THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Aggressive Approach at Plate a Hit With Hungry Hoover Batters

Callous as it sounds, a line drive that plunks the opposing pitcher might elicit cheers from the Hoover High dugout, glee from the batter.

Bloodthirsty? No, just hungry.

In order to encourage his players to drive the ball up the middle, Coach Bob Cooper awards accurate hitters with a free lunch. Designated-hitter Steve Avilas earned his meal ticket last week after nailing a Muir pitcher in the leg with a comebacker.

Tornado batters have learned to pick their spots, however.

Five years ago, Cooper was hit while pitching batting practice. Art Hoyes pounded a shot that skimmed the top of the pitching screen, dipped down and drilled his coach in the small of the back.

“I bent over and it hit me in the back and it just about knocked me out,” Cooper said. “People thought I was a dead man. It was a vicious line drive.”

Hoyes bought his own lunch, of course.

Smith surprise: Agoura Coach Gary Gray was not sure what to expect from his pitching staff before the season, but he has been pleasantly surprised--especially with Brian Smith’s contribution.

Smith, a senior who has signed a letter of intent to play first base at Arizona State, was an All-Frontier League third baseman who hit .449 last year. Yet he has taken the mound seven times this season and has left with four wins.

Last week, Smith earned the decision in both of Agoura’s wins and helped the Chargers improve to 9-8 overall, 4-0 in league play.

Smith, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, threw three scoreless innings of relief and struck out four in a 7-4 win over Calabasas on Tuesday. In three innings of relief Friday, he struck out six and allowed his first earned run in Agoura’s nine-inning, 2-1 defeat of Santa Ynez. He is 4-0 with an earned-run average of 0.58.

“He threw three strong innings against Santa Ynez, but he said he was feeling strong and was ready to go as many as we needed on Friday,” Gray said. “He’s been good for our pitching. A real surprise package.”

Near perfection: San Fernando junior Canto Franco finished with a one-hitter in a 3-0 win over Taft last Thursday, but Coach Steve Marden said the left-hander’s performance was as close to flawless as he has seen.

According to Marden, Franco did not throw a ball in the first three innings. Of the 83 pitches Franco threw in the seven-inning game, 64 were strikes and 19 were balls. Franco (4-0) struck out seven and walked one.

“It was as good a high school pitching performance as I’ve seen,” Marden said. “I call the pitch and location, so I know when he’s on, when he’s hitting the spots. He was right there.”

Bleacher race: Followers of track and field might have wondered why 100 or so athletes and fans darted to the top of the grandstands of the Mt. San Antonio College stadium during Friday’s portion of the Mt. SAC Relays.

No, concessionaires weren’t handing out free food. Rather, a skunk was discovered by several Upland High runners in the middle of the bleachers.

As the animal made a dash for cover, so did several spectators.

During the 1988 Southern Section cross-country finals at Mt. SAC, a skunk was found rummaging through a garbage can near the track, sending numerous people hunting for nose clips.

Cutting it close: Canoga Park’s 4-0 defeat of Cleveland last Thursday--the Hunters’ first victory of the year--was closer than the score indicates.

In the seventh inning, Cleveland loaded the bases against Doug Van Horn (1-5), who finished with a three-hitter. Horn retired Bobby McRae on a line drive to short to end the game--with All-City Section outfielder Pat Bryant on deck.

Canoga Park Coach Tom Smith has seen it all before.

“That’s one of those things where it seems like every other time we’ve been in a situation like that this year, the guy would hit it in the gap,” Smith said.

Smith said Van Horn’s shutout was the first by a Canoga Park player since 1988, when Adam Schulhofer (UCLA) and Mike Kerber (Canyons, previously at UCLA) routinely handled the West Valley League.

Seniority and superiority: Benji Belfield and Brett Reisner were selected Taft co-captains for a reason. Namely, the pair had the most experience among a group of very young returning players.

“They were the only logical choices,” Taft Coach Rich McKeon said.

Let’s hear it for logic.

Belfield and Reisner have shouldered most of the Taft load, with Belfield batting .435 and Reisner at .429 at the start of the week.

Belfield, a shortstop-pitcher, has a team-high 22 runs batted in, five doubles and four home runs, and he has a pitching record of 3-1 with one save. Reisner is tied with Belfield in hits with 27, leads the team in steals with nine and has 18 RBIs from his leadoff position.

Add Taft: Senior outfielder Jamie Zeichick, one of four seniors on the team, left the Toreadors, McKeon said.

Zeichick batted cleanup much of the season and was batting .265 with three extra-base hits and eight RBIs when he left the team during spring break.

“He just wasn’t happy,” McKeon said. “It’s too bad, because I was really looking for him to hit a few homers and drive in some runs for us.”

Injury update: Chaminade’s Jeff Burdick, who missed most of football season because of an ankle injury, has recovered, baseball Coach George Vranau said.

Burdick, an outfielder, is batting .377 with six doubles, five bunt singles and 11 stolen bases in 11 attempts.

Joe Costa, another injured Chaminade player, is not faring so well. Costa was hit in the hand by a pitch early in the season and his right index finger was smashed against the bat. A month has passed but the finger is still too tender for him to grip a bat or throw a ball.

Mike Glaze and staff writers Steve Elling, Sam Farmer, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.