HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL TOURNAMENTS : HOLT-GOODMAN : Venice Fells Two Giants to Win Title

They came, they played three of the Valley area’s best baseball teams, and they left--with the Holt-Goodman tournament championship trophy.

Venice High did to Granada Hills what it had done to Simi Valley and Hart before, beating The Times’ No. 2-ranked Highlanders, 8-2, Tuesday to capture its first title in the 16-year history of the tournament.

The defending City 3-A champion Gondoliers, behind competent pitching, 11 hits and almost flawless defense, took advantage of Granada Hills’ weaknesses--pitching, and, oddly, fielding and hitting.

“We knew we didn’t have great pitching,” said a steaming Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh after the game. “But we thought we might hit the ball.”

The Highlanders, normally an excellent hitting team, had seven hits--all but one at the wrong time. Greg Fowble hit a solo homer in the third inning and scored on a wild pitch in the fifth. That was the extent of the Granada Hills offense. The team stranded nine base runners.

Venice (4-0) had no such production problems. It’s biggest producer--and smallest player--junior Roger Serrafin was 3 for 4. Serrafin--who was an all-league defensive back for the Venice football team--singled, tripled and homered. He scored twice and had two runs batted in.

“Considering his size, he can really play,” Venice Coach Jeff Shimizu said. Serrafin’s two-run homer in the second proved to be the game-winner.

Defensively, Granada Hills (2-1) allowed two runs because of errors. If that weren’t enough bad luck for the Highlanders, Dean Yoshitani grounded out to third with the bases loaded and two out in the fifth--without swinging the bat.

As Yoshitani attempt to duck an errant pitch, the ball bounced off his bat. The ball rolled to third base where John Camacho handled it and made the putout to end the inning.

Venice has beaten No. 2 Granada Hills, No. 1 Kennedy, No. 3 Hart and No. 5 Simi Valley.

Earlier, Granada Hills had to come from behind in the seventh inning to beat Chatsworth, 3-2, to earn the title game. In that game, Yoshitani scored the winning run from third when George DeMaris grounded out. Venice earned its right to the finale by beating Hart, 3-1, in a Tuesday semifinal.

When Simi Valley took the field Tuesday against Grant, two of the most highly touted pitchers in the area went head to head--Scott Radinsky for Simi Valley and Grant’s Rodney Beck.

Radinsky won the pitching duel and Simi Valley won the game, 16-0, tagging Beck for 18 hits before he was pulled. The Pioneers had 23 hits, and Radinsky, in recording his fourth victory, had 12 strikeouts. He hasn’t given up an earned run in 28 innings.

Mike Hankins was 5 for 5 with 3 RBIs for Simi Valley (9-3) and teammate Corey Aurand was 4 for 4, scoring five runs. Shortstop Dave Milstien was 3 for 4 and scored three times for the Pioneers.

Simi Valley went on to beat Poly, 11-10, for fifth place in the tournament. Earlier, Poly beat Notre Dame, 7-2.

Hart scored in each of the first five innings against Chatsworth en route to a 16-4 win and third place in the tournament. Hart had 14 hits, 12 of them singles, as it improved its overall record to 10-3.

In the consolation semifinal, San Fernando beat Sylmar, 10-5, earning the right to play Birmingham, which beat the Tigers, 3-1, for the consolation championship.