Orange County Prep Review : Last-Place Loara Still Has Shot at the Playoffs

The Loara High School baseball team is in last place.

You can say it. You can see it in the Empire League standings. But, somehow, you have a hard time believing it this late in the season.

In 15 years under Coach Floyd Chandler (1965-79), the Saxons won 10 league championships (in the Irvine, Sunset and Empire leagues) and made the Southern Section playoffs 13 times.

Under Scott Pickler, who coached from 1980-84, they won a 3-A title in 1983 and two Empire League championships, and they made the playoffs every year.

Ray Moore, who took over in 1985, took his teams to the 4-A playoffs in his first two seasons.

When May rolls around, Loara is usually battling for a league title, not scratching its way out of the basement.

But that’s exactly where the Saxons are after Friday’s 16-2 loss to Esperanza, which dropped their league record to 2-6.

Last place. Those two words don’t mix well around Loara.

Who would have picked this, of all seasons, for the Saxons to slip?

With four three-year starters returning from last year’s 18-10 team, Loara was ranked No. 1 in The Times’ preseason baseball poll.

The Saxons appeared worthy of that status when they opened the season by winning the 32-team Loara tournament, defeating Orange County powers La Quinta, Ocean View and Servite in the process.

But Loara didn’t dominate the tournament. The Saxons beat some good teams, but three of their victories--over St. Paul, Ocean View and Servite--were by one run, and the most runs they scored in a tournament game were six.

That lack of offensive punch has been further exposed in Empire League play.

Moore said that his pitching has been adequate and the defense excellent, but his team’s batting average is .250. In five of their league losses, the Saxons have scored two runs.

“If you can’t score six runs in high school baseball, you’re not going to have a good chance of winning,” Moore said.

Especially in the Empire League, which is one of the county’s toughest baseball leagues. But it is this very strength that may enable Loara to make the playoffs this season, even though it is tied with Kennedy for last place.

Only Esperanza (8-0) and El Dorado (6-2) have distinguished themselves from the rest of the league. The other six teams have been beating each other up.

Third-place Los Alamitos (4-3-1) is only 2 1/2 games ahead of Loara and Kennedy with six games to play, so it’s still a wide-open race for that third and final playoff berth.

“We still have an outside shot of making the playoffs,” said senior pitcher Jeff Patterson, who is one of the few Saxons having a good offensive season and is batting about .400.

Loara will have to do it without catcher Brian Roberts and designated hitter Carlos Castillo, who were dismissed from the team last weekend for breaking training rules during Loara’s trip to Lompoc for an April 18 doubleheader.

Roberts, a three-year starter who is headed for Cal State Fullerton, was considered one of the county’s best catchers and one of the Saxons’ few power threats. Senior Scott Bledsoe and freshman Chris Hoffman have been splitting catching duties in his absence.

“We’ll miss those guys, but we can still win,” Patterson said.

More Disappointment: Marina Coach Paul Renfrow knows exactly what Moore is going through. Eight senior starters returned this year, and the Vikings opened with a 6-2 nonleague record, but they have flopped in Sunset League play.

The Vikings, ranked eighth in preseason, are 1-8 and in last place. Three starters--Kevin Dolan (.462), Rick VanderRiet (.436) and Matt Hattabaugh (.404)--are having good seasons, but no other player is hitting more than .300.

To compound matters, Renfrow’s top pitcher--senior right-hander Danny Jensen, who was 4-0 in nonleague play--is 0-4 in league, averaging seven walks per game. And the defense has been erratic.

“I guess the kids have just been trying too hard,” Renfrow said. “It’s a tough league, and the more you tighten up, the worse you play. We’ve been falling behind early in most games, and we can’t get the big hits in the key situations.”

On Saturday, trailing Huntington Beach, 7-6, Marina had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the seventh inning but failed to score. One Viking struck out and another popped out. The Oilers had scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.

On April 7 against Edison, Marina loaded the bases with one out in the top of the eighth inning of a 5-5 game, but two Vikings struck out. Marina lost, 6-5.

It has been that kind of season for the Vikings.

Hitting a Hex: After scoring 51 runs and winning its first seven Pacific Coast League games, Trabuco Hills was due to cool off. But Mustang Coach Don Munzell must feel as if his team is destined to be shut out for the rest of the season.

Two weekends ago, vandals knocked down the eight poles that hold up Trabuco Hills’ batting cage. The net, which hangs down from the poles to form the cage, was sliced to pieces.

The Mustangs relied on live pitching for batting practice during Easter vacation but weren’t able to take any extra swings in the batting cage.

Munzell felt that the lack of extra batting practice was at least part of the reason Trabuco Hills was shut out by Laguna Hills twice last week (6-0 and 11-0).

By Saturday, Munzell and his players had erected the poles for the cage and purchased a new net. But when they plugged the pitching machine into their portable generator (there’s no electricity at the field), the generator broke down.

“It’s like a curse,” Munzell said Saturday. “I had to go out and buy a new generator today. And we have to play Orange (which is tied for first place with Trabuco Hills) twice this week.”

Play for Pay: The University baseball team’s postseason barbecue will be partly funded by money received from Coach Steve Ruiz’s system of fines, in which players must pay for a variety of mistakes they make during the season.

The players voted and approved the system and its prices. The going rate for arguing with an umpire is $1. Using profanity costs a player 50 cents. Mental mistakes are 25 cents, and a lack of hustle is 10 cents.

The Trojans (7-12-1) have played 20 games, but Ruiz has tallied the fines only through five games. So far, he has collected $5.25, and $9.50 in fines remains outstanding.

“We’re not looking at financing the national debt,” Ruiz said. “But it winds up being a headache trying to keep up with the paper work.”

Ruiz figures he’ll collect about $100, which should pay for the steaks he plans to barbecue at the postseason party.

That may make a sub-par season--University is in last place in the Sea View League--a little easier to stomach. If the Trojans had played near-perfect baseball, they might have been stuck with hot dogs instead of steaks at their party.

Prep Notes

Three sophomores and a junior from Corona del Mar broke a 12-year-old school record Friday, winning the high school division 6,400-meter relay with a time of 17:38.9 at the Mt. San Antonio Relays. Greg Shryock (4:25.2), Paul Scott (4:33.8), Eddie Lavelle (4:20.4) and junior Jim Robbins (4:19.5) combined to break the previous four-mile relay record of 17:49.8, set in 1975. . . . Capistrano Valley track and baseball star Tommy Adams set school individual records Thursday at 100 meters (10.78 seconds) and at 200 meters (22.2) to help the Cougars’ track team to a 72-64 dual-meet win over Mission Viejo. He also ran a leg on the Cougars’ record-setting 400-meter relay team, which recorded a time of 43.5 seconds. To round out the week, Adams hit a home run Friday to help the baseball team defeat El Toro, 1-0, in a South Coast League game. . . . Julie Chavez of Canyon pitched a perfect game for six innings Thursday to lead the Comanches’ softball team to a 10-0 Century League victory over Santa Ana Valley. Chavez (9-6) struck out 10 of 18 batters, but the game was called after six innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. . . . Suzi Bradach of El Dorado threw her third no-hitter of the season Thursday, striking out 20 in 10 innings to lead the Golden Hawks’ softball team to a 2-1 Empire League victory over Esperanza. . . . LeRon Ellis (Mater Dei), Ricky Butler (Ocean View) and Mark Georgeson (Marina) will play for a team of California high school all-stars in a basketball game against the Soviet junior national team May 24 at Cerritos College. Game time is 4 p.m.