Oxnard’s Valencia Decides to Cast Lot With Phillies

Gil Valencia, a former Camarillo High baseball player and a left fielder for Oxnard College this season, said Tuesday that he has signed a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Valencia, 18, was drafted by the Phillies in the late rounds of last year’s free-agent draft but opted to play at Oxnard. The Phillies, however, retain rights to him for a year, and Valencia decided to forgo his sophomore season.

He will report to the organization’s rookie camp in Clearwater, Fla., in early June and likely will be assigned to one of the Phillies’ Class A affiliates.

“I’m dying to go down there, see the talent and take my shot,” Valencia said. “It was an offer that really appealed to me.”

Valencia hit .350 for the Condors this season.

Cal State Northridge, the top-ranked team in the NCAA Division II, will play host to the West regional softball tournament Saturday and Sunday.

The four-team, double-elimination playoff starts Saturday with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo meeting defending national champion Cal State Bakersfield at 9 a.m. and Northridge playing Cal State Dominguez Hills at 11. All four teams are from the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Northridge, which won the CCAA title for the eighth consecutive year, is coming off a win in the Sixth Sacramento State Invitational last weekend. The Lady Matadors won six of seven games and improved their record to 60-17.

Gary Torgeson, CSUN’s coach, said that junior All-American Debbie Dickmann will be the starting pitcher against Dominguez Hills and Heather Lindstrom will go in Saturday’s second game.

The first-round losers will play at 1:30 p.m. and the winners will meet at 3:30. Sunday’s games are scheduled for noon and 2 p.m., with a third game to follow if necessary.

The winner of the regional advances to the national championship tournament May 19-21 at the Sacramento softball complex.

George Peraza has resigned only two weeks after completing his first season as baseball coach at Oxnard College.

The Condors finished the season 16-15 overall and tied Moorpark for third place in the Western State Conference standings with an 11-9 record.

Peraza, a Spanish teacher at Thousand Oaks High, said that his decision stemmed from the difficulty of performing what was, in effect, two full-time jobs.

“It was too hectic,” said Peraza, who was paid a stipend for coaching the Condors on a walk-on basis. “Being a head coach is an enormous amount of work, and not all of it is coaching baseball. It’s a lot of paper work.”

Peraza said that his best years at Oxnard were the nine he spent as an assistant to former baseball Coach Jerry White. “That was nice,” he said. “All I did then was come to the field and coach.”

Peraza said that he would like to remain in coaching but has no immediate plans. “If any full-time jobs open you’ll see me there going for it,” he said.

Gil Carrillo of the Moorpark College men’s track team qualified in two events for the Southern California finals at Cerritos College on Saturday.

Carrillo leaped 22 feet, 5 inches to qualify in the long jump in the Southern California prelims at Cerritos last week. The 400-meter relay team of Carrillo, Paul Lefton, Danny Cross and Gordon Prescod also qualified in 9 minutes, 46.16 seconds.

Other qualifiers included: Ramon Perez in the 1,500 (4:00.73), Chris Anderson in the triple jump (44-9), Korey Fleck in the javelin (177-1), Matt Thomson in the steeplechase (9:46.16) and Efrain Robles in the 10,000 (32:57).

In the women’s meet, Carol Myszkowski qualified in the long jump (16-8) and the triple jump (36-7 3/4).

Other qualifiers included: Remera Jones in the high jump (5-0), Colleen Gavin in the 400 (58:36), Lisa Noller in the 800 (2:25.88) and Anna Howald in the 1,500 (5:00.52).

Moorpark’s 1,600-relay team of Howald, Noller, Gavin and Vicky Wagenbach qualified in 4:08.35.

Three players from Moorpark College, two each from Canyons and Glendale, and one each from Pierce and Valley are included on the All-Western State Conference baseball first team.

Freshman pitcher John Chiaramonte, freshman infielder Steve Sisco and and sophomore catcher Craig Pearson were selected from Moorpark. First baseman Art Chute and outfielder John Bojanac of Glendale made the team as did infielder Ernie Perez and outfielder Randy Cooper of Canyons.

Infielders Ray Sabado of Valley and Billy Morris of Pierce also were selected.

The player of the year was pitcher Dean McMillin of Ventura and the coach of the year was Gary Anglin of Ventura, which shared the conference title with Canyons.

Missy Cress, a sophomore catcher at Moorpark College who hit .475 to lead WSC players, was selected as the conference player of the year.

Sophomore De Dow (24-7) was selected as the conference’s pitcher of the year for the second consecutive season.

Cress and Dow were both chosen for the all-conference first team along with first baseman Chris Singer, second baseman Audra Olive, outfielder Rustie Stevens and designated-hitter Kelly Kauffman.

Henry Campos and Anthony Espitia of Cal Lutheran were named to the All-NAIA District 3 baseball team.

Sophomore right-hander Mike Clark, who compiled an 8-2 record to lead the Kingsmen, was an all-district and an All-Golden State Athletic Conference selection.

Campos also was selected for the all-conference team along with third baseman Jeff Brouelette.

Six Cal Lutheran softball players were named to both the NAIA All-District 3 first team and the All-Golden State Athletic Conference first team.

DeeAndra Pilkington, Leslie Stevens, Danielle Piotrowski, Teri Rupe, Katie Kjonegaard and Kim White were named to both teams. Brenda Frafjord was named to the NAIA team.

Matt Zigler, a midfielder from Burroughs High of Ridgecrest, has signed a letter of intent to play soccer at Cal State Northridge, the school announced Tuesday. Zigler was the most valuable player in the Golden League.

Northridge also announced the signing of Ruth Aguilar (women’s basketball) and Scott Richardson (baseball).

Aguilar, who verbally committed three weeks ago, led Valley College to the state junior college championship game. The 5-10 forward was most valuable player in the Western State Conference. Richardson plays outfield for Eisenhower High in Rialto.