Van Nuys Falls Apart in 28-9 Loss

Santa Monica took batting practice for almost four hours Thursday, and Van Nuys-Notre Dame was kind enough to provide the pitching and chase down the balls.

Unfortunately for Van Nuys, the display counted as an Area 6 American Legion playoff game, which ended in a 28-9 Santa Monica win at Ralph Welch Park in Pomona.

Santa Monica, the defending area champion, pounded four Van Nuys hurlers for 27 hits.

“I expected to see more livelier arms than we did. We heard they were fairly good,” said Santa Monica coach Vince Beringhele, who added that this was his team’s top offensive performance of the season.

About the only sound heard was the ping of balls being struck by Santa Monica bats, however. Santa Monica had eight extra-base hits, and Van Nuys staggered away with a bad case of whiplash from watching line drives fly to the outfield. Van Nuys didn’t help matters by committing six errors.

“We got our butts kicked,” Van Nuys Coach Jody Breeden said.

The game was close for three innings. The score was tied, 1-1, after one inning and Van Nuys erased a 5-1 Santa Monica lead with four runs in the third.

“It looked like the winner was going to be whoever batted last,” Beringhele said.

But Santa Monica (15-3) batted longest in the fourth, pushing across seven runs on four hits. Kevin Seidel’s three-run home run and Nick Satriano’s second two-run single were the key blows.

Santa Monica extended its lead to 14-5 in the fifth on Jason Evans’ two-run homer. Van Nuys countered with two runs in the sixth when Jeff Antoon scored on a wild pitch and Vinnie Orlando--who had doubled--scored on an error.

Santa Monica lit up the scoreboard once again in the seventh, sending 16 hitters to the plate and scoring 12 runs on 10 hits to take a 26-7 lead. Tim McCaffrey had two doubles in the inning and Ed Lample and Evans each had two hits.

Thereafter, it was a matter of Santa Monica being able to stay awake for the rest of the 3-hour, 45-minute contest. The team amused itself by scoring two more runs in the ninth. The 28-hit barrage caught Beringhele a little off base, and he reacted with what will probably be the understatement of the four-day, six-team double-elimination tournament.

“Maybe they didn’t have too good of a day,” he said.

Chris Lohman had four hits and Orlando had three for Van Nuys, which had 15 hits but stranded 16 baserunners. Van Nuys (21-12), the District 20 champion, meets Arcadia, a 4-2 first-round loser to Studio City, in an elimination game today at 12:30 p.m.

Santa Monica plays the winner of Thursday night’s Claremont-Camarillo game at 7:30 tonight.