Injuries Making Stroh a Bit Sick

Darryl Stroh can’t seem to escape the injury bug.

“Today in my football class, a kid dislocated his finger,” said Stroh, the head baseball and football coach at Granada Hills High. “It just goes on and on.”

And Stroh’s frustration goes on and on.

The Highlander baseball team, the defending City 4-A champion, is off to its slowest start in years.

Granada Hills won its Mid-Valley League opener Tuesday against San Fernando, 10-1. While Stroh was pleased with the victory, he realizes he still has a lot of work to do. The Highlanders were 1-5 in scrimmages.

Key injuries, erratic defensive play and poor pitching were the main causes for the dismal preseason.

“It’s been very, very frustrating,” Stroh said. “It’s been frustrating not just for me, but for everybody.

“I’ve only had one start that was anywhere near this bad,” said Stroh, 46, who has coached the team since 1970. “That was in 1976. We lost all six of our practice games and were 1-6 in league.”

The Highlanders didn’t lose another game that season and won the City championship. It was one of five that Stroh has won at the school.

If Granada is to repeat that effort, several players will need to get healthy.

The Highlanders’ ace pitcher, Tony Beneduce, made his first appearance Tuesday in nearly two months. Stroh hopes the senior, who broke two fingers on his throwing hand in an auto accident, will be sharp by the first week of April.

“We were short of pitching to start with,” Stroh said. “Then we lost our best pitcher. We haven’t been able to really pitch effectively. That’s a big problem and, in turn, has caused many other problems.”

Bob Allen, an outfielder who bats cleanup, is out for at least another month. The junior broke his collarbone in football, then broke it again when he threw a baseball.

“He’s a key player,” Stroh said of Allen. “His loss has caused us to play people who aren’t ready to play.”

Greg Fowble, an all-City shortstop last season as a sophomore, has not recovered from tearing ligaments around his right ankle two months ago. Because of the injury, Stroh hasn’t been able to use Fowble as a backup pitcher.

All in all, the coach would prefer that the calendar today read Feb. 20, rather than March 20.

“I wish the league was a month away. I don’t feel good about it. We’re not in good shape. We’re not playing well.”

After the victory over San Fernando, he added: “It’s a good start, but (San Fernando) is not as strong as they have been the last few years. There are other teams around that will cause us trouble.”

Before the season began, Stroh figured Granada was one of the teams, if not the team, to beat in the Mid-Valley League. Now he says the Highlanders will be in a battle for third.

“The hitting has gone fairly well. It would be better if Allen was back,” the coach said. “We’ve scored runs, but lost games, 8-7, 9-8, 13-12.”

Stroh said his pitchers have given up far too many base on balls. “You just can’t walk two guys an inning,” he said.

“We have made some stupid mistakes and stupid errors.”

What type of errors?

“I don’t even want to mention them,” Stroh said. “Guys failing to go after the ball because there might be some contact.

“We’ve been very unaggressive, very tentative. I hate that.”

Despite the problems, Stroh is not about to give up on the Highlanders’ season. He’s hoping the team can make it through its first three league games in good shape, relax during the spring break, then come on strong.

“Yes, I think and I hope we can turn it around,” he said. “When the (injured) kids come back, if we play well, then. . . .

“But if they come back and we stink, then we stink.”

Pitcher Erik Strong is off to a 7-0 start for the Buckley baseball team. Strong’s earned run average is 2.03 and he has struck out 39 batters in 38 innings. He has walked just two batters.

Notes

Agoura’s Mr. Everything, Steve Armstrong, hasn’t slowed down a bit. Armstrong quarterbacked the Charger football team to its first Southern Section championship, then helped the basketball team reach the 2-A semifinals. Last Saturday, Armstrong pitched a complete game and allowed just two hits, but lost to Santa Clara, 1-0, in a Frontier League game. . . . Van Nuys’ Anthony Cook was named the East Valley League’s Player of the Year for the second straight season. Cook, who will attend the University of Arizona next season on a basketball scholarship, led the Wolves to a 10-0 record in league and the City 3-A semifinals. . . . The folks at Canyon and Hart are already talking about the teams getting together in September for the opener of the football season. The Cowboys and Indians figure to be two of the top teams in the area next season.