Radinsky Was Struck Out by Tournament Officials

Moments after beating Boone High, 12-2, for the championship of the Colonial High baseball tournament in Orlando, Fla., the Simi Valley team and Coach Mike Scyphers gathered for the awards ceremony.

It was supposed to be anti-climactic.

It wasn’t.

Simi Valley went 4-0 to win the 16-team tournament over the weekend and did place pitcher Scott Radinsky and second baseman Von Herron on the all-tournament team.

Radinsky, who set a tournament record with 28 strikeouts in two complete games, was also named the tournament’s outstanding pitcher following Saturday night’s final victory.

But Scyphers thought the senior left-hander deserved more. The most valuable player award, to be precise.

“Take Scott off our team and we don’t win the tournament,” Scyphers said.

Instead, the MVP award went to Greg Blackman of Gonzalez-Tate in Pensacola, Fla. Blackman hit five home runs to lead his team, which was 3-2 in the tournament and finished in a tie for fifth place.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the player,” Scyphers said. “But when you drop into the losers’ bracket and have to play doubleheaders, pitching gets thin.

“He was hitting against second-line pitching. I would have liked to have seen him against some of the outstanding pitching in the tournament.”

Radinsky’s credentials: In 13 innings, he allowed four hits, two earned runs and struck out 28 to improve his record to 6-1.

Enough, in Scyphers’ opinion, to merit the MVP award.

According to Scyphers, a member of the tournament selection committee said Blackman was picked because he played in each of his team’s games, while Radinsky appeared only twice.

Said Scyphers: “I could see if Blackman got his team to the finals and faced us and maybe got a couple hits off Scott then, even if we won, he would get the award.

“But if the kid is the MVP, he would have gotten his team to the finals.”

As such, it came as a big surprise when the selections were announced.

“We were all hyped up, feeling good about ourselves,” Scyphers said. “Everybody in the park assumed Scott would get the award, and when he didn’t, people started to boo and our kids were saying, ‘What?’ out loud.

“It was a shock.”

But not the only one.

In addition to the MVP award, Gonzalez-Tate had the outstanding hitter (Chris Cassels) and Golden Glove (Mike Emmons) honors.

Scyphers said Simi Valley players Duane Mulville, Shaun Murphy, Corey Aurand and Tim Laker also were deserving of all-tournament honors.

Simi Valley wasn’t the only school that felt slighted by the tournament selection committee. The runner-up, Boone of Orlando, didn’t place a single player on the all-tournament team.

Scyphers attributed some of the problems with the selections to the fact that coaches had no say in the voting.

“In most tournaments we’ve been in they will come up to the coaches for some input,” Scyphers said. “In this one, the coaches had absolutely no input. And no one knows better than the coaches who is deserving and who is not.”

Add Simi Valley: Scyphers was also disturbed with an incident that occurred with two out in the sixth inning of the championship game, which was shortened to six innings because of the 10-run rule.

Radinsky, with 13 strikeouts, had just tied the old tournament record of 27. The public address announcer informed the spectators of the feat.

The Boone coach then instructed his final batter to bunt, apparently to deny Radinsky the new record.

It didn’t work.

Radinsky fell behind in the count, 2-1, before blowing a pair of fastballs across the plate for the strikeout record.

Scyphers minced no words on the incident.

“It was the bushest thing I’ve ever seen in high school baseball,” he said.

Considering the events of the weekend, that’s saying a lot.

The Times’ All-Valley area boys and girls prep basketball teams will be announced in Thursday’s paper. Members of the first team, along with their parents and coaches, will be invited to The Times’ All-Star Basketball Awards Breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Disneyland Hotel, 1150 W. Cerritos Ave., Anaheim.

Each will receive a trophy and certificate, and the player and coach of the year for each of The Times’ 10 circulation areas will be announced. Jim Harrick, Pepperdine University men’s basketball coach, will be the guest speaker.

Dave Morgan contributed to this notebook.