Stephenson’s Blast Levels Arcadia, 6-4

Darryl Stephenson belted a three-run home run over the left-field fence in the top of the seventh inning to lift Granada Hills High over Arcadia, 6-4, in a less-than-decisive victory in the second round of the Holt-Goodman tournament.

The win, the team’s second come-from-behind effort Saturday, advances Granada Hills, the Times’ No. 1-ranked team in the Valley, into the quarterfinals Monday against Venice at Birmingham. The Highlanders defeated Burroughs, 13-7, in the first round by turning a 6-6 game into rout with a six-run fifth inning.

For other results from the Holt-Goodman tournament, see roundup, Page 25.

“We are capable of playing really well,” Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh said. “But then we turn around and make easy plays look like a circus routine.” The pitching was anything but circus-like against Arcadia as Jeff Adams (3-0) scattered seven hits, struck out seven and gave up only two unearned runs. But it was the uncharacteristic fielding follies that made the Highlanders struggle to beat Arcadia, a team under .500 (5-6).

Granada Hills, by committee, committed three errors in the third inning. An Arcadia runner reached first on a routine ground ball when Kurt Lowry dropped an on-target throw from second baseman Chris Murphy. The runner advanced to second on a single, reached third when Adams overthrew Murphy on a pickoff attempt and scored when Charles Fowlks, correctly backing up Murphy, incorrectly threw wildly past third baseman Steve Kovacic.

The blunders continued in the fifth and allowed Arcadia to take a 4-3 lead when Dustin Pike scored while attempting a steal of home. Pike was five feet from beginning a slide when the ball popped out of catcher Rob Shultz’s glove.

The mistakes, in Stroh’s eyes, seemed to take a back seat to the Highlanders’ hitting. That would seem fine with an output of 12 hits, but Stroh was upset over how many times his players hit popups into the strong wind.

Stroh and assistant Jim Tognazzi yelled criticism aloud, generally and specifically. This is nothing new except the manner in which they did it. At one end of the dugout sat Stroh and at the other sat Tognazzi, conversing at a high-decibel level. In between sat assistant Louis Cicciari.

“The players can’t help but hear their comments,” Cicciari said. “They say negative, cut-down things, but at the same time they also tell them how to improve.

“It takes a special type of player to play for Darryl. He doesn’t hesitate to get on a player. Maybe that’s why his teams win championships.”

All-City center fielder Sean Brown raised his average to .500 with six hits in the two games. He had three doubles, a triple and drove in six runs but still wasn’t immune to the coaches’ criticism.

“Another popup,” Tognazzi yelped after Brown hit one to the first baseman. “Why don’t you swing level, instead of lifting the bat?” And Stroh added: “We are the worst learning team that I’ve ever coached. We can’t swing level.”

Was Stephenson’s home run a level swing?

“It was a great swing,” Stroh said. “Level.”