U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Roundup : Redington Slam Helps Rally West to 9-8 Win

Tom Redington’s West baseball team trailed the South, 8-3, entering the eighth inning at Boshamer Stadium here at the U.S. Olympic Festival.

But not for long.

One run scored on a bases-loaded walk, and then Redington, the Esperanza High School star who was drafted by the Atlanta Braves but will attend the University of Arizona this fall, hit a grand slam, tying the score and finishing off a 3 for 5, five-RBI performance. Redington, a third baseman, also had a double in the game.

Royce Clayton of North Inglewood hit a home run in the 10th inning that gave the West the 9-8 victory.

The win keeps the West, which lost to the North, 12-1, in the first round Saturday and has never won a Festival gold medal in baseball, in championship contention.

“(The West) really hit the ball for us,” said Jack Bloxom of Coeur D’Alene, Ida., West coach. “Redington’s home run went at least 400 feet, over the sign.”

Jerry Jelnick, baseball coach at Corona del Mar High, is an assistant coach of the team.

Sharon Attlesey, Sheila Conover, JoJo Toeppner and Shirley Dery-Batlik won the gold medal in the 500-meter, four-person kayak, setting a record by finishing in 1 minute 45.03 seconds. Conover, Toeppner and Dery-Batlik have been in the gold-medal boat three straight years, and set a record for the second straight year. Dery-Batlik and Toeppner won the gold in the 500-meter K-2.

Michele Granger, the record-setting 17-year-old pitcher of the Orange County Majestics and Valencia High, got hit hard in her opening performance of this Festival, giving up seven hits and six runs--four earned--in five innings at Lions Park in Raleigh.

The Majestics--known here as the South team, lost, 6-2, to the West--also known as the Southern California Invasion.

The winning pitcher was Susan LeFebvre, the former Cal State Fullerton star, who improved her record here to 2-0.

Granger arrived in North Carolina Sunday morning after leading the U.S. team to the Junior World Girls’ 18-and-under championship.

Nancy Niklas of Irvine was involved in a three-bicycle crash on lap 14 of the women’s 30-kilometer criterium and was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion and X-rays. Reports say Niklas may have broken ribs and will sit out of the remainder of competition today.

Joseph Mero, an ice skater from Costa Mesa, drew a standing ovation from a crowd of 13,397 at Greensboro Coliseum for his pairs long program performance with Katy Keeley of San Diego.

The pair won second place in the long program with a routine performed to a Middle Eastern theme. The performance included a helicopter lift and stunning throw jumps, and brought the crowd to its feet for the second time of the day.

Gillian Wachsman of Riverside, Conn., and Todd Waggoner of Schaumburg, Ill., who took first place, earned the first ovation.

Festival Notes

Tammy Jerue of Brea won the gold medal in the women’s roller skating singles. . . . Mark Sandovold of Newport Beach was on the gold-medal winning 1,000-meter four-man kayak team. . . . Shawn Brack, 20, of Garden Grove, won the bronze medal in the trap shooting competition, placing third with a flawless shoot-off round. . . . Liz Mizera of Garden Grove and the Majestics hit a home run in the South’s 2-1 victory over the North (Los Angeles Diamonds). . . . Debbie Graham of Fountain Valley, the top-seeded women’s singles tennis player, advanced to the semifinals with a straight-sets victory. . . . Val Rosas, the 1986 archery gold-medal winner, moved from 10th place into fifth in the second day of competition. . . . Brad Parks of Tustin, founder of the National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis, defeated Chip Turner of Carmichael, 6-3, 6-0, in wheelchair tennis to advance to the gold-medal round. Maureen Hannon of Laguna Niguel lost to Becky White of Fresno, 6-3, 6-2 in a semifinal.