Narbonne’s 14-5 Victory Is a Big Hit

Fourteen runs can do wonders to erase frustration. Narbonne High baseball Coach Nick Van Lue knows the feeling.

On Wednesday, Van Lue watched his team leave 15 runners on base in a 6-3 loss to Gardena in a Southern Pacific Conference game. On Thursday, host Narbonne had 11 hits in a 14-5 victory over Gardena.

“We had a little team meeting before the game,” Van Lue said. “We decided we needed to be a little more aggressive at the plate.”

Third baseman Richard Fordiani went right to work, hitting a grand slam--his fourth home run of the season--to cap Narbonne’s five-run first inning.

Eight batters went to the plate in the second inning as Narbonne scored four more runs. In the third, Walt Toniolo hit a three-run homer to give the Gauchos a 12-1 lead.

Narbonne sophomore right-hander Craig Valenzuela, using a mix of fastballs, sliders and split-fingered fastballs, limited Gardena to four earned runs on eight hits.

Second baseman David Inana, who singled, doubled and tripled, led Gardena’s attack.

Valenzuela started the season as the No. 2 starter, but with a 4-2 record, he has become Van Lue’s ace.

“Craig keeps the tempo of the ballgame going,” Van Lue said. “He works fast and stays around the plate, and that keeps the guys behind him in the game.”

The Gauchos backed Valenzuela with sturdy defense. Narbonne shortstop Paco Cervantes, who was three of three with a pair of doubles and three RBIs, made a nice defensive play in the sixth inning on a ground ball by Gardena’s Ramiro Lopez.

Narbonne improved to 5-6-1 and 5-5-1 in the Southern League. The Gauchos are a game behind Washington for the league’s berth in the City Section Division 3-A playoffs. Gardena dropped to 8-9 and 6-4 in the Pacific League.

Loyola 15, St. Bernard 6--The Cubs battered St. Bernard pitching for 13 hits for a non-league victory at Loyola.

“Our pitching has just fallen apart in the last two games,” said St. Bernard Coach Bob Yarnall, whose team lost, 20-15, to Loyola on Tuesday. Loyola rallied for 11 runs in the top of the seventh inning to erase a 14-9 St. Bernard lead.

“It’s frustrating,” Yarnall said. “(Loyola is) the type of team that, once they get going, they’re tough to stop. Everyone looked like King Kong on that team. They just kept hitting the ball.”

Loyola, in last place in the Del Rey League, rallied from a 6-0 deficit against the Camino Real League co-leaders by scoring four runs in the fourth inning, one in the fifth and 10 in the sixth. St. Bernard used five pitchers after using seven on Tuesday, when the teams combined for 35 hits, including 11 home runs, at St. Bernard.

“It makes you wonder,” Yarnall said. “We’ve been getting good pitching until this week. It’s very sobering. Hopefully we can get it back together against Chaminade.”

The Vikings, 11-4 and ranked fifth in the Southern Section 2-A Division, play a doubleheader today at Chaminade of West Hills starting at 10 a.m.

Andy Dawson drove in four runs on a bases-loaded single and a sacrifice fly, Jeff Richardson was two of three with an RBI and two stolen bases, and John Coleman was two of four with a stolen base to lead St. Bernard.

San Pedro 18, Washington 1--Rex Olmeda homered twice and combined with Arnie Madrid to drive in eight runs as the Pirates used a 20-hit attack in a Southern-Pacific Conference game at San Pedro.

Olmeda was three of five and Madrid was three of four. Each had four RBIs as the Pirates avenged a 5-3 loss to Washington on Wednesday.

San Pedro is 10-7-1 and 6-4-1 in conference play heading into Tuesday’s game against rival Banning at San Pedro.

Left-hander Joel Barton (1-1) pitched a five-hitter.