Reseda Coach Ejects Own Players in Loss to Chatsworth

What was scheduled to be a baseball game Thursday afternoon turned into “Battles at the Ballpark,” a two-hour soap opera that took place on the field and in the stands at Reseda High.

Chatsworth defeated Reseda, 7-6, in a West Valley League game, enabling Chatsworth (8-2, 5-1) to remain in a first-place tie with El Camino Real. Reseda fell to 1-5.

The central character in the plot was Reseda’s Mike Stone. He portrayed a frustrated coach who watched his team spot Chatsworth a big lead, then stage a last-inning rally that fell a run short.

Stone’s frustrations began before the game was an inning old when he banished two of his own players from the field after they wandered from the dugout area during Chatsworth’s five-run first inning. Stone almost got himself ejected in the fifth after he protested a coach’s-interference call at third base. While coaching at third, Stone illegally bumped baserunner Mike Vanacore, ending the inning after Reseda had cut Chatsworth’s lead to 7-3.

After the play, John Grant, the brother of Reseda pitcher Donnie Grant, loudly protested the call and was ejected from the stands after he hurled insults at the home plate umpire.

After those fireworks subsided, the game provided its own drama in the bottom of the seventh.

Reseda trailed, 7-5, with one out in the last inning when Chatsworth pitcher Pierre Amado walked John Cardilino and Vanacore. Kevin Gravning’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third with two outs, and Matt Gilmore was walked intentionally to load the bases.

Amado then balked home Cardilino to cut the lead to 7-6. Amado intentionally walked J.P. DesEnfants to load the bases, then struck out Carlton Hardy to end the game.

Gilmore made his first varsity start for Reseda and couldn’t get out of the first inning, allowing five runs on one hit, four walks and two hit batsmen. When No. 9 hitter Don Wallace walked with two outs, Stone had seen enough and replaced Gilmore with Hardy.

“I’m sure Gilmore was a little nervous and it was probably a little bit of everything that affected him out there today,” Stone said. “I probably should have taken him out a little sooner. He’s a much better pitcher than that.”

Stone showed no such hesitation in punishing two of his players in the first. While Hardy was pitching to John Dunn, Stone noticed that designated-hitter Kevin Ogle and first baseman Damon Lantz were out of the dugout area and talking to a spectator behind the backstop. Stone dispatched pitcher Steve Brody to tell the players they were to take off their jerseys and watch the rest of the game from the stands.

Lantz quietly acceded to Stone’s wishes and sat in the stands. But Ogle’s parents became upset. The designated hitter went home, but his father, Brian, stayed in the stands and expressed his anger over the decision. Later, he was involved in a minor shoving incident with another spectator in the stands, but the scuffling quickly was broken up by school officials.