Prep Review / Tom Hamilton : Montera, Hansell Pitching In for Kennedy : Fighting Irish Are on the Verge of Their First League Title in 20 Years

It has been 20 years since Kennedy High School’s baseball team won a league championship, and the Fighting Irish have had only one winning season since 1970. But Kennedy has turned the Garden Grove League title chase into an arms race behind the pitching duo of Pete Montera and Greg Hansell.

Kennedy (16-4, 8-1) is tied with Pacifica (10-8, 8-1) for first place in the eight-team league with six games remaining. Montera and Hansell, both 7-1, have helped establish a team earned-run average of 1.82 with seven shutouts.

How good is Kennedy’s pitching tandem? Well, consider that Robert Espinoza, who threw a no-hitter against San Francisco Riordan in the West Anaheim Lions tournament, recently quit the team over a lack of playing time.

“He was a man about it,” said Kennedy Coach Chris Pascal. “After he threw the no-hitter, I told everyone that I couldn’t guarantee Rob another start. He came to me and said, ‘Coach, I can’t sit on the bench and watch.’ ”

Hansell, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, is a power pitcher who has improved his curveball in his last two outings, according to Pascal. Hansell signed a national letter of intent to play football at the University of Nevada-Reno, where he will play outside linebacker.

Hansell will also pitch for Reno’s baseball team, which was one of the reasons he chose the school when others objected to him playing two sports in his freshman season.

Montera is an intelligent pitcher who relies on a slider and a split-fingered fastball. He was the school’s starting quarterback for three years and is undecided about where he will attend college and which sport he will play.

“Pete didn’t get much interest in football, but the baseball scouts are starting to come out now,” Pascal said. “He loves football and his father (Frank Montera) is the offensive coordinator at Cerritos College, so I think he wants to play football, but that could change.”

Both pitchers have displayed excellent control. Montera has allowed only 10 walks in 53 innings; Hansell has walked 12 in 52 innings. Two years ago, Kennedy pitchers walked more than 200 batters and, predictably, the Fighting Irish finished 9-16.

Last year, Kennedy finished 16-14 and qualified for the Southern Section’s 3-A division playoffs. Kennedy equaled that victory total on Friday with a 5-0 win over La Quinta, and the Fighting Irish have a good chance of breaking the school mark of 19 victories set in 1969.

“It’s been a long time since the school has done anything in baseball,” Pascal said. “The kids have worked hard to earn the success. They don’t have huge egos and play together as a team.”

Commercial Break: Mark Cunningham, University High football coach, made his television debut last week in a commercial explaining how aspirin helped to control an ulcer he developed while coaching at Pomona High in 1981.

Cunningham said he was surprised when producers called and asked if he would be willing to tape a commercial after he had participated in what he thought was a research project. Cunningham and dozens of others were videotaped as prospects for the commercial.

“They never told me that the plan was to do a commercial,” Cunningham said. “When they called and said they wanted to tape for a commercial, I still didn’t think it would ever happen (go on the air).”

Cunningham spent five hours taping for the commercial that was edited to a 30-second spot that began airing last Monday. He said he has received calls from former high school teammates now living in Washington and Nevada since the commercial started.

“The funny thing is that they tested people in New York, Phoenix and Los Angeles and ended up using two people from our school,” Cunningham said. Linda Muhlhauser, University’s activities director and a triathlete competitor, is also featured in the commercial series.

Sign on the Dottin line: Saddleback basketball center Malru Dottin completed his recruiting trips over the weekend with a visit to the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. He previously visited Baylor and Oregon State and was asked what impressed him most about each school.

Baylor: “The arena and the sports facilities. The people in Waco were really friendly.”

UNC-Charlotte: “The coaches and the players. It’s a nice place.”

Oregon State: “Just the idea of playing in the Pac-10. The conference is on the rise.”

Dottin, who averaged 16.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, said he plans to list the positives and negatives of each school before making his choice.

“It’s all up in the air,” he said. And his major? “That’s up in the air too.”

One for the record books: Lisa Fager of Mission Viejo broke the Orange County record in the triple jump with her leap of 39 feet 11 1/2 inches Saturday at the county girls’ track and field championships at Rancho Santiago College.

Fager’s jump broke the mark of 39-8 1/4 set in 1986 by Debbie Orr of Ocean View.

Fager, a junior, also set a meet record, breaking Orr’s 38-3 1/2 mark, also established in 1986.

She said she was just trying to break the meet record and was seemingly unaware that her mark was, indeed, a county record.

Add records: Jim O’Sullivan of Sir Francis Drake of San Anselmo broke former Foothill High star Doug Dreibelbis’ meet record in the high jump Saturday at the Mt. SAC Relays.

O’Sullivan jumped 7-0, breaking the previous record of 6-11 3/4 set by Dreibelbis in 1983. Dreibelbis’ mark is still a county record, though.

Prep Notes

Members of the basketball rules committee for the National Federation of State High School Assns. rejected proposals that included a 45-second shot clock, 18-minute halves instead of eight-minute quarters and an added sixth foul for disqualification at a recent meeting. . . . An estimated 30 schools are expected to compete in the 11th South Orange County Weight Lifting Invitational scheduled for May 20 at San Clemente High. . . . Signups are under way for perspective high school football officials for the Orange County Officials Assn. Steve Barclay, secretary-treasurer of the organization, said 40-50 officials will be added next fall with testing beginning in June. Interested parties should contact Barclay at 633-8721.