Prep Notebook JOHANNES TESSELAAR : Sylmar Slid Backward as Hiner Slid Forward

Two weeks ago, Sylmar High’s Joe Hiner took a step forward.

And the Spartans’ season took a step backward.

Hiner, Sylmar’s No. 1 pitcher, suffered a fractured right ankle and torn ankle ligaments when he stepped on home plate and slipped after scoring a run against Hollywood High.

The senior left-hander underwent surgery the day after the injury and will be in a cast for at least six weeks.

He is out for the season, unless, Sylmar Coach John Klitsner said, “a miracle occurs.”

What makes the loss of Hiner so frustrating to Klitsner is the way it happened. Sylmar was well on its way to a 20-2 victory over Hollywood when Hiner came home from second on a base hit.

“It wasn’t even a close play at the plate,” Klitsner said.

Before the injury, Hiner had compiled a 2-0 record, having struck out 12 batters in 14 innings. His earned run average was 4.00.

“It’s disappointing,” Klitsner said, “mostly so for the kid. He was a senior working real hard. He was committed to doing really well, so I really feel bad for him.”

Hiner, an all-East Valley League performer last season, was wearing plastic cleats when he crossed the plate and apparently hit a piece of ice.

At the time of the fall, Klitsner did not think the injury was too serious. He found out the bad news later that night.

The Spartans, 2-1 when Hiner got hurt, have won three straight games since his absence. Sylmar is 5-1 in league (one game behind Grant) heading into today’s game at home against Polytechnic.

“It hurts us,” Klitsner said of Hiner’s loss. “But there’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to try and replace him.”

With a 2-1 league record, Westlake’s baseball team has already won more Marmonte games than it did last year. Westlake won only two games the entire 1984 season, one in league. Mike McCurdy, in his first year at Westlake, has the Warriors at 7-5 heading into today’s game at Royal.

McCurdy had been the head coach at Beverly Hills High from 1981 to 1983. The Warriors’ most impressive outing may have been their 5-4 loss to Simi Valley. Westlake led the area’s top team, 3-1, going into the fifth inning.

Simi Valley has continued its torrid hitting pace. The Pioneers, 9-0 heading into Tuesday night’s game at El Segundo, have a team batting average of .453. Their 3-4-5 hitters--Shaun Murphy, Eric Fischer and Glen Davis--are hitting .500, .567 and .563, respectively, with a total of 54 runs batted in.

If that’s not bad enough for Simi’s opponents, the Pioneers’ team ERA is 2.89. One starter, Sean Harrigan, has an ERA of 4.52, but is 4-0. Harrigan has not allowed an earned run in his last 10 innings.

Camarillo suffered a 15-3 defeat to Simi Valley last week. Said Camarillo Coach Ken Wagner: “We’ve got a pretty good team, but that game showed us just how far we have to go. We bounced back pretty well and have had good practices ever since.”

The Scorpions beat Newbury Park, 8-2, in their next game.

Hart, which graduated 11 players off last year’s squad, is 4-0 in league after posting a 1-2 non-league record. The Indians have won the last three Foothill League titles.

Hart, which starts five sophomores and a freshman, has come back to win each of its league games this season. The Indians beat Burbank, 9-7, after trailing 6-0 in the second.

Hart then beat San Gabriel, 5-4, after trailing 4-2 in the fifth. The Indians followed that with a 6-5 victory over Alhambra. They trailed, 2-0, in that game after the first inning.

Against Burroughs on Tuesday, Hart held a 5-0 lead after three innings. Burroughs then scored five runs in the fifth inning. But sophomores Sheldon Sparks, David Lee and Jim Bonds had RBI singles in the seventh inning, as Hart scored three times and held on for an 8-6 win.

Alemany outfielder Sean Casey has seven hits this season, four of which are home runs. He also has 14 RBIs. Casey, a 6-3, 195-pound junior, was the Indians’ quarterback during the football season. . . Harvard’s Merritt Robinson, who hit .446 as a sophomore, is hitting .590 this season with five doubles, three home runs and 12 RBIs in eight games. Robinson is also 3-0 as a pitcher with a 2.80 ERA. . . . North Hollywood’s Peter Washington is batting .556 and has been walked 12 times in six games. . . Burbank pitcher Leif Christofferson, who was 17-0 in a Babe Ruth League this past summer, is 2-2 with a 3.12 ERA this season. The junior has 20 strike outs and 8 walks in 23 innings.

Is Greg Herrick, the basketball coach at Cleveland, on his way to Washington State for an assistant coach’s job?

“I have never discussed the possibility of going up there,” Herrick said in response to a report in a basketball newsletter that had him joining to the Pacific 10 school.

When Anthony Kidd joins Washington State next season, he’ll be the second player to come from Herrick’s program to play for the Cougars. Keith Morrison is the other one.

Would Herrick like a position at Washington State?

“If they were willing to talk, I’d be willing to listen,” he said.

Cheering for his son, Reggie Jr., isn’t the only thing Reggie Smith does while watching Montclair Prep baseball games this season.

Smith, who played 17 seasons in the major leagues, spent part of a Mounties’ recent game razzing L.A. Baptist Coach Bill Ball, who was manning the third-base coach’s box.

“Yeah,” said Ball, laughing, “he was trying to take my head out of the game. If he was coaching, I would do the same thing. It’s part of the game.”

Dick Lascola of the Scouting Evaluation Assn. doesn’t like it when a high school football player is deemed a “blue chipper.”

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t use that term,” Lascola said. “That would be reserved for somebody next to God.”

How then would he describe an outstanding player?

“Outstanding player is a good term,” he replied.