Prep Wrapup : Top Pitching Tosses South Bay From 4-A Baseball Tournament

After reports of its demise proved to be greatly exaggerated, the L.A. City Section 4-A baseball playoffs opened Friday, accompanied by the confusion you’d expect from a tournament thrown together on 24 hours’ notice.

For example:

* University High of West Los Angeles faced San Pedro without its starting catcher, Isaac Yoshinaga, because the team was unable to get in touch with him. “He never got the word,” Coach Frank Cruz said.

* San Pedro Coach Jerry Lovarov said one of his starters had to be called in from Palm Springs and another was about to depart for a camping trip to Mammoth. “We got him just as he was leaving,” Lovarov said.

* The site of the Banning-Grant game was changed from Banning to Grant in Van Nuys, four hours before starting time, when it was discovered that Grant had the better record.

* Gardena’s regular center fielder knew about the Mohicans’ game with Chatsworth, but failed to show. “I guess he felt like he wasn’t into it any more,” Coach Mike Sakurai said.

But the games were played, and that’s all anybody really wanted.

Unfortunately for the South Bay’s three entries, it was a quick exit from post-season play. San Pedro fell to University, 8-3, Banning dropped a 6-2 decision to Grant, and for the third straight year, Gardena lost in the first round to Chatsworth, 9-1.

In each case, area teams ran into superior pitching.

University’s Eric Alexander, a powerful right-hander who has signed with Oklahoma State and is expected to be a high draft choice, shut out San Pedro on two hits through five innings before leaving the game with an 8-0 lead.

Grant’s Javier Delahoya allowed six hits and struck out 11 against Banning, and Chatsworth aces Reed McMackin and Derek Wallace combined on a three-hitter and 10 strikeouts against Gardena.

San Pedro Coach Jerry Lovarov acknowledged that Alexander, who helped University to the City 3-A title last year, was one of the best pitchers the Pirates had faced. But he said the effects of the 11-day teachers’ strike had more to do with his team’s poor showing.

“The kids’ timing was way off because of the layoff,” Lovarov said.

Although San Pedro’s players continued to practice on their own throughout the strike, Friday’s game was the first time they had played since May 11.

El Segundo’s Cardiac Kids were at it again Friday.

In what is becoming a familiar scenario, the Eagles rallied for five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge visiting La Canada, 14-13, in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section 2-A baseball playoffs.

It was the fourth time this season El Segundo has won a game in the bottom of the last inning.

A sign of things to come came in the Eagles’ first two games. They rallied for three runs in the seventh to defeat Brea-Olinda, 7-5, in their opener and came back the next game with a run in the eighth to beat Alhambra, 8-7.

El Segundo worked its last-inning magic again May 10, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth to pull out a 6-5 win over St. Bernard for the Camino Real League title.

Friday the Eagles trailed 13-9 before overtaking La Canada on three hits, three walks, a sacrifice fly, a catcher’s interference and a suicide squeeze by sophomore Brett Newell that scored pinch-runner Steve Mortesen with the winning run with one out.

Second-seeded El Segundo (24-5) advances to the semifinals at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday against third-seeded Temple City (20-7) at Culver City High. It will be the Eagles’ 12th appearance in the semifinals in 30 years under Coach John Stevenson, who has guided El Segundo to five Southern Section titles. Its last championship was in 1979.

El Segundo went through its entire pitching staff against La Canada as four pitchers gave up a total of 19 hits. Junior right-hander Rob Croxall proved the most effective, giving up three hits and one earned run over the final two innings to notch his second win of the playoffs and improve to 7-4.

Stevenson said it was the first time this season that his pitchers had been lit up. La Canada out-homered the Eagles, 4-1.

“It was just one of those days,” he said. “Everything we threw up there turned into a base hit or a home run. (La Canada) got two bloop hits that fell in the infield behind our pitcher.”

Stevenson said he would start either Croxall or senior right-hander Rick Clark (8-0), who started Friday and gave up nine hits and six runs in 2 2/3 innings, on Tuesday. Croxall allowed no earned runs in nine innings pitched last week.

“Croxall is really pitching well, but his arm is a bit tired,” Stevenson said. “That’s why we didn’t go to him earlier (Friday). But Clark has been our ace all year. He’s had a lot of good games.”

Center fielder Erik Evans hit a grand slam in the second inning and finished with five RBIs. He leads the Eagles with six home runs and 37 RBIs.

When St. Bernard’s Dan Melendez stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the sixth inning Friday, Coach Bob Yarnall expected a grand slam.

“I thought he was going to hit it out,” he admitted.

Instead, Melendez grounded into a fielder’s choice that ended the inning and left San Marino with a 3-2 lead. San Marino came back with four runs in the bottom of the sixth off Melendez to build its advantage and went on to eliminate the Vikings, 7-3, in the quarterfinals of the CIF 2-A playoffs.

It was a rough way for Melendez to end a prolific prep career. He allowed 10 hits and a season-high five earned runs to suffer only his third loss in 14 decisions.

And although he finished the season with 12 home runs, his power waned in the last month. After hitting two home runs against Verbum Dei on April 26, he hit only one more in St. Bernard’s last eight games. He ended his career with 31 home runs, one shy of the Southern Section record held by former Simi Valley slugger Scott Sharts.

Yarnall said the pressure of carrying the team may have gotten to Melendez, who will play for Pepperdine next season.

“I think he was a little relieved when it was over,” he said. “He doesn’t have to carry the team any more. He’s going to be just another team member (in college).”

Melendez ended the season with a .527 batting average (39 for 74), 27 runs scored, 40 RBIs, an 11-3 pitching record and a 1.67 ERA.

Hawthorne’s 400-meter relay team set a state record for the second straight week Friday night at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College, where a shaky handoff on the last leg may have cost the Cougars a national record.

The team of Chris Alexander, Anthony Smith, Erik Allen and Curtis Conway broke the record they set two weeks ago at the 4-A Division finals with a time of 40.25 seconds. But Coach Kye Courtney said if Conway had not switched the baton from his left hand to his right after taking the handoff from Allen, Hawthorne would have become the first team to break the 40-second barrier.

The national 400 relay record is 40.00.

“If we hit him on the dead run, and he doesn’t switch (hands), it’s all over,” he told The Daily Breeze. “We’ll run 38 (seconds). Forget 39.”

Hawthorne will get another shot at the record this weekend at the state championships at Cerritos.

The Cougars moved into good position to capture their seventh state title of the 1980s by qualifying athletes in six events, including three in the 100 meters.

Prep Wrapup /Rob Fernas