Sports DIGEST : Elway Comes Back to Play Baseball for Granada Hills

John Elway, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, will shed his football gear long enough to play in the Granada Hills High alumni baseball game today at 1 p.m at the Highlanders’ field.

When he played for Granada Hills in 1979, Elway was the City section’s most valuable player.

He hit .491 and had a 4-2 pitching record with a 1.33 earned run average. In leading the Highlanders to their fourth City baseball title in five years, he hit .692 in the playoffs and got the win over Crenshaw in the title game.

Elway continued his career, both in football and baseball, at Stanford University.

He signed a professional baseball contract with the New York Yankees out of Stanford, then played one summer in the Yankees’ minor league organization before going to the National Football League.

He led the Broncos to the championship of the American Football Conference’s Western Division last fall.

CSUN Women Face Doom

All-Americans Debbie Doom and Kathy Slaten, regarded as the premier women softball pitchers in the nation, will face each other today at Lady Matador Field in a double-header between UCLA and Cal State Northridge.

The games begin at noon and will be the only two meetings this season between the defending NCAA Division I and Division II national championship teams.

Doom, who pitched a perfect game Feb. 15 against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, will start the first game and teammate Tracy Compton will go in the second. Both women gained All-American recognition last year. They each have 3-0 records and spotless earned run averages in 21 innings this season. Doom’s 0.10 ERA was the best in the nation in Division I last year.

Slaten, who pitched her 14th career no-hitter earlier this season against Cal State Hayward en route to a 6-1 record, finished last season with a 39-7 mark. She led the nation in victories, shutouts (32), innings pitched (343), no-hitters (11) and strikeouts (478), while fashioning a 0.20 earned run average--fifth best in the nation in Division II.

“The three top pitchers in the country will be competing,” CSUN head Coach Gary Torgeson said. “I feel Slaten is right there, but they’ve got the 1-2 punch.”

The Lady Matadors, who go into the double-header with a 9-3 record, will send Del Anderson to the mound in the second game.

Moriel Swings UCLA Toward Win

Former Monroe High gymnasts David Moriel and Dan McCann helped UCLA win the UCLA/Times Gymnastics Invitational on Friday at Pauley Pavilion.

Moriel finished third on the high bar with a 9.9, tied for 14th on the parallel bars with a 9.2, tied for 25th on the pommel horse with an 8.75, finished 26th in the floor exercises with a 9.25. The freshman was 30th in all-around with a total of 37.10.

McCann finished 39th in all-around with 18.60. The sophomore tied for 21st on the high bar with a 9.5 and tied for 22nd on the vault with a 9.1.

UCLA won with 282.35 points, followed by Nebraska’s 281.60 and Arizona State’s 280.90. New Mexico was fourth with 279.70, Minnesota had 278.75 and Illinois had 274.85.

Charles Lakes of Illinois, who earned a 10.0 on the high bar, was the all-around champion.

Harvard Student Wins Fencing Title

Harvard High student Spense Thompson kept his opposition to the point and took a first-place in the Under-16 epee tournament at the U.S. Fencing Assn. Junior Olympics in Cleveland, Ohio.

Thompson went undefeated through eight rounds of epee competition and also made it to the finals in the foil competition. He finished 8th place in foil competition.

Fellow Harvard student Buck Robinson and John De Shazo also did well. Robinson reached the quarterfinals in the under-16 foil competition, while De Shazo tied for 18th in the under-16 saber.

Chris O’Loughlin, of Oakwood High, made it to the quarter-finals in both the under-20 foil and epee competition, while Alexander Smithline, also of Oakwood, reached direct elimination after three wins in preliminary competition.

Cal Lutheran Track at Westmont

Cal Lutheran’s track team travels to Westmont College today after posting its 94th and 95th straight dual meet victories two weeks ago against UC San Diego and Chapman College. The Kingsmen beat UCSD by 52 points and Chapman by 101.

Cal Lutheran’s Troy Kuretich qualified for the Nationals after winning the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.49. He also won the 200-meter dash in 22.37 and won the long jump with a leap of 23-2 1/2.