City 3-A Baseball Final : Venice Holds Off Palisades, Dolack, 8-5

Venice Coach Jeff Shimizu wanted to pitch Palisades’ John Dolack outside so Dolack couldn’t get “turned around on the ball” in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday.

After all, the last two times the Palisades junior catcher had gotten around on the ball in the game at Dodger Stadium, he had drilled it deep for home runs.

Venice reliever John Vega did pitch Dolack outside, forcing him to ground to Mike Sanders at shortstop. Sanders tossed the ball to John Higa for the force-out at second base, the final out of Venice’s 8-5 victory in the City 3-A baseball title game.

“The kid’s (Dolack) a great, great player,” said Shimizu after Venice had won the title for the second year in a row. “We knew that. But we just said we’re going to challenge him, and that was it. We couldn’t let his arms get extended, like he did before.”

Unfortunately for Palisades, Dolack’s three RBI’s were not enough in the wake of a six-run Venice third inning, brought on by walks and errors.

After Palisades had pushed two runs across in the second inning, Venice got a double from right fielder Carl Jackson to lead off the third. Colin Franker was intentionally walked, then Palisades pitcher Ted Kaye threw eight straight balls in walking John Barba and starting pitcher Chico Garcia. Jackson scored on Garcia’s walk.

Then, a single by catcher Bob Tomaselli scored Franker, an error on a fielder’s choice scored Barba and a single by Higa and an error on the play scored Garcia and Tomaselli.

“Everything went wrong,” Palisades Coach Jerry Marvin said. “We had so many walks. Our defense is very good, but when you get that many walks, it tends to break your defense down. Our defense broke down.”

Venice, which had scored in the second inning, got an insurance run in the fifth when Franker hit into a force out at second, scoring Higa. Palisades could only manage three hits off of relievers Dwayne Lortie and Vega after Garcia left in the fourth.

Dolack’s first home run, a line shot to left-center field, went four rows back over the 395-foot mark. In the 15 years that the City section has played its title game at Dodger Stadium, only two other players had hit home runs--Bob Grant for Westchester in 1976, and Darryl Strawberry, now of the New York Mets, for Crenshaw in 1980--and none had hit two in one game.

Dolack’s second homer, in the fifth inning, was to left field. But he had little to celebrate afterward.

“It’s so frustrating to be a catcher and catch all those walks,” Dolack said. “When I got up there (in the third inning), I felt like I should do something.”

It had been rumored earlier that Shimizu may be moving to coach at Santa Monica City college, where he is a counselor. Shimizu, who was a shortstop on the 1971 City champion Venice team, dispelled all rumors.”

“I think that I will have the team that I’ve been waiting for next year at Venice,” he said. “Yes, I’m definitely staying at Venice.”

Venice, the Western league champions, finished the year at 24-5. Palisades, which was third in the Western, finished at 19-6.