THE HIGH SCHOOLS : El Camino Real Pitcher Treend Finds Merit in Association With Scouts

El Camino Real High right-hander Pat Treend calls them his “three-fingered friends.”

Hmmm. Might this be his term for an avant-garde changeup?

No. Treend is referring to his associates in the Boy Scouts, who salute with three fingers. Unbeknown to many of his schoolmates, Treend will become an Eagle Scout in a ceremony April 29.

“Most guys don’t stick with it this long,” said Treend, a senior. “When they get into high school, they find other things to do.”

Treend has been quite busy. He originally planned to complete the final task in his quest to become an Eagle Scout --a 200-hour community service project--last summer. He was delayed, however, because of his commitment to the Woodland Hills West baseball team, which won the American Legion World Series in August.

“The season lasted a little longer than I expected,” said Treend, who is considering scholarship offers from UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly Pomona. “I didn’t finish until around November.”

For his final project Treend, whose size at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds is hardly boyish, designed and constructed an information center that is now a permanent part of the ecology pond at the Chatsworth Reservoir. The information center includes pamphlets and literature on the ecology pond and surrounding environment, Treend said.

Add El Camino Real: Senior first baseman Ryan McGuire admitted he was nervous when he stepped to the plate with runners on first and third in the top of the first inning against Taft last Thursday. He had cause to be concerned:

* El Camino Real is ranked No. 1 in the Valley by The Times, but the game against Taft was El Camino Real’s opener. Taft entered the game 3-0.

* After being selected the state’s sophomore player of the year (he batted .397), McGuire stumbled to a one-for-15 start as a junior and finished with a .294 average. The team started 1-7.

* McGuire finished last season with just nine runs batted in. In his first at-bat in 1990, he had teammates hugging the corners.

Foremost in his mind, McGuire said, was to put all that behind him. “We thought we were a pretty good ballclub,” he said. “We were really excited about being No. 1. We were all nervous, especially since it was the start of the season.”

McGuire lined a run-scoring single his first time up, added a home run in the third inning and finished the day with five runs batted in--more than half of his ’89 total.

“I’m kind of glad (the first game) is over,” he said.

International appeal: Many area baseball fans are familiar with the feats of Rio Mesa’s Dmitri Young, named the best freshman and sophomore player in the state in his respective seasons on the varsity.

While playing on an all-star team last August, McGuire and Young toured South Korea. McGuire says Young convinced everyone that the best is yet to come.

“He was unbelievable,” McGuire said. “He was hitting them out all over the place. Shoot, he hit two home runs in one game. The fans loved him. They were even asking for his autograph.”

Spelling R-E-L-I-E-F: Ever wonder how relief pitchers become legendary, how they end up with nicknames like Goose, the Mad Hungarian or Wild Thing? It’s usually because when relievers enter the late-inning equation, things become anything but routine. Consider the case of Grant’s Steve Pelote.

During most of last Wednesday’s 6-5 win over North Hollywood, Pelote played at second base. In the top of the seventh, though, the Huskies threatened. With two runners on, Erik Martinez doubled to drive in a run. Martinez and Duane Braxton both ended up on third base on the play, however, and Martinez was tagged for the second out.

In came Pelote, with the winning run at the plate. Pelote’s first pitch was in the dirt and caromed away from catcher Steve Garden. Braxton tried to score from third, but Garden retrieved the ball and fired to Pelote, who tagged Braxton amid a cloud of dust for the game’s final out.

Pelote’s brief relief stint: One pitch (wild). One put-out. One-third of an inning. One save.

A moniker for Pelote (pronounced Puh-LOTT)? How about One-shot Pelote?

A different hit parade: In volleyball, statistics are kept on the number of times a player successfully bashes the ball onto the opponent’s side of the floor. It’s called a hitting percentage. As a player at Chatsworth, Mark Root hit as successfully as anybody, well enough to earn a scholarship to Pepperdine.

He now stars at Cal State Northridge.

His younger brother Mitch is continuing the family tradition by slugging at a high-percentage rate, although it is called a batting average in Mitch’s pastime.

Nonetheless, as in volleyball, the higher the average, the better. In his first five games, Mitch, a junior shortstop in his first year on the varsity, had eight hits in 18 at-bats and 10 runs batted in.

Mitch also has recorded his own version of the stuff block; as a reliever he has two saves.

Tri-star: John Johnson of Palmdale suddenly is a three-sport athlete.

Johnson was the only player chosen on offense and defense on the All-Golden League football team and also earned all-league recognition as a guard on the basketball team. Now, he has joined the Falcons’ baseball team.

Johnson, who has never played baseball in high school, is spending a lot of time in the dugout. But not for long, Coach Terry Vernor said.

“He’s got good speed,” Vernor said. “If nothing else, I’ll use him as a pinch-runner.”

Big man on the mound: Moorpark right-handed reliever Jake Sepulveda is a big, er, kid. Sepulveda stands 6-4 and weighs at least, Coach David Rhoades says, 260 pounds.

While he promised to end speculation soon by leading Big Jake to a scale, Rhoades is more concerned with putting the hard-throwing senior on the mound.

“I anticipate using him a lot this year,” Rhoades said. “I’m hoping, maybe, he can come in and scare the batters.”