Spring Sports Notebook : Ball-Bashers Highlight North’s 8-7 Victory in All-Star Baseball Game

More than 400 fans were treated to a marathon of metal madness in the County All-Star baseball game Sunday at Ventura College.

Pitchers who had racked up 73 victories among them this season couldn’t silence the racket, and the North took an 8-7 victory over the South on a ringing, run-scoring double by Hueneme’s Gabe Diaz in the eighth inning.

There were 19 hits in the game, 10 by the South. John Sunia of Channel Islands homered for the North and Scott Sharts of Simi Valley homered for the South.

Sharts, the Times’ County Player of the Year, was 4 for 5 with two doubles, the home run and five runs batted in. He was named the South’s most valuable player.

Rio Mesa right-hander Bobby Ayala, who opened the game by pitching two scoreless innings, was the North’s MVP.

The North leads the series, 9-4.

Red raiders: The Cincinnati Reds will hold a baseball tryout for candidates aged 16 to 22 at Thousand Oaks High on Wednesday beginning at 9 a.m. Reds’ scouting supervisors Dave Calaway and Larry Barton will supervise the workout, assisted by scouts Bill Baker, Leo Brown, John Flores and Ted Henkel.

Players on American Legion teams must have written permission from their coach to participate.

Double-tough: After starring in football and baseball at Thousand Oaks High, Joe Sturges has continued a two-sport career at Southern Utah State. Sturges, who just completed his freshman year, batted .385 as the Southern Utah catcher this spring after playing linebacker last fall.

Sturges was a Times’ All-Valley second-team linebacker in 1986.

Honors: The Kiwanis Club of Ventura has honored Brett Malas and Loretta Padgett of Buena, Mark Borchard and Kathleen Shore of St. Bonaventure and David Lewis and Brooke Hale of Ventura as the city’s top high school scholar-athletes.

Add honors: Lori Zackula, a four-year member of the Cal Lutheran track squad, was named a scholar-athlete by the National Assn. of Interscholastic Athletics.

Zackula, a middle-distance runner and member of the cross-country team, was an English major who graduated this spring with a 3.72 grade-point average.

More awards: Kevin French, Nadean Hudson and Nicholaas Boshoff have been honored for their contributions to the Ventura College athletic program.

French, who batted .356 for the baseball team, was the school’s male athlete of the year. Hudson, a two-time JC All-American swimmer, was female athlete of the year. Boshoff, who was also a swimmer, was named the school’s top student-athlete. He had a grade-point average of 3.9.

Getty gets the job: For the second time in four seasons, Royal High has turned to a former player to run its girls’ basketball program, making Paula Getty the Highlanders’ fifth coach in the past six seasons. Getty replaces Keith Tobeck, who resigned after a 9-11 season.

Getty teamed with Karina Hardman to lead Royal to the school’s most recent league championship in 1981-82.

Hardman coached Royal from 1984 to ’86 and later resumed her playing career at Moorpark College. Getty, 23, is Royal’s career scoring leader with 1,062 points and was a two-time all-Southern Section selection. She played four years at Idaho and served as a varsity assistant for the Vandals last season.

Summer sessions: The annual L. A. Games begin on Saturday and Ventura-area teams will be busy for the following week.

In baseball, Westlake plays at Grant at 9 a.m. Saturday and Oxnard plays Chatsworth at the same site at noon. In softball, Thousand Oaks plays Narbonne at El Camino College on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

First-round boys’ basketball games on Saturday include: Rio Mesa vs. Venice at 3 p.m. at Crenshaw, Whittier vs. Camarillo at 2 p.m. at Dorsey, Buena vs. Monrovia at noon at El Camino College, Channel Islands vs. Mission Viejo at 1 p.m. at El Camino, Westlake vs. Marshall Fundamental at 1 p.m. at Fremont, and Ventura vs. Pius X at 4 p.m. at Fremont.

First-round girls’ basketball games on Saturday include: Westlake vs. Lynwood at 9 a.m. at Locke, Thousand Oaks vs. Westminster at 4 p.m. at Locke, Morro Bay vs. Hueneme at 2 p.m. at Los Angeles High, Ventura vs. South Torrance at 4 p.m. at Los Angeles, Buena vs. Valencia at 9 a.m. at Washington, and Simi Valley vs. Burroughs-Ridgecrest at noon at Washington.

Yacht race: The fourth annual Milt Ingram Trophy Race, sponsored by the Pierpont Bay Yacht Club, will be held July 23 following a skipper’s meeting at 8:30 a.m.

Boats will set sail from the Mandalay Buoy between the Ventura and Channel Islands harbors and travel 42 nautical miles.

Information: 805-529-4596.