American Legion Baseball / Steve Elling : Late Addition of Unter a Plus for Panorama City

Scott Smith was chatting with two of his Panorama City players as the season opener neared when he asked Dave Garcia and Shane Wight of L. A. Baptist High if there were other players from the school who might be interested in, and capable of, joining them on the team.

At first, nobody came to mind.

“Then they both started chuckling under their breath,” Smith said. “They said Dave Unter might be able to help out some.”

Might? It didn’t take long for Unter to move from afterthought to forefront. Unter, a right-hander, has shouldered much of the pitching load for Panorama City (11-4), the surprise team of District 20. Unter is 4-0 with a save and has allowed only seven earned runs in 35 innings.

And, at 6-foot-5, it’s difficult to get one over Unter.

“He’s built more like a basketball player than a pitcher,” said Smith, who should know because he is the basketball coach at St. Genevieve High. “He doesn’t throw real hard, but he knows how to pitch.”

Unter’s best outing was June 25 when he threw a two-hitter in a 5-0 win over Woodland Hills East, which entered the game in first place in the Western Division. Last season at L. A. Baptist, Unter was 8-2 with an earned-run average of 2.06.

“He was the last kid we added to the roster,” Smith said. “Now I’m glad I asked those guys that question.”

At least they’ll be tan: When Woodland Hills East lost Brett Reisner and Jason Shapiro last Wednesday in an outfield collision, it left the team on the ropes in terms of personnel. Sunday, nine players showed up for East in a 12-0 loss to Sun Valley.

Shapiro broke his nose and loosened several teeth in the mishap and it took seven stitches to close a gash in Reisner’s right eyelid. The team is now so short on players that Reisner has continued to play, even though his eye keeps swelling shut during games, Coach Matt Borzello said.

Borzello concedes that any more closed eyes might spell disaster.

“If we have a guy oversleep, we’re in big trouble,” Borzello said.

Injuries are somewhat expected, but East also has been KOd by, of all things, summer vacation. Starting pitcher Chris Brown is in Italy, catcher Adam Zutler and infielder Mike Kimelman are on a Club Med trip, and Shapiro is also vacationing out of town, Borzello said.

Just two weeks ago, West (8-6) was leading District 20’s Western Division; the team has since lost five in a row. It’s almost enough to make Borzello sprint for the border too.

“It’s hard to believe this team was 8-1,” Borzello said. “We’re just going to try to hang on until we get some players back. Maybe we can make a run and get back in it.”

Next time, you can walk: With five games left in the regular season, time is running out on Woodland Hills West right-hander Lance Gibson’s quest to win 20 games in his Legion career.

Gibson is 18-3 in his three seasons with West, and if he misses out, he probably will remember his first loss of 1989 more than any of the others.

Gibson (5-1) was dealt his first loss this season on Sunday when he was bested by Encino-Crespi right-hander Dan Carroll, who struck out 10 in a 6-3 win. Last season, Carroll and Gibson, who both live in Woodland Hills, were teammates at College of the Canyons.

“They used to drive to school together,” said West Coach Gary Gibson, Lance’s father. “They’re pretty good friends.”

If Gibson reaches the 20-win plateau, he would become only the second player in the past decade of District 20 play to achieve the feat. According to District Commissioner Mel Swerdling, Jeff Britt of North Hollywood--a right-hander who later pitched at UCLA--won 20 games over three seasons, starting in 1979.

Lumber and leather: The Woodland Hills West infield of Ryan McGuire at first, Paul Geller at second, Rick Banuelos at shortstop and Del Marine at third has made only five errors in 17 games.

The foursome isn’t bad with the stick, either, batting a collective .461 (89 for 193) with 67 RBIs.

Add lumber: Westlake-Agoura, which is 19-1-2 after winning the Gene Waid Memorial tournament with a 7-6 victory over Camarillo at Camarillo High on Monday, is batting .375 and averaging 10.5 runs a game.

Westlake-Agoura (9-0 in District 16 play) has won 12 in a row and is unbeaten in 16 games.

In what should be a battle of teams with the best records and hitting in Districts 16 and 20, respectively, Westlake-Agoura will play host to Woodland Hills West on July 11 at Westlake High.

Late starters: Third baseman Keyaan Cook hit nine home runs and batted .500 as a junior at Montclair Prep last season, his third season as a starter for the Mounties. Last week, Cook was named to the all-state Small Schools team by Cal-Hi Sports.

But because of conflicts with work, Cook has been able to play only three games for the Reseda Legion team. But when he’s there, he has made an impact.

Cook drove in the winning run in Sunday’s 4-3 victory over Palmdale with a two-out single in the 10th inning. Overall, Cook is seven for 13, but he has yet to hit a home run.

“I keep telling him to take a good look around at the Reseda field,” Reseda Coach Frank DesEnfants said. “It’s made for him. If he plays more often, he might be hitting them out all the time.”

Add Reseda: Reseda’s June 14 game against Woodland Hills West that was called after 6 1/3 innings after the sprinklers came on at El Camino Real High will be resumed at 11 a.m. Saturday at Reseda with West leading, 4-3.

The regularly scheduled game between the Western Division rivals will follow. West (14-3) leads the division and Reseda (10-4) is second.

Unsafe at home, too: Woodland Hills West catcher Bobby Kim was ejected by the base umpire after arguing a call at second base in Saturday’s 10-9 win over Newhall-Saugus.

A day later, while playing catcher, he was tossed by the plate umpire after arguing about the strike zone in a 6-3 loss to Encino-Crespi.