PREP BASEBALL ROUNDUP : St. Bernard Whitewashes Bishop Montgomery, 6-0, as Diver Hurls 1-Hitter

In each of the past three years, St. Bernard High School Coach Bob Yarnall has been able to count on clutch hitting from one standout player.

But former St. Bernard stars Tim Williams, Royce Clayton and Dan Melendez--the Southern Section Division 1-A players of the year in the past three seasons--are gone now, off to college or pro ranks.

“At the beginning of the season, I knew we were going to have to play team baseball,” Yarnall said. “I knew we wouldn’t be able to count on Tim, Royce or Danny to hit the big home run for us.”

Maybe not, but getting one-hit shutouts out of junior right-hander Andy Diver certainly can’t hurt the Vikings any. Diver (3-0) struck out seven Thursday night en route to blanking host Bishop Montgomery, 6-0, at Torrance Park for his first career shutout.

Diver allowed only two balls to get out of the infield all evening. Both did minor damage.

Bishop Montgomery shortstop Curtis Bowman’s line single to left field in the bottom of the third inning broke up Diver’s no-hit bid.

And Erik Geierman’s long foul in the seventh, though it counted only for a strike, was the most noise Bishop Montgomery made all night. The ball sailed over the railroad tracks next to the baseball field and clanged off the hull of an armored personnel carrier in the National Guard armory motor pool.

On the next pitch, Geierman grounded to short to end the game.

St. Bernard (4-1) got the only run it needed in the fourth inning when second baseman Sean Dunbar muscled a fastball from Armando Cervantes over the 30-foot-high fence in right field for a solo home run.

In the bottom half of the inning, Dunbar made a spectacular diving stop to his right and gunned to first in time to rob Bishop’s Abad Cabrera of a base hit.

Cervantes (0-1), a hard-throwing right-hander, kept Bishop Montgomery in the game, striking out four on two hits through the first five innings. But the Vikings chased him in the sixth, scratching out four runs on two walks, a pair of errors and three soft singles.

Bishop Montgomery dropped to 1-4-2. “We’re struggling,” Coach Bob Anderson said. “We just need to put all the parts of our game together at one time.”

Miraleste 13, South Torrance 12--Sophomore Jason Brown hit a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Marauders to victory in an exciting non-league game at Miraleste’s cozy field.

Miraleste (4-1) erased a 9-4 deficit with six runs in the sixth, capped by Jeff Goldstein’s grand slam. South (2-5), however, came back to take a 12-10 lead with three runs in the seventh.

In the bottom of the inning, Miraleste catcher Mike Cooper homered to left and Jason Mavar walked. Brown, son of former Rolling Hills football Coach John Brown, then homered to left.

Cooper went three for four to raise his batting average to .700 (14 for 20). Mavar, a senior right-hander, pitched the seventh in relief to improve his record to 3-0.

Mavar is scheduled to start on the mound Saturday at 1 p.m. when Miraleste faces host Redondo in the first round of the Palos Verdes/Redondo Tournament.

Beverly Hills 13, Mira Costa 0--Right-hander D. J. Sutton pitched a two-hitter, struck out 13 and had two hits and an RBI to lead the Normans to a non-league victory at Mira Costa.

Mira Costa, which struck out 12 times Wednesday in a 16-1 loss to Torrance, fell to 1-6 on the season. “No one is getting it done,” Coach Jim Beaumont said. “Hopefully we’ll start playing better and running into teams that are not so hot.”

South Bay’s Baseball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters Through Wednesday’s Games Rank, School, League, Record

1 El Segundo (Camino Real) 4-1

2 Torrance (Bay) 6-1

3 Hawthorne (Bay) 3-2

4 Miraleste (Santa Fe) 3-1

5 St. Bernard (Camino Real) 3-2

6 Banning (Pacific) 4-3

7 Palos Verdes (Bay) 3-3

8 Redondo (Ocean) 3-2

9 San Pedro (Pacific) 3-3

10 South Torrance (Ocean) 2-4