Prep Baseball SYLVESTER TOURNAMENT : Simi Valley Is Flat, but Still Has Enough to Flatten Utah, 10-5

Simi Valley High’s baseball team is good enough to win even when it’s “flat,” says its coach Mike Scyphers.

On Friday, it was a victorious pancake.

The Pioneers won their 18th straight by topping Pleasant Grove (Utah), 10-5, in the Greg Sylvester Memorial baseball tournament. In its three tournament games, the Pioneers have totaled 36 runs and 50 hits.

“We’ve played a lot of baseball this week,” Scyphers said. “Four games in the Monroe tournament and three games here. That’s seven games in five days.

“We didn’t perform that well today. We were flat compared to yesterday. We’re on a roller coaster but we’ll be up tomorrow.”

The 18 straight breaks a Ventura County record set by the 1981 Simi Valley team, which finished 20-3.

“We have a little, no, a lot this year,” Scyphers. “We have four excellent pitchers, a sound defense and 11 guys who can really hit the ball.”

Scyphers sent junior right-hander Todd Sullivan to the mound Friday. He allowed five runs, but with the kind of hitting that Simi Valley gets every game, five runs is not nearly enough to win.

In another power-hitting performance, the Pioneers belted out 14 hits in 34 at-bats.

The Pioneers will meet Cerritos at 1 p.m. today in a game that is essentially for the championship. Although total wins and runs count, Simi Valley is the only unbeaten team in the tournament. Cerritos is 2-1 after losing, 5-0, on a one-hitter Friday. Even if Simi Valley loses, both teams will be 3-1 and Simi Valley has already scored 36 runs.

In the game against Pleasant Grove, Simi Valley scored three runs in the top of the first inning and added three more in the third before coasting to the victory.

Singles by Dave Milstien and Mike Hankins preceded a triple by Mike Hankins, who scored on an infield out for the third run.

With two out in the third, Ralph Sheldon doubled in a pair of runs and scored on Regan Furcolo’s single.

The Pioneers added two more runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to close out the victory.

In the fifth, Chris Hale singled, stole second and scored on two consecutive passed balls. Sheldon singled, stole second and scored on Milstien’s double.

The next inning, Murphy and Eric Fisher singled. Murphy scored all the way from second on a wild pickoff attempt and Glenn Davis’ sacrifice fly scored the final run.