Prep Notebook / Rob Fernas : No Appeals Against Attorney--Score Shows He Won

Ed Aronin never planned on becoming the St. Bernard softball coach.

Between his job as a trial lawyer and coaching a girls softball team in the Westchester-Playa del Rey Little League, Aronin admittedly didn’t have a lot of free time.

Yet, when his daughter Alicia, a sophomore at St. Bernard, told him the team didn’t have a coach a week before the season, Aronin decided to squeeze another activity into his busy schedule.

“I lost a little sleep that night,” he said. “I walked in the next day and said I wanted to interview for the job.”

St. Bernard is glad Aronin stepped forward. The Vikings, long overshadowed in the Camino Real League by Mary Star, achieved a milestone last Thursday by beating the Stars, 1-0, to stay in undisputed first place.

St. Bernard took another step closer to the Camino Real title on Tuesday with a 14-2 win over St. Anthony, improving to 6-0 in league play and 12-4 overall with two games remaining. The Vikings can clinch the title with a victory over St. Mary’s today at 3:15 p.m. at Centinela Park in Inglewood.

“Beating Mary Star was the big one,” said Aronin, 44, a former basketball player at the University of Utah. “St. Bernard was getting beat every year by Mary Star. I think last year’s score was 26-2.”

Aronin is accustomed to coaching winners. His Little League team for girls ages 9 through 12 has won the championship in each of his four years as coach. He coached four of St. Bernard’s players in Little League.

Aronin says making the move to high school coaching was, at first, intimidating.

“I was more nervous than on a jury trial,” he said. “But it’s been a lot of fun. I like to expand, try other things. I enjoy coaching. I think I have a knack for it. I can relate to the girls.

“There’s not that much difference between 12-year-olds and 17-year-olds. They leave their mitts on the bus and forget their shoes. In a game, they’re intense, but they’re loose. I was a nervous wreck in the Mary Star game, and they were really loose.”

Pitcher Jennifer Lococo has played a major role in St. Bernard’s success. She pitched 27 innings and recorded victories in all four of her team’s games last week, including a complete-game shutout against Mary Star. She is 6-0 in league and 12-3 on the season.

“Lococo is unbelievable,” Aronin said. “She throws every day for about an hour. I got a call from her dad on Sunday and he said she was throwing.”

Aronin admits his schedule is “not easy.” But he has received help. The Westchester-Playa del Rey Little League rearranged his team’s schedule so he could make all of St. Bernard’s games.

“Coaching both teams in enjoyable,” he said. “I don’t want to give up either.”

Another softball coach who deserves kudos is Jerry McIlvaine of South Torrance.

McIlvaine, the former baseball coach at South, took over the softball team two weeks into the season and, on Tuesday, watched as the Spartans clinched the Bay League title with a 5-4 victory over North Torrance.

South (11-3 in league, 15-6 overall) will wrap up the regular season at 3 p.m. today against visiting North before opening the 4-A Division playoffs at home next Thursday.

Hawthorne’s chance of successfully defending its Southern Section 4-A track title figures to be considerably more difficult without its 400-meter relay team and top hurdler.

The Cougars’ state-leading 400 team was disqualified when leadoff runner Anthony Smith false-started at the Ocean League finals last Friday. Hurdler Dean Dunbar also failed to qualify, reportedly after he slipped on loose starting blocks.

“It’s not over, but we’ve got a real fight on our hands,” said Hawthorne Coach Kye Courtney.

Hawthorne’s primary competition in the 4-A prelims, which begin at noon Saturday at Gahr High in Cerritos, is expected to come from Muir of Pasadena.

Courtney said an injury to one of Muir’s top athletes should help keep the Cougars in contention. He says Hawthorne must win four races--the 100, 200, 400 and 1,600 relay--and receive help in other events. The Cougars are led by sprinters Curtis Conway and Travis Hannah.

On Smith’s false start at the league finals, Courtney said: “If we don’t get disqualified, we walk it. That’s why I can’t figure out what happened. He (Smith) just got in there and rolled right out.”

The Bay League baseball race came to an end Tuesday, for all intents and purposes.

Rolling Hills (8-6) sewed up third place and the league’s final 5-A playoff spot with a 6-1 win over Palos Verdes while North Torrance (11-3) clinched at least a tie for the title and the league’s No. 1 playoff entry with a 2-1 victory over South Torrance.

Rolling Hills Coach Garry Poe expected his team to be a contender, but that appeared doubtful after the Titans fell to 3-6 in league play three weeks ago. Since then they have won five straight games.

North also seems to be peaking for the playoffs. Greg Davis continued his dominant pitching on Tuesday, scattering six hits against South, and shortstop Anthony Anetema had two hits and scored two runs in his second start since returning to the lineup after missing seven weeks with a dislocated elbow.

West Torrance (10-4) is the league’s other playoff representative.

Torrance, Rolling Hills and Mira Costa won wild-card matches Tuesday night to advance to the first round of the Southern Section 4-A volleyball playoffs tonight at 7:30.

Torrance, the Bay League’s third-place team, travels to meet top-seeded Santa Monica after staging an impressive comeback in its wild-card win over Crespi. The Tartars came from two games down to post a 13-15, 11-15, 15-12, 16-14, 15-11 victory at Crespi.

Rolling Hills and Mira Costa, runners-up from the Bay and Ocean leagues, had easier wins. Rolling Hills swept visiting Alemany, 15-3, 15-2, 15-3, and will play at defending 4-A champion Newport Harbor tonight. Mira Costa, last year’s 4-A runner-up, defeated Santa Barbara at home, 15-11, 16-14, 15-4, to earn a road match against Dana Hills.

Bay League champion North Torrance will play host to Laguna Beach.

In 3-A playoff openers tonight, Pioneer League champion Miraleste is at home against South Bay Christian, Camino Real League champion St. Bernard plays host to Mater Dei, Leuzinger visits Campbell Hall, Angelus League champion Bishop Montgomery is at home against Warren, and Redondo visits La Quinta.

PREP NOTES--Josha Feld of Miraleste shot a two-round total of 152 to take third in the Ocean League golf finals at Palos Verdes Country Club. Hawthorne’s Mark Diett took fifth with 155. Paul Solomon of Beverly Hills won the title by eight strokes at 143 . . . Five South Bay teams will open play Tuesday in the Southern Section 5-A tennis playoffs. South Torrance plays at Miraleste, Palos Verdes is at home against Culver City, Redondo visits Newport Harbor, and Rolling Hills plays host to San Marcos. The matches start at 3:15 p.m. . . . Chadwick will play at Webb in Claremont at 3 p.m. Friday for the Prep League’s last berth in the Small Schools baseball playoffs.

South Bay Top 10 Boys’ Baseball

Selected by Times sportswriters (Records through Tuesday’s games)

Rank, School, League Record

1 Redondo (Pioneer) 26-1

2 St. Bernard (Camino Real) 18-3

3 El Segundo (Pioneer) 20-7

4 North Torrance (Bay) 18-8

5 San Pedro (Marine) 16-5

6 West Torrance (Bay) 18-6

7 Banning (Marine) 14-7

8 Carson (Marine) 13-7-1

9 Rolling Hills (Bay) 10-12

10 Leuzinger (Pioneer) 11-15