THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Relatively Speaking, Sharts Has No Identity Problems

In nine years as the Simi Valley High baseball coach, Mike Scyphers has had his share of brother combinations in the program. Inevitably, he sometimes gets confused, calling a current player by the name of a graduated older brother.

Perhaps the most talented brother combination at Simi Valley comes from the Sharts family. Steve, who graduated in 1982, is the winningest pitcher in school history with 20 career victories. Younger brother Scott started last year as a sophomore on a team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today at one point in the season and is the top pitcher on this year’s team.

But when it comes to the Sharts brothers, Scyphers never gets confused.

“I had Corey Aurand on the team last year and his brother Darren this year, and I’ve already called him Corey a few times,” Scypher said. “But that never happens with Scott. I’ve never called him Steve in the two years he’s been here. I don’t know what it is; they’re just such different people,” he said.

The two seem alike. Both are basketball and baseball players, are tall (Steve 6-5, Scott 6-6), and both are pitchers. The difference comes when they pick up a bat. Steve, a left-hander who pitched at Cal State Northridge and is now in the Phillies’ organization, held numerous pitching records at Simi Valley until Scott Radinsky came along. Brother Scott seems destined to set hitting records.

Just eight games into his junior year, he has 11 career home runs, one shy of the school record, and his six this year leave him just two short of the school season record. Sharts, a right-hander who plays first base when not pitching, has hit six home runs in five games. He’s also batting .483 and has 16 runs batted in.

He homered and had two RBIs in Friday’s 5-4 win over Newbury Park and had two home runs as part of a five-RBI game Wednesday in a 19-6 win over Riverside Poly. The week before, he hit two home runs in a 17-14 win over El Segundo, was hitless in a 12-5 victory over Gahr and started the streak with an eighth-inning grand slam in near-darkness that defeated Canoga Park, 8-7.

“It was pretty dark when I went up to bat, and Coach Scyphers put in a brand new ball in the bottom of the inning so we could see better,” Sharts said Saturday. “I hit a high curveball and then just concentrated on hitting all the bases because it was so dark.”

Sharts attributes his fast start to his brother.

“When he was home this winter it was like having a personal coach 24 hours a day,” Scott said. “He threw batting practice to me and worked with me once or twice a week.”

Basketball also helped prepare him for the baseball season, said Sharts, who sat out the basketball season a year ago. This season he was a starter on the Simi Valley team that was 26-2.

“I think I made a pretty good choice playing basketball,” he said. “Basketball got me in shape. I didn’t have to run on my own, which is hard for me to do. It made my legs stronger and I’m quicker.”

Quicker is a relative term. Sharts is still no threat to set any stolen base records. “I don’t have any steals this year but I had one or two last year. I try to get one a year.”

Sharts has struggled on the mound this season despite a 2-1 record. Friday’s game was typical in which he allowed 12 hits in seven innings but hung on to win.

“When they told me after the game I gave up 12 hits, I just said, ‘Ohmigod.’ I was surprised but not that disappointed. I’m concentrating on throwing strikes and letting them put the ball in play.”

Sharts is one of seven juniors in Simi Valley’s starting lineup. The Pioneers lost Radinsky (White Sox organization) and Dave Milstien (Red Sox) to graduation last year, and Shaun Murphy (Arizona) and Mike Hankins (UCLA) to college, but they are a surprising 7-1 this season.

“A lot of people think you’re going to be down when you start seven juniors, but we’re going to be competitive,” Scyphers said. “Sharts is a cleanup hitter who doesn’t strike out and can put the ball in play. And I still think he’s going to be the best pitcher in the Marmonte League.”

Eye of the storm: Her season may be slipping away, but El Camino Real pitcher Beth Silverman seems unruffled. She already has missed two games and will miss a third on Tuesday, according to Coach Neils Ludlow, whose efforts to mediate between warring parties on the team continues.

Silverman has not practiced or played since March 11 when her teammates complained to Ludlow about her attitude and on-the-field demeanor. The anti-Silverman movement was triggered when Silverman allegedly cursed second baseman Stacy Trapp during a nonleague game against Newbury Park.

Trapp said that a majority of the team would boycott if Silverman remains, and Ludlow subsequently asked Silverman to stay away from practice and games, calling her status an indefinite leave of absence. Ludlow has met with parents and players, but the matter remains unresolved.

As Silverman (35-0) continues to sit, El Camino (3-0) continues to win. The four-time defending City Section champion has won twice without the junior pitcher and stretched its winning streak to 58.

Silverman is confident Ludlow will resolve the dispute soon and allow her back on the team, but in the meantime she is enjoying her vacation from softball.

“I miss it, but I’m able to be with my friends and do things that I didn’t have time for,” she said Saturday. “I don’t think it will happen, but if I do miss the whole season, it won’t crush me.” Silverman also insists she isn’t hurt by complaints about her behavior. “It goes in one ear and out the other,” she said.

Silverman works out every day, pitching to her father and also has more time for her role as coach. She serves as an assistant to Don Harris, who coaches a team for girls 10 and under in the West Valley Girls Softball Assn.

“I work with the pitchers and I really enjoy it,” Silverman said. “We had our first game last week and this girl struck out seven in three innings in the first game she ever pitched. It’s exciting.”

Life begins at 46: Coaching is supposed to be a young man’s game, but at the not-so-tender age of 46, Ron Veres has embarked on a new career as baseball coach at Oak Park. The occupation is not new to Veres, but the sport is.

Veres has coached for 23 years but his main sport has been football. His career started at Aviation High in Redondo Beach, where he coached for 16 years before serving as the head coach at Simi Valley for four years. After two years as an assistant at Cal State Northridge, he took an assistant’s job at Oak Park, working with the quarterbacks under Coach Mark Jacobs. When Jacobs, who is also the school’s athletic director, stepped down as baseball coach, he asked Veres to take his place. Jacobs knew Veres from his Aviation days when Jacobs coached against him at Lennox High.

“I had already decided not to do the baseball job, and I knew how Ron worked with kids and knew how dedicated he was,” Jacobs said. “Like I expected, he’s done an excellent job.”

It turns out that Veres is no stranger to baseball. At Torrance High, El Camino College and the University of Oregon, he was a two-sport athlete, mixing pitching with quarterbacking. “I was probably a better baseball player than a football player,” he said.

Then why did he become a football coach? “That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for 20 years,” he joked.

Veres, who teaches at Simi Valley, had another reason to take the job: His son, Scott, is a junior second baseman on the team. Veres also doesn’t object to the working conditions.

“Baseball isn’t as stringent as football,” he said. “We have only 13 kids on the team instead of 40. But I’ve always liked baseball and I’m really enjoying this.”

Veres, who coached baseball on the junior varsity level at Aviation, has been on the job for four games and already shares a time-honored coaching lament: not enough pitching. Oak Park is 1-3 despite leading in every game.

“We’re still looking for a pitcher who can put out the fire,” he said.