Notebook / Sam Farmer : Bonetto Comes Up Short Twice in Final Assault on Occidental Homer Mark

Can you imagine a Caltech baseball player covering a huge hunk of ground to make a beautiful diving catch of a sure home run?

Of course not. Nobody could imagine that. Least of all Mike Bonetto, but that’s precisely what happened two weeks ago in his bid to tie the Occidental record for home runs in a season.

“The guy started running over, flailed his glove out and made the catch,” said Bonetto, a freshman who finished the season with 10 home runs--one shy of the record. “Caltech plays on an open field and they play so deep you can never tell.”

Even the fenced confines of the Occidental field betrayed Bonetto.

The next day--again versus Caltech--he drilled a shot to right.

“I hit it and I just started walking,” he said. “I wanted it to go so badly.”

The ball was about two feet short and caromed off the fence, turning Bonetto’s saunter into a sprint to salvage a single. It proved to be Bonetto’s last at-bat of the season.

“I was dying,” he said. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Out, not down: By virtue of their identical records in Pacific League play, Hoover and Crescenta Valley high schools had to play a tiebreaker Saturday to determine which team would be awarded the league’s third and final berth in the Southern Section 5-A Division baseball playoffs.

Crescenta Valley won, 2-1.

That means this season will mark only the third time in Bob Cooper’s 12-year term as Hoover coach that the Tornadoes did not make the playoffs.

Cooper was philosophical about it.

“Eventually, you’re going to feel dejected unless you go the whole way,” said Cooper, who coached Elsinore High to the Southern Section 1-A championship in 1970. “There’s only going to be a few coaches feeling happy as hell and the rest of them are going to be dejected.”

Dynamic duo: Jung Lee and Eric Chu, Glendale’s No. 1 boys’ doubles team, knocked off the top-seeded and previously unbeaten team from Garden Grove, 18-17, 10-15, 15-10, in the first round of the Southern Section badminton playoffs last Saturday at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

For the first time in six years, a Glendale boys’ team will compete in the semifinals, to be held Friday at Dominguez Hills.

Lee and Chu had an inauspicious start, however. First, they were listed as the No. 1 team from Glendora --a significantly weaker team--on the draw sheet. Next, they fell behind, 12-1, in the first game against Garden Grove.

Glendale Coach Pat Rogerson says the performance of Lee and Chu, who were not seeded, came as no surprise.

“It wasn’t a fluke,” she said. “They are honestly a championship-quality doubles team and the only reason they were not seeded was that we had not gotten them into tournaments.”

There was no denying the fact that Glendale twins Angela and Christian Armendariz deserved the top seeding in the girls’ doubles division. The twins, the 1989 national 18-and-under doubles champions, are attempting to win an unprecedented fourth Southern Section title.

They advanced to the semifinals by defeating teams from El Monte, 15-1, 15-1; Long Beach Jordan, 15-1, 15-1; and Buena Park 15-2, 15-5.

“They are truly exceptional athletes,” Rogerson said of the twins. “When they get into any trouble they are able to pull themselves together and have what it takes athletically to come through. They have that champion drive.”

Flying high: After throwing a personal-record 208 feet, 5 inches in the Southern California junior college prelims two weeks ago, Glendale College’s Steve Barnett dropped off slightly Saturday and finished fourth at 203-8 in the championships at Cerritos College. Barnett did, however, qualify for the state finals this weekend at Fresno City College.

Richard Doering of Riverside won the title with a meet-record throw of 219-5.

Karen Myers, also of Glendale, finished second in the women’s discus (131-1) and javelin (128-10). Teammate Marji Gilles placed third in javelin (127-2). Both Myers and Gilles qualified for the state championships.

The Glendale women’s team finished sixth in overall standings with 37 points behind El Camino (141), Mt. San Antonio (80), San Diego Mesa (59), Bakersfield (45), and Riverside (38).

On track: Sixteen men and women will represent Occidental in the NCAA Division III track championships in Naperville, Ill., next week.

Competing in the men’s division will be: Jeff Sundquist (100 meters, 200, 4 x 100 relay); Lionel Shaw (800, 1,500); Chris Tregillis (800); Emmet Hogan (5,000); Jeff Bedell (decathlon); Ron Cunningham (100, 4 x 100); Alan Loveless (4 x 100); and Ben White (long jump, triple jump and 4 x 100).

Competing in the women’s division will be: Glenda Mitchell (400, 400 hurdles and heptathlon); Heather Beach (triple jump); Michele Trimble (1,500, 3,000 and 5,000); Jenny Lawrence (heptathlon); Louise Coulter (shotput and discus); and other 4 x 100 relay members Tricia Heine, Shannon Haack and Nancy McKrell.