Lucero Saves Ace but Loses in Game of 21

Before Monday’s East Valley League baseball game against Sylmar, Grant Coach Tom Lucero decided to save his ace, Javier Delahoya, for today’s game against Poly.

Sylmar, after all, was on a two-game skid and the team’s best player, Olonzo Woodfin, is sidelined because of an injury.

“I felt Sylmar was down because of all their injuries,” Lucero said.

The Spartans were down, but they knocked Grant out. Sylmar amassed 17 hits, including eight doubles, in beating Grant, 21-0.

Sylmar took a 3-0 lead after three innings and scored 18 runs in the next three. Jason Parker, who started for Grant, walked eight and didn’t get out of the fourth. Three Grant pitchers walked 16 batters.

“Pitching has not been very good the last two years for me,” said Lucero, who coached Grant and All-City pitcher Rodney Beck to the City Section 4-A Division championship two years ago. “I don’t have pitchers that can throw strikes.”

Delahoya (3-2) has four complete games and has been the Lancers’ most consistent starter. But Lucero didn’t want to use him against Sylmar then bring him back two days later.

“I don’t do that,” Lucero said. “I believe a young arm should go only seven innings a week. You’re affecting someone’s career.”

Tight squeeze: Hey, move over guys. How about a little elbow room? Canoga Park, Reseda and Taft are crowding each other in the West Valley League race.

The Hunters, Regents and Toreadors are locked in a three-way tie for second with 4-4 records behind Chatsworth (8-0). Throw in Cleveland at 3-5 and things really get claustrophobic.

“There’s a big log jam,” Reseda pitcher Steve Brody said.

Said Taft Coach Rich McKeon, who inherited a team that was 1-14 last season: “Our goal from the beginning of the season was to make the playoffs. Chatsworth is probably impossible to catch now. Second place would be great.”

Canoga Park and Taft will square off today at Lanark Park for at least a piece of second place while Reseda plays at Chatsworth.

Lights, camera, action: Bob Lofrano and the Chatsworth Chancellors should hire a publicity director. After winning the Colonial Baseball Classic in Orlando, Fla., on April 2, Chatsworth was ranked No. 1 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball and later was featured on cable network ESPN’s “Scholastic Sports America” program.

“That’s all exciting,” said Lofrano, whose team is sailing along with a 16-1 record. “We went across country to win that tournament and now we’re reaping the benefits.”

Reap on, fellows. ESPN will be filming at Chatsworth today and Thursday and again will feature the Chancellors on “Scholastic Sports America.”

Hot streak: Since he cleared the red tape, Canyon’s Cory Byars has been on a red steak. Byars, a transfer from San Jose, finally cracked the Cowboys’ starting lineup and is batting .500 with two home runs, a triple and 12 runs batted in. Coach Rich Montanio had to be wondering whether Byars would ever get a chance to contribute.

“There was a mix-up with his paper work,” Montanio said. “He wasn’t playing until his eligibility was cleared up.”

Specializing: Canyon’s Golden League rival, Saugus, lost a pitcher when junior Chad Keene quit the team last week. Keene, who is a linebacker in the fall, said he wanted to concentrate on preparing for football season.

From whiff to whack: The first month of the season was not much to remember for Kennedy designated-hitter V. P. Pajcin. Off-season surgery on his left knee had left him struggling.

A second-team All-Mid-Valley League selection as a junior after hitting .417 with 5 home runs, 5 triples and 25 runs batted in, Pajcin struck out three times in three consecutive games.

“He just couldn’t get in the groove,” Coach Dick Whitney said. “He was really hurting. He probably tried to come back too fast.”

Whitney even benched Pajcin and tried outfielder Shawn Madden, who was trying to recover from a chronically sore shoulder. Madden was not the answer, either.

At least, not at the time.

Two months later, Madden and Pajcin are back in the lineup--and contributing. Pajcin has raised his average to .282. Madden, a junior who batted .316 last season, is batting .370. Madden hit two home runs and drove in five runs in Monday’s 14-0 win over Van Nuys.

Win some, lose some: Although Chatsworth’s volleyball team failed to make the Palisades tournament final, some victories were significant.

Chatsworth split with Santa Monica, the No. 1-ranked team in the Southern Section 4-A Division, in pool play and beat Dos Pueblos of Santa Barbara in the quarterfinals. Santa Monica and Dos Pueblos were the only teams to beat Chatsworth in the preseason.

The only team Chatsworth could not beat was Palisades. The Dolphins beat Chatsworth, 15-13, in the semifinals and beat Santa Monica in the championship game.

Going with the flow: If it wasn’t true, it would be comical, but Harvard baseball Coach Jim Brink wasn’t laughing when the Saracens tied Pater Noster, 3-3, in a Santa Fe League game last week.

The game was called after six innings because two youth baseball teams were ready to take the field.

Pater Noster’s home field, Scholl Canyon Park in Glendale, is a public park and several teams use it weekly.

“Usually we’re able to finish before the next game begins,” Brink said. “But not this time. We were delayed for about 20 minutes because it started to rain, and when we got back out on the field, the other game was scheduled to start.”

It was not the first time Brink has seen this happen.

In 1986, Harvard tied Brentwood, 5-5, under the same circumstances at Clover Park in Santa Monica.

“It’s one of those things you learn to live with when you’re the coach of a small-school baseball team,” Brink said. “You can’t let it get to you or you’ll go crazy.”

Tell us, Chick: Harvard’s volleyball team did not play Chaminade in a Santa Fe League game Monday, the Saracens played the Boston Celtics.

Or that’s the way it must have seemed to the Harvard players. With two starters out because of injuries and another, all-league hitter Bobby Hillman, on the East Coast visiting colleges, Coach Mark Zalin pulled out a high-powered simile.

“I told them it was like we were missing Kareem and Magic and Worthy,” Zalin said. “But it was great because Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and Kurt Rambis really rose to the occasion and shined.”

Harvard, which started five underclassmen, beat the Eagles, 15-4, 15-10, 15-6, for its 17th consecutive league victory. Freshman Mark Shoptaw led the Saracens (9-2, 7-0 in league play) with 10 kills.

Academically ineligible: Cleveland lost shortstop Terry Jenkins, who was batting .357 as the leadoff hitter. Returning, however, is third baseman Lance Mandel, who suffered a broken hand trying to catch a hard-hit ball barehanded.

A late hit: Becca Berline threw her first no-hitter of the season in Notre Dame’s 1-0 victory Monday in a San Fernando Valley League game at Bell-Jeff.

Although the no-hitter was a first for the sophomore, the game-winning RBI she had in the eighth inning was not. In fact, Notre Dame Coach Ann McClung says Berline has made a habit of winning games, particularly in extra innings.

“When she’s up in the late innings, she almost always gets a hit,” McClung said.

Berline drove in Tracy Benn with a single that gave the Knights (14-2, 4-0) the only run of the game. The game-winning RBI was Berline’s fourth of the season.

New quarterback: Sophomore Josh Smaler already has solved one problem for an Agoura team and he might be the answer to another.

When baseball Coach John Crow needed a catcher, he turned to Smaler, who became the first sophomore to start in 13 years.

When football Coach Frank Greminger lost next year’s starting quarterback prospect, he listed Smaler as one of two candidates to win the position.

Smaler and former running back Brian Jauch will compete to fill the void created when Sean McCune transferred to Canyon.

Greminger said Smaler and Jauch are capable replacements, and he may change Agoura’s offense from an option to an I-formation.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Vince Kowalick, Chris J. Parker, Lauren Peterson and Sean Waters contributed to this notebook.