Vigo-rous Play Puts El Camino Real on Brink of Playoff Berth

Denny Vigo says he just does what he can.

“We’ve been getting men in scoring position,” said Vigo, El Camino Real’s third baseman. “And I’ve been, you know, helping out.”

Vigo’s shirttail has been hanging out. And his teammates have latched on as the Conquistadores suddenly are within a win of a third-place finish in the West Valley League after struggling throughout the season. El Camino Real plays visiting Cleveland today in a league finale.

Vigo led the way last week in wins over Taft and Reseda: He was 5 for 8 with six runs batted in. Vigo (6-3, 195 pounds) leads the Conquistadores in nearly every offensive category, including batting average (.433), home runs (4), RBIs (25), triples (3), doubles (4), total bases (48), slugging percentage (.800) and, most likely, sore muscles from carrying the team.

Vigo started the season as the Conquistadores’ No. 1 pitcher but has been unable to pitch since mid-season because of an arm injury.

“He had his pitching taken away from him and he just turned it all toward hitting,” Coach Mike Maio said. “He was disappointed because he knew he could pitch well in our league.”

Said Vigo, whom Maio claims is the most underrated player in the Valley: “It gets frustrating when our pitchers have sort of an off day and I can’t go in there and do something about it. But I knew I could help in other ways, so it wasn’t that bad.”

Plan A, B and C: Steve Brody advances this tidy theorem.

“Listen to this,” said Brody, a senior right-hander at Reseda. “In 10th grade I beat Chatsworth, 5-0, a two-hitter. They were the No. 1 team in the league. Last year, I beat Canoga Park, 8-3, the No. 1 team in the City.”

OK, Steve, sounds good. You knocked off Chatsworth in 1986 and beat Canoga Park, last year’s 4-A City champion. What are you driving at?

“Now I’m going against the No. 1 team in the nation,” Brody said.

Brody is again referring to Chatsworth, or “The Big Orange,” as he calls the West Valley League champion, the top-ranked team in the country according to Collegiate Baseball.

In his final regular-season start, today at Reseda, Brody will get his fourth career crack at the Chancellors. He has a lifetime record of 1-1 with one no decision.

We’re No. 2: The rallying cry for the Thousand Oaks golf team has sounded something like, “We may be second, but we try harder.”

The Lancers finished second to Marmonte League champion Westlake--the two-time defending Southern Section champion--in league play and second to Westlake at the Northwest regional on Monday at Olivas Park Golf Course in Ventura. Westlake finished 11 shots ahead of Thousand Oaks’ 393.

“From the first day at the first meeting, we felt we would be a decent team,” Lancer Coach Greg Ropes said. “But we knew Westlake was better. Our goal was to finish second in league and second in the regional. So far, we’re right on track.”

Because both teams finished in the top three, they advance to the Southern Section team final Monday at Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs.

Add Lancers: Ropes admits that Westlake might be a better team now but says next year may be another story.

Of the six Thousand Oaks starters, five are underclassmen. At Olivas Park, youth served up some nice numbers: Junior Chad Holden shot 75, junior Kelly Schlender shot 77, sophomore Mike Donnelly carded 78 and freshman Shane May shot 84.

“They’re all coming back,” Ropes said. “With this experience under our belts, we should be even better next year.”

Westlake will lose three of its top four--Jimmy Chang, Chris Zambri and Jamie Nello all are seniors.

Alemany’s fall: Alemany’s tumble from the top three spots in the Del Rey League baseball standings probably started when pitcher Joey Rosselli contracted mononucleosis. The sophomore left-hander was expected to be a strong starter and reliever but missed a month of the league season because of illness.

Alemany, which finished 6-6 in league play and one game out of third place, lost four of six games by one run.

“I can’t say we would have done anything different,” Coach Jim Ozella said, “except to give Joey more vitamins at the start of the season.”

Hungry like the Wolves: Another long season ends today for Van Nuys, as the Wolves enter their Mid-Valley League finale at Granada Hills with a 1-13 mark in league play.

Last season, the Wolves were 1-14. And despite Coach Kenji Mochizuki’s early optimism, Van Nuys never got rolling this year, either.

“As far as wins and losses, this was very disappointing,” Mochizuki said. “This is a very tough league. But truthfully, we just didn’t play as well as I expected.”

The lone victory was a 3-2 decision over San Fernando, which could cost the Tigers a share of the league title. Van Nuys nearly pulled off other upsets along the way--and probably should have. Van Nuys lost to San Fernando, 6-5, and to Granada Hills, 9-8.

“All season long, we just couldn’t get it done,” he said. “There must have been eight or nine times we were in a game with the bases loaded and we just couldn’t get the big hit.”

Coaching change: Marvin Hall has been named the girls’ volleyball coach at Chaminade High. Hall, 32, who coached the Chaminade boys’ team this season, took the job vacated by Mike Lynn, who wants to devote more time to the Chaminade varsity basketball team.

“It was an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down,” said Hall, who coached at Granada Hills from 1976-78 and has coached Southern California Volleyball Club teams since 1979. “The faculty at Chaminade is very supportive of athletics, and they’re very serious about their volleyball.”

All-star soccer: La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper in Los Angeles, is sponsoring a high school all-star soccer match Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Cal State Los Angeles.

The newspaper has named Poly’s Frank Sandoval and Reseda’s George Hall to coach the West team, which is made up of high school seniors.

Staff writers Tim Brown, John Ortega, and Steve Elling contributed to this notebook.