Notebook : One-Run Win Over Valley May Wake Glendale

Glendale College’s 10-inning, 11-10 baseball win over Valley last Saturday might have been more significant than the school’s other Western State Conference victories. It could have been a coming-out party of sorts for the vacillating Vaqueros.

Has Glendale, which has struggled with consistency in posting an 11-14 record, rounded the corner of mediocrity?

“I sure hope so,” Coach Steve Coots said. “It’s the first time we really stretched and beat somebody ahead of us.

“I think (the potential) has always been there but we’ve always been a nickel short. Hopefully, we’re over the hump and going downhill now.”

And Valley was no small hump. The Monarchs are 20-5-1 and ranked second in the state.

Glendale trailed, 10-9, in the 10th inning but came back when Chris Majors led off with a home run and Art Chute singled in the winning run.

But it was in the sixth inning that the ball began to bounce Glendale’s way. Marco Asselin was able to bunt a bounced pitch to squeeze in a run to give the Vaqueros a 7-5 advantage.

Record setters: Occidental College softball Coach Mike Schmidt has grown accustomed to the ribbing he gets from fellow coaches.

He’s the winningest coach in Occidental softball history, but when you check the history, that’s not really saying much. The Tigers won just one game last season and did not fare much better in the previous two seasons softball has been a varsity sport.

The Tigers are 5-9 and 0-2 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play this spring.

“Talent-wise I think we match up with just about everybody,” Schmidt said. “But it’s hard to instill that, ‘Hey, we should never lose a game attitude’ when it’s never been there before.”

Double time: Crescenta Valley High runner Morgan Bateman says he won’t be at his best in the Arcadia Invitational on Saturday.

At least he hopes he isn’t. Bateman wants to save his best performances for the state championships in June.

His coach, Keith Gilliland, agrees. “A lot of kids don’t do well in the end,” he said. “When kids hit that peak there’s a tendency for them to start panicking, especially when they see others improve around them.”

Bateman, the Souther Section 4-A Division 800-meter champion, says he was running much faster at this point last year. But his decision to run both the 800 and 1,600 this season has slowed him.

“I’m stronger but I’m just not as sharp yet,” Bateman said.