Monroe Begins Postseason Healing Process, 4-2

Apparently, it takes a full body cast to keep Adam Clark, Monroe High’s catcher, out of the lineup. When he was 15 years old, Clark broke his right ankle, got tired of waiting for it to heal, and had his father saw off the cast after four weeks so he could resume playing in Little League.

“He knew what he was doing,” said Clark, a senior. “He’s a paramedic.”.

A month ago, Clark broke the index finger on his right hand, and after missing a couple of games, again started chomping at the bit.

“Adam waited about a week before he took off all the tape and bit the skin off,” Monroe’s Tim Costic said. “He got bored and started chewing the dead skin away.”

The tape was back for Friday’s City Section 4-A Division first-round playoff game, and, wounded or not, Clark hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning to put San Fernando under wraps as the Vikings rallied for a 4-2 win at Monroe. Tuesday, Monroe (11-10) will play at Palisades, which on Friday defeated Poly, 5-3.

With the score tied, 2-2, Clark belted a Frank Serna fastball over the fence in left, scoring Costic, who had opened the inning with a triple. The homer, Clark’s third, handed defending champion Monroe its sixth consecutive playoff victory over two years and its second win in a row over the Tigers, who the Vikings defeated, 3-2, in the 1988 final.

Are the playoffs a panacea?

“We like to experiment around and try some new things in league,” cracked Monroe Coach Kevin Campbell, in reference to his team’s less-than-sterling 8-8 record in Mid-Valley League play. “But, hey, we’re a veteran playoff club. And, obviously, I’m kidding.”

There wasn’t much for Campbell to giggle about early on. Serna (7-5) was nearly unhittable in the first four innings, allowing just an unearned run in the third while striking out seven.

San Fernando (16-7-1) took a 2-0 lead in the second on a run-scoring triple to right-center by Richard Sanchez and a two-out error by Josh Lawrence on John Najar’s grounder to third.

Sean Henson, a junior left-hander, blanked the Tigers thereafter and finished with a six-hitter. Henson (5-5), who struck out 10 in the final last year, struck out nine and walked one.

The Monroe defense helped out, turning double plays to end the third, fourth and fifth innings.

“The middle infield was great,” Costic said. “Did this look familiar, or what?”

San Fernando, uncharacteristically, was unable to mobilize offensively. Four San Fernando players were asked to execute sacrifice bunts, and four times they failed.

“This was terrible,” San Fernando Coach Steve Marden said. “We did not execute, we did not play defense, we didn’t even cover bases on steal attempts.”

Indeed, when Monroe scored a run in the fifth to forge a 2-2 tie, San Fernando committed two errors of record and a mental miscue when nobody covered second on a steal by Jeff Rubell. Rubell--Monroe’s No. 9-hitter--drove in Henson with the tying run on a two-out single to left.

San Fernando threatened in the sixth when Bobby Corrales was safe on a throwing error by shortstop Mike Enriquez and Rudy Sanchez followed with a single to left. Andrew Munoz, however, missed two sacrifice-bunt attempts and eventually struck out.

Henson followed by striking out pinch-hitter Fernando Ortega on three pitches, and after Richard Sanchez beat out a bunt single to load the bases, Henson struck out Najar on three pitches.

Costic, who struck out in his first two appearences against Serna, tripled to right-center to lead off the Monroe sixth. Clark then belted Serna’s first offering over the temporary fence in left.

“He doesn’t make contact sometimes in that same situation,” Campbell said. “But about two times out of 10, he really comes through.”

Monroe, for some reason, seems to flourish as an underdog during the playoffs. As a reminder of last season’s championship, Campbell hung a press clipping in the dugout. It showed Henson being mobbed after the final out at Dodger Stadium.

“The playoffs bring out the best in us,” Henson said. “No one predicts us to win, so we have nothing to lose and we come out relaxed.”