Spring Sports Notebook : Friendship Tournament Accomplishes Its Objective

There were tears in the eyes of several Oxnard High baseball players last week after a 9-7 loss to the Fujinomiya Kita High team from Japan in the final game of the Friendship tournament. And it had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.

“It was an emotional time,” Coach Tony Diaz of Oxnard said. “The Japanese players didn’t think they were big or strong enough to beat an American team and when they won, they were so happy they cried. Then some people in the stands started crying and even some of our guys.”

Teams from Mexicali, Mexico; Eugene, Ore.; Orem, Utah; and Santa Monica also participated in the inaugural three-day tournament that had no champion.

“Basically, the games were exhibitions,” Diaz said. “We kept score, but there was no first or second place. It was a tournament to experience competition against teams from other areas and countries, share some ideas and make some friends.”

And it was an overwhelming success. Each team won at least one game and went away feeling good about the experience.

“You can’t help but to get touched up to see high school kids hug each other and say, ‘It was a great three or four days. I’ll miss you,’ ” Diaz said. “You couldn’t beat that feeling by winning a thousand ballgames. It’s an experience no one can take away from the kids for the rest of their lives.”

Diaz is hopeful the tournament will continue. He received help from several people and organizations this season but still found it difficult to coach his team and run the tournament simultaneously.

A committee is being formed to organize next year’s tournament--if there is one. “Right now, there’s about a 75% chance we will,” Diaz said.

Diaz would like to expand the field to eight teams but doesn’t want it to get any bigger.

“We don’t want to lose the concept and make it competitive,” he said. “That would spoil everything.”

Sharts’ darts: Scott Sharts broke the Southern Section record for career home runs with a two-run blast in the sixth inning of Simi Valley’s victory over Colonial. It was Sharts’ ninth homer of the season and the 26th of his career. He is still well short of the state record of 39 held by Brian Johnson of Oakland Skyline from 1984-86.

Cougar clout: Darrell McMillin’s three-run home run with one out in the seventh inning gave Ventura the championship of the Thousand Oaks tournament with a 7-4 victory over Channel Islands.

Ventura batted .417 and scored 46 runs in its four tournament games. Steve Dailey, the Cougar center fielder, went 12 for 15 to raise his batting average to .549 this season. He went 4 for 4 with a two-run homer in the championship game.

JC baseball: Oxnard College defeated Santa Monica, 9-7, to win the championship of the Grossmont tournament last week. The Condors (16-5) got two hits and three runs batted in from Javier Alcarez and two hits and two RBIs each from Mike Runge and Aaron Marcarelli in the championship game. Vale Lopez struck out seven in a complete-game effort.

Meanwhile, Ventura College got a win, a loss and a tie in its three Channel Coast tournament games.

The Pirates were defeated by Mt. San Jacinto, 14-7, in the first round, then recovered for a 6-5 victory over Riverside in the second round.

In its final game, Ventura scored five runs with two out in the ninth inning to tie Harbor, 9-9, only to lose on a tie-breaker. Tournament rules stipulated a three-hour time limit for all games and the Pirates were outhit, 12-11.

Ventura (15-7-1) plays host to Oxnard at 2 p.m. today.

Great Scott: Buena High has had great success in a number of sports recently, but for reasons that are difficult to explain, football isn’t one of them.

Mike Shanahan, Buena’s principal, attributes that in part to an attitude.

“It’s not a losing attitude, but an attitude of, ‘We might do OK,’ ” Shanahan said. “In other sports the attitude is, ‘We’re going to win it.’ We need to get over the hump to, ‘We can, and we will.’ ”

Which is where Rick Scott comes in.

Scott, who will replace Mike Olgy as coach, is a proven winner. He had a record of 41-9-2 at Hart High in Newhall and won four consecutive Foothill League titles.

“He’s an impact guy,” Shanahan said. “He’ll get us over that hump. One of his strengths is that he is a communicator. He has an enthusiastic view of things that I think will rub off on our kids, the other coaches, the teachers and the community. We think he’ll bring our football program to the same level as our other athletic programs.”

Kirkeby commits: Shawn Kirkeby, a 6-10 center who led Buena to the Channel League basketball championship, has verbally committed to sign a letter of intent with the University of Portland.

Kirkeby averaged 18.8 points and 10.5 rebounds in helping the Bulldogs to a 23-3 record. He chose Portland, which had a 6-22 record last season, over the University of San Diego, Idaho State and Gonzaga.

Hoop high: A record four Ventura County players, led by center Don MacLean of Simi Valley--the county player of the year for the second consecutive season--have been selected to Southern Section boys’ basketball all-star teams in the 4-A Division.

Chris Hantgin of Ventura, Shawn Kirkeby of Buena and Shawn DeLaittre of Simi Valley also were first-team selections. Mike Sandoval of Buena and Butch Hawking of Simi Valley were second-team picks.

Kwame Joyner of Santa Clara was a first-team selection in the 2-A Division. Bubba Burrage of Santa Clara and Larry Carlton of Nordhoff were voted to the second team. Andy Wagoner of St. Bonaventure was the county’s only first-team pick in the 1-A Division. Lyman Casey of Cate made the first team in the Small Schools Division.

Racing circles: The Ventura Raceway opened its spring season Friday with Dave Hume of Ventura the big winner. Hume, 28, won main events in oval and figure-8 hobby stocks.

Hobby and mini-stocks will make 27 appearances at the Ventura County Fairgrounds this season as part of the Coors Light Silver Bullet Stock Car Series. Full midgets and three-quarter midgets have 10 racing dates and motocross racers have three events.

Among the top racers scheduled to appear during the season are Sleepy Tripp of Costa Mesa, the national champion in full midgets; Dennis Hart of Ventura, the two-time defending champion in three-quarter stocks; Russ Warren of Van Nuys, the defending hobby stock champion; and Paul Moore of Oxnard, the defending mini-stock champion.