No-Hit Bid No Joy Ride For Huskies

North Hollywood High Coach Brian York admits that he enjoys watching Sylmar pitcher Olonzo Woodfin work on the mound.

One couldn’t blame York, however, if he preferred to watch the lanky, junior left-hander, perform his mound magic against another opponent the next time.

“I was thinking he was going to give our team rides in limousines to make sure we’d show up next time,” York said.

A no-hitter eluded Woodfin but Sylmar held on to defeat North Hollywood, 5-3, in an East Valley League game at Sylmar on Thursday.

The win gave Sylmar (14-8, 12-6 in league) second place in league and a home game against Carson in Wednesday’s City Section playoff opener. North Hollywood (11-7) finished third in league and will play at Chatsworth.

Woodfin, who earlier in the season no-hit the Huskies, carried a no-hitter--and a 5-0 lead--into the final inning. He opened the inning by walking Peter Salehyar. The next batter, Tom Freas, ended the suspense by grounding Woodfin’s first pitch for a single to right.

“I guess I was thinking no-hitter a little bit,” said Woodfin, who struck out 14 and wound up with a two-hitter. “I knew it was gone when he hit it. It’s kind of hard to lose it in the seventh inning.”

Actually, Woodfin’s defense seemed to feel the effects more as the Spartans committed three errors in the inning to hand North Hollywood three runs. The Huskies had the tying runs on second and third with one out, but Woodfin struck out Chong Lee and retired Danny Spector on a popup to improve his record to 9-3.

“It got a little scary there at the end,” Sylmar Coach John Klitsner said with a sigh. “They really battled back.”

Sylmar’s Dave Nunez was 3 for 3 with 3 runs batted in.