Clark’s Drive Keys Victory for 2-A

It didn’t take long for Tony Clark to show why he’s been compared to Darryl Strawberry.

Nor did it take long for him to show why he’s expected to be selected by the Detroit Tigers with the second pick in today’s free-agent draft.

Clark, the 6-foot-7 senior from Christian High School, hit a prodigious two-run double off the center field wall at San Diego State’s Smith field Sunday night, keying the 2-A’s 10-6 victory over the 3-A in the Jack Taylor Memorial All-Star Game.

The victory gave the 2-A a 2-1 series lead. The 2-A won last year’s game, 8-4.

This year’s game was again dominated by the offenses, though some of the county’s best pitchers were on the mound.

The 2-A scored 10 runs on 11 hits and committed three errors. The 3-A scored six runs on 10 hits and had five errors.

Sponsored by the San Diego County Baseball Coaches Assn., which selected both teams from among the county’s best seniors, the game offered something for everybody.

Especially those who had not yet seen Clark play.

Although Clark provided the game’s most memorable moment, it was Sweetwater’s Larry Meza who had the best overall performance at the plate. He went three for four and won most valuable player honors for the 3-A.

Grossmont’s John Tatum, who went two for three, scored a run, drove in a run and pitched the final inning, was named the player of the game.

The 2-A MVP was Clark, who got a look at some pretty tough pitching. He faced Poway’s 12-game winner, Danny Miller, in the first inning and was robbed of a hit when Miller dived to his left to field Clark’s ball up the middle. Miller threw out Clark.

It wasn’t supposed to get any easier in the second when Clark faced Eric Nicholson of Helix. All Nicholson did this year was win 11 games without a loss.

But with Escondido’s Tom Afenir and Crawford’s Todd Davis on base, Clark feasted on a Nicholson pitch and hammered a towering fly ball off the wall in center field, 395-feet away. Clark stopped at second on the two-run double. He then scored from second when Grossmont’s John Tatum hit a grounder that slipped under the glove of Meza at shortstop.

That gave the 2-A a 6-1 lead and put them out of reach.

But Clark, showing that anything can happen, struck out in his final at-bat, against Torrey Pines’ Shaw Henderson.

The winner was starter Ferdie Hollis of Santana, who pitched the first two innings. The loser was Miller, who surrendered two unearned runs in the first inning.

Miller was one of four players who earlier in the day earned spots on the South Team for the North-South All-Star Series which takes place next weekend in San Jose. The others were Rob Ippolito of Helix, Afenir of Escondido, and Brett Callan of Point Loma.