Kennedy Duo to Play for City Tennis Title

Josh Etting and Che Naveja of Kennedy High will play University’s Lucas Goldstein and Sung Kim at 2 p.m. today in the doubles final of the City Section Individual Tennis Championships at the Racquet Centre of Universal City.

Etting and Naveja, seeded fifth in the tournament, advanced Monday with a 6-3, 6-1 semifinal victory over top-seeded Ardy Ghaffari and Jon Faller of Palisades. Goldstein and Kim defeated twins Nam and Long Nguyen of Cleveland, 7-5, 6-2.

Eliazar Herrera of Hoover High will compete in the 3,000 meters at the Golden West Invitational in Sacramento on Friday. The meet attracts many of nation’s top senior high school track athletes.

Herrera, bound for UCLA, placed second in the 3,200 meters in 8 minutes 58.97 seconds at last Saturday’s state meet.

Mark MacArthur of The Master’s College was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth round of the amateur baseball draft.

A senior shortstop, MacArthur led The Master’s in runs batted in with 44 and batted .340 with eight home runs. MacArthur (6-feet, 180 pounds) graduated from L.A. Baptist and is from Canyon Country.

Matt LaBelle, a pitcher at Newbury Park High, has signed a national letter of intent with UC Irvine. The senior right-hander chose Irvine over St Mary’s, UC Santa Barbara and Fresno State.

LaBelle was 4-1 in limited action with the Panthers. He received most of his exposure during the winter-league season as a member of a scout team sponsored by the Philadelphia Phillies, according to his father, Bob LaBelle.

The Valley Rangers will open a 53-game schedule tonight in Torrance, when they play San Bernardino. The Rangers, who will play National Baseball Congress, Stan Musial and Goodman Collegiate League teams, will start Cort Wright in tonight’s game.

Shortstop Keyaan Cook of Montclair Prep was chosen player of the year by Alpha League coaches.

Cook, who batted .550 in the regular season, propelled the Mounties to the Southern Section 1-A Division championship Friday in a 14-4 win over Village Christian. Cook drove in 33 runs and hit five home runs in the regular season.

Joe Gordon of Simi Valley will receive the inaugural Gamer Award, given to the Southern California Baseball Player of the Year as chosen by the CenterField Athletic Foundation.

Gordon, who hit 15 home runs and had 32 RBIs, will be honored tonight at his team’s banquet.

Darren Thompson, Stan Wilson and Walter Brooks have orally committed to play basketball for Cal State San Bernardino, Antelope Valley Coach Newton Chelette said.

Currently, San Bernardino is a Division III school and cannot offer athletic scholarships, but it will be able to offer scholarships when the school moves up to Division II status for the 1991-92 season.

Thompson, a 5-8, started 16 games; Wilson, a 6-3 forward, averaged four points; and Brooks, a 6-3 guard, averaged 12.2 points for Antelope Valley last season.

College of the Canyons’ Ron Robart, the Western State Conference player of the year, and Art Chute, who set a Glendale single-season home run record with 11, were chosen first-team all-state players in voting by members of the state coaches’ association.

Outfielder Robart, first baseman Chute, and Canyons second baseman Steve Kovacic were first-team All-Southern California selections. Kovacic was second-team all-state.

Moorpark’s Mike Suarez and Jeff Berman were second-team All-Southern California selections.