A WELCOME CHANGE : Redondo Hurler Leaves Bad Grades, Rowdy Friends Behind and Pitches Perfect Game

Changing high schools can be a traumatic experience. For Redondo pitcher Henry Schelb, however, the move was welcomed.

Schelb figures the only things he left behind at Cleveland High in Reseda were a poor academic record and a rowdy group of friends.

“I got into a bad crowd,” he said. “I really didn’t perform right.”

Schelb’s performances in the classroom and on the baseball field have improved since his transfer to Redondo.

The senior says his grades are better than they were at Cleveland, where his last two baseball seasons were cut short by academic ineligibility.

As for athletics, Schelb achieved perfection two weeks ago.

On the night of March 19, he retired all 21 batters in Redondo’s 17-0 win over Dorsey in the Redondo/Palos Verdes Tournament, earning a piece of the spotlight normally reserved for Scott Davison, the Sea Hawks’ All-American pitcher.

“It’s the first perfect game I’ve ever seen in high school, and I’ve seen my share of games,” said Harry Jenkins, in his 18th year as Redondo’s coach. “It’s an odd thing. There’s so many chances for mistakes.”

Schelb, a 6-foot right-hander who plays left field when not pitching, has adapted well to his new team. He owns a 4-0 record with a 2.59 earned run average and 34 strikeouts in 27 innings. He also is among the Sea Hawks’ top hitters with a .400 average (14 for 35), 3 home runs and 13 RBI.

Apparently his no-hit, 11-strikeout, no-walk effort against Dorsey only wheted his appetite for perfection.

“I want to go undefeated,” said Schelb, who pitched a five-hitter with eight strikeouts on Monday night in Redondo’s 6-2 win over Kennedy of Granada Hills in the semifinals of the Babe Herman Tournament.

“It was his best game of the year,” said Jenkins, noting that Kennedy is far superior to Dorsey.

Schelb has enjoyed fast starts before. Finishing a season was his problem at Cleveland.

He had a winning record last year, including a two-hit shutout against Reseda, when he was forced off the varsity midway through the season because he received an F in an English class. As a sophomore, an F in science got him kicked off the junior varsity team.

(Students at Los Angeles Unified School District high schools must maintain a C average with no F’s to remain eligible for extracurricular activities.)

Schelb blamed his grade problems on his willingness to follow friends who skipped class.

“I was running around with the wrong crowd,” he said. “My friends at Cleveland would say, ‘I don’t want to go to class. Come on, let’s go.’

“It’s a lot better at Redondo. People are a lot nicer. I’m hanging around with most of the baseball players. I get along good with everyone. It’s a lot better group than at Cleveland.”

Schelb, who lived with his father in Northridge, moved with his mother to Redondo Beach last summer.

Jenkins couldn’t have been happier when he learned that a new pitcher had enrolled at Redondo.

“Anytime you get a starter you didn’t expect, it’s a real plus,” he said. “He’s been a real surprise. He’s a good athlete.”

Schelb’s strengths are a good curve ball, a shifty fastball and the ability to outguess the hitter.

Between innings of his perfect game against Dorsey, the pitcher said “I thought about what I would do to keep the hitters off balance.”

Schelb said he was nervous before the game because he had slept on his arm the night before.

“I woke up and my arm was totally asleep,” he said. “I had no feeling in it. I warmed up and it felt better. As the night wore on, it felt better and better. My fastball had good movement and my curve ball was working.

“Every pitcher wants to pitch a perfect game. It really didn’t hit me until the fifth inning. Then I tried to keep it out of my mind because I didn’t want to mess up. I wanted to keep the pressure off.”

Although he admits he would like to be the team’s No. 1 pitcher, Schelb says he doesn’t mind playing in the shadow of Davison, one of the top pitchers in Southern California and the Southern Section 3-A Co-Player of the Year last season.

“I heard about him the first week of school,” Schelb said. “I looked at it as a good goal to set for myself. I came in here and wanted to show them that I can play baseball, too.

“(Davison) helps me a lot. I try to put myself at his level. He brings out the best in me.”