Baseball Will Just Have to Wait : Simi Valley Romps, 12-1, but Focus Is on School’s Basketball Team

Scott Sharts was 3 for 4 with a home run and three runs batted in as Simi Valley High breezed to a 12-1 victory over Leuzinger in the first round of the El Segundo baseball tournament, but all that took second billing Friday.

All anybody at Simi Valley was talking about was tonight’s Southern Section 4-A Division basketball championship game at the Sports Arena--and Leuzinger’s coach, former Dodger Derrel Thomas.

“I was trying to get his autograph between innings,” said Rich Langford, the Pioneers’ starting pitcher.

And before the game, the Simi Valley dugout was not paying attention to Leuzinger’s pitcher during warmups, nor did the players seem overly concerned about Sharts’ quest for the Southern Section career home run record. The Pioneers were wondering whether Thomas, a switch-hitter, would hit infield practice left- or right-handed. Thomas, wearing his 1981 World Series ring, hit right-handed.

Simi Valley Coach Mike Scyphers kept things in perspective, though.

“He’s not hitting against us,” Scyphers said. “That stuff wasn’t a factor against us. We just concentrated on what we needed to do.”

But the way Simi Valley was playing, even a few cuts by Thomas probably would not have made a difference. Langford and Mike Jenkins combined for a five-hitter and the Olympians scored their only run in the fifth inning, when Simi Valley had an eight-run lead.

The Pioneers took control in the bottom of the fourth when they sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six runs. Sharts led the onslaught with a solo home run. The senior has 18 career home runs, seven short of the Southern Section mark.

Pinch-hitter Jeff Sommers hit a three-run home run in the fifth to give the Pioneers an 11-1 lead.

Simi Valley plays today in the second round of the tournament at Long Beach Jordan, which defeated Palos Verdes on Friday. Scyphers hopes the game ends quickly. Even he is going to the Sports Arena.