THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Rival Throws San Fernando Slugger a Curve by Offering Fastball

San Fernando High designated-hitter John Najar was preparing to step into the batter’s box against Kennedy when he made eye contact with Kennedy baseball Coach Manny Alvarado.

Alvarado was standing outside the Golden Cougars’ dugout flashing signs to catcher Lazaro Campos. Najar said something and smiled at Alvarado, who two seasons ago was an assistant at San Fernando when Najar was a sophomore.

Responded a grinning Alvarado: “What do you want, a fastball?”

Najar smiled and nodded his head. The head game had begun.

Here comes the curve, Najar thought.

A few seconds later, Cody Beaumaster threw Najar a belt-high fastball--but Najar took it for a called strike, then dejectedly looked away.

“I know Johnny real well,” Alvarado said. “He’s a dead fastball hitter. He doesn’t handle the curve too well.”

San Fernando Coach Steve Marden laughed when he heard about the exchange. In fact, one gets the impression that Alvarado might have learned the trick from Marden.

“You can play some pretty good mind games sometimes,” Marden said. “You give them the pitch they want and they don’t really expect to see it. I’ve done that before. It makes them start thinking.

“But I’ll tell you what. I bet if it happens again, they don’t throw Najar another fastball.”

Najar already has four home runs this season.

Add San Fernando: The pitching motion of sophomore right-hander Rick Savala, who pitches out of a pronounced tuck, is more than similar to that of former Tiger ace Frank Serna.

As it turns out, Serna helped tutor several members of the San Fernando staff in the preseason, including Savala. As in Serna’s delivery, Savala’s left knee almost comes in contact with his left elbow--if not his jaw--just before he uncoils. Marden jokes that there is another reason the motions appear similar.

“I guess basically what this means is that we haven’t changed our coaching much in the last four years,” Marden said.

Savala’s reaction to comparisons?

“He said he wouldn’t mind putting up some of the same numbers Frank did,” Marden said.

Serna, who was placed in the rotation while injured starter Bobby Aparicio recovered from an arm injury, was selected to the All-City Section 4-A Division team as a sophomore.

Auspicious start: Marmonte League teams are 31-9-1 during preseason play. Westlake (6-0) won the El Segundo tournament and Camarillo (6-1) was the Westside tournament’s Blue Division champion but might have to forfeit the title because the Scorpions violated the new state rule limiting pitchers to 30 innings during a calendar week.

Channel Islands (5-1), Thousand Oaks (3-0), Royal (3-1), Newbury Park (5-3-1), and Simi Valley (3-3) have combined to support the notion that the league is one of the richest in talent in the Southern Section. League play begins today.

“Unfortunately, the league looks like it may be as tough as ever,” Camarillo Coach Jack Willard said.

Into orbit: Forfeit or no, Camarillo is the surprise team thus far.

“People probably think we’ll come back to Earth, but maybe we are on Earth,” Willard said. “I’d like to think we are.”

Nonetheless, Willard said that the Scorpions aren’t contenders until they prove themselves in league play.

“I still think the pressure is on Simi Valley, Westlake and Thousand Oaks,” Willard said.

Stinging the Scorpions: Chatsworth second baseman Nestor Martinez made an impression on Willard in Camarillo’s 4-2 win over Chatsworth in the Westside tournament Blue Division final Saturday.

Martinez slapped a double off the fence in right-center to give Chatsworth a 1-0 lead in the first inning, lined a shot that pitcher Eric Raba stabbed in the third, singled in the fifth, and lined out to left in the seventh.

“I don’t care if I never see that kid again, ever,” Willard said.

He has 20-20 hindsight: Kennedy’s 12-0 loss to Camarillo last week left Alvarado looking for a familiar face.

“I didn’t recognize those guys,” Alvarado said of his team, which managed two hits and made six errors. “We were lucky we only lost 12-0.”

Alvarado said that his statistics show that through errors, bases on balls, wild pitches and passed balls, Kennedy allowed Camarillo to take 20 extra bases.

Inside out: Marion Jones has competed outdoors only once this season, but the Rio Mesa sprinter already has made an impact indoors.

Jones, 14, won the 200 meters in the National Junior Indoor National championships in Syracuse, N.Y., last weekend in 24.40 seconds, breaking the freshman national record she set earlier in the meet.

She ranks as the fifth-fastest female high school performer, regardless of age. Jones ran 24.43 in the prelims to shatter the previous mark of 25.06.

In the Sunkist Invitational at the Sports Arena in January, Jones also set a freshman record in the 50-yard dash, clocking 6.53--a mark that ranks as the sixth fastest of all time.

Sending out an SOS: Poly is 5-2 with wins in its first three Mid-Valley League baseball games and is ranked among the area’s top 10 teams by The Times. So why is Coach Jerry Cord concerned? Put simply, Poly is having trouble knocking in runs.

Before last week’s league opener against Sylmar, Poly had stranded 43 runners in its first four games. In a 7-6 win over Sylmar, Poly left the bases loaded in each of the last three innings.

That’s strange, considering that Poly has some of the area’s better hitters in Roy Lozano, Jonathan Campbell, Gabe Chavez and Rodrigo Dorame.

“It’s nothing new,” Cord said with a sigh after the Sylmar game. “It’s incredible, but that’s us.”

Nonetheless, Poly still wins.

“Yeah,” Cord said, smiling. “We’re gonna be all right. Hey, a win’s a win.”

Long streak: Royal’s top-ranked Southern Section 2-A boys’ volleyball team won its 21st consecutive match Tuesday, a five-game victory over second-ranked Canyon (2-1), the last team to beat Royal.

Travis Ferguson set Royal records with 73 assists and 13 digs. Those marks bettered Dean Borth’s 1989 record of 68 assists, and Adam White’s two-week-old record of 11 digs. Royal (4-0) has won 23 consecutive home matches.

Kirby Lee and staff writers Steve Elling, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.