Carson, University Have Sights Set on Ending Valley’s Baseball Reign

For nearly two decades, baseball teams from the San Fernando Valley have dominated the City 4-A Division, winning the last 17 titles, including Granada Hills Kennedy’s 4-3 victory over Palisades last spring.

This season, however, two non-Valley teams, Carson and University, have their sights set on ending the Valley’s reign. With nearly two weeks left in the regular season, Carson leads the Pacific League with a 10-1-2 record, and University is first in the Western League with a 12-1 mark.

Carson, which has a rich athletic history outside of baseball, has not won a league title in baseball since 1974, and last season, the Colts finished fourth in the Pacific League with a 7-14 record.

But with basically a team of juniors, the Colts have become the most improved team in the City this season with a 13-3-2 overall record. They are unbeaten in their last 12 games.

“We have been trying to keep our success low key,” Carson Coach Marty Blankenship said. “It is something new for us to have a winning team like this.

“I would just like to consider us a Cinderella team. We have only three starting seniors and the rest of the team is made up of juniors with one sophomore.”

Two key seniors for the Colts have been shortstop Alfredo Rodriguez and second baseman Ed Lovato, who have a 2-1 ratio of double plays to errors.

Offensively, Rodriguez is the team’s big force with an on-base mark of better than .600 and a team-leading batting average of .551. He has scored 25 runs and driven in 19.

Lovato is hitting a .362 with 17 RBIs, and sophomore outfielder David Mauney has a .325 average with two triples and three home runs.

Other contributors to the Colts’ turnaround have been junior third baseman Sal Garcia, who is hitting .333, and pitcher-first baseman Marco Martinez, a left-handed junior who is 4-0 in conference play with a 2.36 earned-run average.

Blankenship, whose Colts have 43 stolen bases this season, is optimistic about Carson’s chances to end the non-Valley drought in the 4-A Division.

“I just hope that we finish first in league and then open up with a No. 3-seed in the playoffs,” Blankenship said. “Being seeded high would help, but that does not guarantee anything because the Valley has strong teams that finish third.”

Whereas Carson may be a new power vying for a City baseball title, University, which won the 3-A Division title in 1988, is familiar with postseason play.

But University is not familiar with playing Valley teams in the playoffs.

“We have only been in the 4-A for two years, so I do not know too much about the Valley’s domination,” said University Coach Frank Cruz, whose Warriors lost to eventual champion Kennedy in the quarterfinals last season. “I see the playoffs being pretty wide open with a lot of good teams everywhere capable of winning the title.”

Based on its 17-6 overall record, University, which is one victory away from clinching the Western League title, is one of the teams that could win it all, despite Cruz’s negative assessment of his team’s ability.

“Our team last season was physically better than this one,” Cruz said. “This year’s team is not a great team but what they do better than anything else is work hard.”

University, which lost its first league game to Venice last week, starts only three seniors and does not have a starter hitting better than .400. Cruz credits the seniors for the team’s good fortune this season.

“We only have three, but they are our leaders and provide almost all of our offensive punch from the No. 3, 4, and 5 batting spots,” Cruz said about catcher Isaac Yoshinaga, left fielder Danny Brown and designated hitter Jamie Calderon.

With four sophomores in the starting lineup and no senior pitchers, University has relied on youth to win games. In conference play, sophomores Randal Harris and Havier Majia, who also platoon in right field, have a combined 9-1 record. Junior Michael Green, who also plays center field, is 3-0, and sophomore Joey Gandara has two saves.

“Coming into this season, we were really slim in pitching,” Cruz said. “We have just had our youngsters throwing strikes and the players behind them making the plays. We are a long way off (from being a championship team) but I’ve been saying that all season long and they keep on winning.”

For the third consecutive year, the Southern Section will expand its basketball playoff format in allowing entry to all schools that want to participate, in both boys’ and girls’ competition.

There will be 10 enrollment-based divisions from 32-team draws. The revised format will include a wild-card round for the divisions with more than 32 teams.

Beginning in the 1990-91 season, the Southern Section’s highest enrollment divisions will be designated as Divisions I-AA and IA, rather than 5-AA and 5-A. Accordingly, Divisions 4-AA and 4-A will become II-AA and II-A; Divisions 3-AA and 3-A will become III-AA and III-A; Divisions 2-AA and 2-A will become IV-AA and IV-A; and Divisions 1-A and Small Schools Division will become V-AA and V-A.

The San Bernardino High boys’ track fortunes improved greatly last week when Anthony Smith became eligible. Smith was at Hawthorne High last season, where he finished fifth in the state long jump and had a best of 24-4 1/2. He also had times of 10.84 for 100 meters and a wind-aided 21.66 for 200.

This fall Smith started for the Upland football team and then transfered to San Bernardino.

San Bernardino’s 400 relay team, led by Johnny Thomas, a 14.3 high hurdler and 21.65 200-meter runner, had a best of 42.72 before Smith was added to the team last Thursday and improved to 41.7, the second best time in the Southern Section. Smith also ran 10.5 in the dual meet at Victor Valley.

Prep Notes

Thanks to Jason Wayt’s two-run single in the bottom of the seventh, Southern Section 2-A Division power El Segundo defeated Long Beach Millikan last Saturday, 7-6, for the Palos Verdes-Redondo Tournament baseball championship at Redondo High. . . . The Denny Crum One Man Clinic will be held May 18-19, Friday and Saturday, at Santa Ana Century High School, 1401 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. For details, call (714) 568-7000.