Prep Notebook : Simi Surprise: .471 Team Batting Average

Mike Scyphers, the baseball coach at Simi Valley High, knew his team would score some runs this season.

But 80 runs in the first six games?

“Obviously,” the coach said, “it’s been a big surprise.”

Scyphers is in his seventh year at the helm of the Pioneers and has had hot hitting clubs in the past. But he has never had a group like the class of ’85.

“We’ve got a pretty tough lineup, one through nine,” Scyphers said. “There’s no sure out. We have eight guys hitting over .350. It seems like if someone at the top isn’t doing it, then someone at the bottom is.”

The Pioneers, 6-0 this season, are batting .471 as a team and have scored at least eight runs in each of their games.

They opened the season with a 32-4 victory over Canoga Park, setting school records for most runs and most hits (26) in a single game.

Last weekend, Simi Valley won the prestigious El Segundo tournament, routing the host school, 12-3, in the championship game. Simi Valley went 5-0 in the tournament that featured such teams as Long Beach Poly (ranked No. 1 in the 4-A division’s preseason poll), Edison (ranked No. 2 in the 4-A), El Segundo (No. 4 in the 3-A) and Cerritos (No. 8 in the 3-A).

In order, the Pioneers defeated Miraleste, 8-0; Banning, 9-7; Edison, 9-3; Crespi, 10-7, and El Segundo, 12-3.

Glen Davis was named the tournament’s most valuable player, and the senior has been the hottest Simi hitter so far.

Davis, the starting catcher, has 15 hits in 22 at-bats for a .682 average. His four doubles and two home runs have helped him accumulate 17 RBIs. The school record for a season is 30 RBIs by Len Arbizo in 1980, so Davis is well on his way to making history.

But he may not even be the team leader at season’s end.

Shaun Murphy, the center fielder, has 15 RBIs and is batting .600. Eric Fischer, a 6-4 first baseman, has 10 hits in 19 at-bats (.526) and 13 RBIs. And Dave Milstien is hitting .524 in 21 at-bats.

Despite all their offense, the Pioneers are not one-dimensional.

“This is probably the best defensive team I’ve ever had,” Scyphers said.

The Pioneers have three “excellent” outfielders, according to the coach.

“Murphy runs like a deer. Chris Hale, the right fielder, is the probably the fastest guy on the team and Regan Furcolo, the left fielder, is probably the steadiest of the three,” Scyphers added.

Joining Fischer on the right side of the infield is second baseman Tom Sullivan. At short is Milstien and at third is Mike Hankins.

Hankins and Milstien switched positions this season after both started as sophomores last year.

Pitcher Todd Sullivan is 3-0 with one save and a 1.61 earned run average. Sean Harrigan, 5-5 last year, is 2-0, while reliever Scott Radinsky is 1-0 and has two saves.

The Pioneers went 16-10 last season, finishing fourth in the Marmonte League with a 6-6 record. It marked only the second time during Scyphers’ tenure that the Pioneers did not make the Southern Section playoffs.

League play begins Friday at Channel Islands for the Pioneers, whose top challenger for the Marmonte League crown figures to be Camarillo.

Camarillo was ranked ninth in the 4-A preseason poll, while Simi Valley was unranked. But the Pioneers’ El Segundo tournament title could catapult them to No. 1 by April 1, when the next poll is conducted.

“I would think we’d have to be in the top four,” Scyphers said.

But the coach does not appear to be worried about how his team will be ranked. He would like Simi fist to win the league title, then do well in the playoffs.

“One thing about this team is that they know how to win,” Scyphers said. “A nucleus of the this team won the Pony League World Series two years ago. As 14-year-old kids, they learned how to play under pressure real quick.”

It’s quite apparent they also learned how to hit.

With the basketball season over, it’s time for the final--and first, for that matter--Top 10 poll of Valley teams:

1--Cleveland (22-2), 2--Van Nuys (21-3), 3--Crespi (16-8), 4--Alemany (18-8), 5--Granada Hills (15-6), 6--Kennedy (14-8), 7--Reseda (16-6), 8--Camarillo (19-6), 9--Burbank (19-5), 10--Montclair Prep (23-2).

Basketball leftovers: Some of the more noteworthy events of the 1984-85 basketball campaign in the Valley.

--Best game: Banning 81, Cleveland 80. For non-stop action and pure athletic ability, nothing could match this City quarterfinal game. It was exciting to watch Banning’s Eric Cooper and Joe Johnson practically leap out of the Cleveland gym and Cleveland’s Trevor Wilson display his considerable talents.

Runner-up: The first Crespi-Alemany game. David Djolakian dominated the first half, James Moses the second. But Crespi’s Brian Capp and Joe Campanella hit just enough jumpers from near the Encino borderline to give Crespi a 70-67 win.

--Best performance: Cleveland’s Trevor Wilson against Banning. The 6-7 junior scored 40 points and grabbed 20 rebounds.

--Best shot: Hart’s Kevin Honaker against Burbank. With time running out in the first half against Burbank, the Hart guard heaved the ball in from 75 feet away. Runner-up: Hart’s Kevin Honaker against Burbank. With time running out in the game, the Hart guard made one from the half-court line. Despite Honaker’s heroics, the Bulldogs won.

--Most Honest Comment: Harvard Coach David Waterhouse, regarding his team being in Pioneer League with Morningside and Centennial: “I’m not even going to scout them. . . . I see no point in scouting them. We don’t have much of a prayer against them.”

Harvard lost to Centennial, 63-32 and 68-47, and to Morningside, 74-38 and 76-31. Morningside went on to win the Southern Section’s 3-A championship.

Notes

Nancy Bowman, the coach of the Westlake’s girls basketball team, has resigned to concentrate on her duties as chairwoman of the school’s science department. . . .

The University of Santa Clara apparently has the inside track for the services of Cleveland guard Tyrone Mitchell. Cavalier Coach Greg Herrick said Mitchell will probably make a decision in two weeks. . . .

Agoura’s boy’s soccer team lost in the Southern Section’s 1-A championship game, 2-0, to Valley Christian of Cerritos on Saturday at Gahr High. In the girls’ 3-A title game, Simi Valley suffered its first loss of the season, 1-0, to La Quinta. Simi Valley finished the season at 24-1-2. . . .

Chatsworth’s volleyball team, the defending City champion, won the Dos Pueblos Tournament last week by defeating Palisades, 15-4.