cream's the same and it still tastes good. We we appreciate everybody coming by and and supporting us um as we try to you know get this project completed.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

A follow-up on that, people have been asking about the 48, the the container. We do sell those in the trailer. So whoever's listening to this, you spread the word out there and let everyone know we still sell those there.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

So come and pick up your guys. Hey, this has been great, and uh we cannot wait, just like so many people are anxious all over the state of California and beyond for the reopening of Superior Dairy to in-seat dining and ice cream. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

And now

Hanford West Softball Wins State

SPEAKER_02 31:12

it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley. After recording last week's show, the Hanford West softball team was selected as the four-seed in the so-called D3 state playoff bracket. Looking to bounce back after defeat in the section championship, the Huskies did so in a major way at home in Tuesday's first-round matchup, obliterating five-seed Eagle Rock of Los Angeles 19-1 in five innings. The Huskies would play at home again in Thursday's semifinal game, thanks to their opponent, eight-seed Mission College Preps first-round upset over one-seed Helix. The Royals from San Luis Obispo kept their momentum rolling early, leading three to one after two innings of play, but the Huskies would put up a four-spot in the third and hold off a late Mission College Prep rally to secure the five to four win and a berth in the state championship game. A matchup with two-seed Helix meant the four-seed Huskies had to make the trek down to San Diego for Saturday's clash, and despite having to leave Hanford at 6 a.m. on game day morning, the Huskies arrived ready to play, taking a 3-0 lead before the Scotties even came to the plate. Leading 5-3 after five innings, Hanford West was able to tack on some valuable insurance runs in the sixth and seventh en route to the 8-4 state championship win. Most of the damage in the game offensively was done by Erica Hernandez and Addison Owens as the duo combined to knock in seven of the eight Huskies runs, while Rylan Montoya relied on the defense behind her in the circle, scattering ten hits, walking four, allowing four runs in the win. It was a roller coaster of a season for the Hanford West softball team, who had an early season six-game winning streak, a mid-season five-game skid, and a five-game win streak snapped in the section championship game, now ending on the highest of highs, three wins in a row in the state playoffs and a state title coming back to Hanford. A big congratulations to the Hanford West softball team on their Division III SoCal State title. As always, if you have a score report or a team update for any team in any sport at any level, you can let us know by emailing HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

And that

Next Week Preview And Support Links

SPEAKER_01 33:38

wraps things up for this week's show. Tune in next week to hear an update from the Hanford Police Department on the ways in which they're enforcing and educating the public about the new e-bike and e-scooter regulations. If you're enjoying this podcast and want to support it, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com forward slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. Or you can Venmo me directly. To stay connected, join the Hanford Insider email list at HanfordInsider.com. You'll get weekly updates plus an exclusive newsletter delivered right to your inbox. I'd also really appreciate your help spreading the word about the show by liking and sharing on social media, or like most people, just tell in a friend. You can follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Tex, and YouTube at Hanford Insider for more content and updates. And if you've got a show idea, I'd love to hear it. Send me an email at Hamford Insider at gmail dot com and I'll look into it. Thanks for listening to the Hamford Insider Podcast. Have a great week.