Sports

APTOS—Natalia Ackerman knows what it’s like to hoist a Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League and Central Coast Section Division III basketball title in a single season.  But that was so last season. The 6-foot-1 Aptos High senior forward has her eyes set on something bigger for...

• Last year’s record: 7-4 (Central Coast Section Open Division III qualifier) • Last year’s league record: 6-1 (Monterey Bay League Gabilan division runner-up) • Last year’s MaxPreps state ranking: 226th • Coach: Randy Blankenship • Key losses: Blake Wheeler;

The Aptos Mariners — battered and bruised by the end of the night — did their best Rocky Balboa impression, swinging away at the “big piece of meat” over and over again, but there was no fairy tale ending for the group of scrappy underdogs.