THE CITY 4--BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP : Roberts Gets Out of Rumble With Poly Unscathed

Strange things can happen in the City at night.

Almost from the first inning, if not before, Thursday’s City Section 4-A final at Dodger Stadium seemed destined to be a street fight.

Canoga Park left fielder Aaron Marks even had his choice of weapons after a stadium clubhouse assistant handed him a few bats left behind by the St. Louis Cardinals’ Ozzie Smith.

In the first inning, Poly’s Bill Chavez was plucked by a Adam Schulhofer pitch. Chavez pointed an index finger at Schulhofer on his way to first.

Both coaches wore street clothes, seemingly primed for the sublime story that would follow.

It had to figure, then, that a game that augured so much would finish with a knockout.

But the primary figure at the final bell for Canoga Park probably would rank as a real underdog.

Reliever Mike Roberts--the Hunters’ No. 3 pitcher--entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with Canoga Park clinging to a one-run lead and recorded the final out of the game, amid chants of--what else: “Ali, Ali.”

Roberts struck out Poly’s Ali Aguilar on a 3-2 pitch with the tying and winning runs aboard as Canoga Park won its first City title.

“I was scared, awfully scared,” Canoga Park Coach Doug MacKenzie said. “Roberts was throwing like it was batting practice. He can throw harder than that.”

Scary is how you could describe much of the rest of the game. Every time it seemed like you had it figured, somebody found a new way to make matters a bit more confusing.

The preliminary to the punchy finish was equally entertaining. Witness Poly right-hander Nick Lymberopoulos, who entered the game with a perfect record of 9-0.

After surrendering a run in the first, Lymberopoulos’ pitches seemed, well, Greek to the Canoga Park hitters in the second and third as the junior retired the side in order in both innings.

In the top of the fourth, however, Canoga Park first baseman Mike Kerber turned a Lymberopoulos offering into limburger, drilling it over the 380-foot sign in left field. After allowing back-to-back triples, Lymberopoulos was history.

Or check out Schulhofer, who in his last start a week ago allowed four runs in 4 innings. Schulhofer was up against a Poly lineup that had eight players batting above .300 and averaged more than 10 runs per game.

Schulhofer cruised through the first six innings, allowing just one run. In the seventh, Poly put together a couple of walks and a three-run home run to left by Danny Gil to get within a run at 5-4.

“That’s been my style of late,” Schulhofer said. “I was definitely showing signs of wear.”

Enter Mr. Roberts, a junior right-hander, who surrendered singles to Luis Garcia and Rodrigo Fuentes. “They were way late on those last two hits that went into right field,” Roberts said. “I thought if I just threw a little extra . . .”

Roberts finished Aguilar off with a fastball, giving MacKenzie his first title.

“It was a beautiful ballgame,” MacKenzie said. “We really hit the ball hard.”

Actually, the whole game packed a pretty good wallop.