American Legion Baseball Playoffs : Silva’s Stature Grows in Win Over Sun Valley

Although he stands just 5-foot-7 and weighs only 140 pounds, pitcher Oscar Silva continues to baffle Sun Valley batters.

Silva, a right-hander who will be a junior at Canyon High, scattered seven hits and struck out four as Newhall-Saugus defeated Sun Valley, 12-2, in a first-round District 20 playoff game Wednesday at Pierce College.

Three weeks ago, Silva (2-1) limited Sun Valley to three hits en route to a 8-3 win.

This time, Silva received support from 10 Newhall-Saugus hits and six Sun Valley errors. The game was called after the seventh inning because of the 10-run rule.

Newhall-Saugus (18-5) broke a 2-2 tie by scoring seven runs in the fifth, three of which came on a double down the first-base line by Scott Warr.

Harold Whiteside had tied the score for Sun Valley (13-10) in the previous inning with a solo home run.

Whiteside and Marlon McKinney each had two hits and Abel Trujillo had three hits to account for the Sun Valley offense.

Shad Martinez was tabbed with six of Newhall-Saugus’ seven runs in the fifth as well as the loss.

Newhall-Saugus will play Panorama City today at 4 p.m. at Birmingham High in the double-elimination tournament.

In other games:

Panorama City 3, Woodland Hills East 0--Right-hander Rolland De La Maza held Woodland Hills East to three hits and struck out four to lift second-seeded Panorama City in a first-round District 20 game at Birmingham High.

David Garcia, who reached base on a bunt single, scored on Shane Wight’s triple in the third. Herman Merchan drove in Adam Clark with a double in the sixth and Joey Cascione singled home Garcia in the eighth.

Panorama City will play Newhall-Saugus today at 4 p.m. at Birmingham. Woodland Hills East will play Sun Valley today at 4 p.m. at Pierce.

Encino-Crespi 4, Lancaster 2--Mark Venturine hit a single off Lancaster pitcher Mark Hartman’s leg with the bases loaded in the sixth inning to score a run and help Encino-Crespi pull away in a first-round District 20 game at Pierce College.

Fifth-seeded Encino-Crespi (14-9) scored on an error in the third and Victor Seper’s single in the fifth before Venturine’s shot and Chris Romero’s sacrifice fly accounted for two in the sixth. Lancaster (15-8), seeded fourth, scored in the fifth and sixth.

Pat Bennett, a right-hander who will be a senior at Crespi High, improved his record to 5-2 with the win.

Dan Carroll collected his third save after Bennett walked the leadoff batter in the ninth.

Crespi will play Woodland Hills West today at 12:30 p.m. at Birmingham High. Lancaster will play Burbank today at 12:30 at Pierce.

Westlake-Agoura 8, Conejo 5--Dan Freedman and Mike Lieberthal each collected two hits and two RBIs as Westlake rolled in a District 16 regular-season game at Westlake High.

Westlake-Agoura (24-2-4), which has already clinched the district championship, answered Conejo’s two-run first inning with two runs in the first, two in the second and three in the fourth.

Right-hander Bobby Kazmirski (5-0) scattered five hits and struck out five in five innings. Left-hander Mike Goldstein cleaned up by striking out three and allowing a hit in two innings of work.

Freedman, Lieberthal and Joey Medaglia each doubled for Westlake.

The game was called after seven innings because of darkness.

Brent Christenson doubled for Conejo (8-10). Christenson was Conejo’s starting pitcher and he was relieved by Mike Lee in the sixth.

Each team committed four errors.