Yakel’s Career Opportunities Knock Early

Most surprised, it seems, by John Yakel’s rapid ascent to the position of baseball coach at St. Francis High is John Yakel.

“Personally, I hadn’t planned on it for about five years,” conceded Yakel, 24, a 1984 graduate of St. Francis. “You set your goals out of college and when you reach them in three years, you feel real lucky.”

Yakel, an assistant under Tom Moran for the past two seasons, will replace his mentor. Like Yakel, Moran was an early bloomer and was hired as St. Francis vice principal at 24. Moran, 37, recently was hired as principal at Chaminade.

“They like to keep their own people involved,” Yakel said. “It keeps the tradition alive.”

St. Francis finished 6-11 overall this season and fourth in the Del Rey League with a 4-8 mark.

Record season: Westlake High, which lost in the semifinals of the Southern Section 5-A Division baseball playoffs last week, broke 35 school records during its 28-2 season.

All-American catcher Mike Lieberthal, selected third overall by the Philadelphia Phillies in the amateur draft Monday, owns eight of the nine career offensive records set this year and five single-season marks. Lieberthal set season records for home runs (13) and runs batted in (43), and holds career records in homers (20), RBIs (75) and hits (105).

USA Today officials were at Westlake on Tuesday to photograph Lieberthal, who will be named to the newspaper’s All-American team at catcher.

Mike Eby, a senior left-hander who will attend UCLA on a partial scholarship in the fall, set four season records and has six career records. He owns season marks in wins (11) and innings pitched (85 1/3), and career records in earned-run average (2.02), wins (23) and strikeouts (153).

Westlake, which was ranked No. 2 in USA Today’s national poll most of the season and was promoted to No. 1 the day it lost in the semifinals, was dropped to No. 19. But USA Today officials told Coach Rich Herrera that the Warriors likely will be promoted before the final poll is released in two weeks.

Hollow doubts: ESPN criticized the Phillies for selecting Lieberthal third. The television network joined doubters who claim Lieberthal’s 6-foot, 165-pound frame cannot handle a 162-game schedule.

“I didn’t really pay that much attention to it,” Lieberthal said. “In a couple of years, I’ll be at least 20 pounds heavier. I’m only 18. I’m still going to grow.”

Record in sight: Tum Ratanatraiphob, a sophomore second baseman at Highland Hall who stole 50 bases this season, raised his two-year total to 89 and placed himself in fast company. He is tied for sixth place on the all-time Southern Section list with Lenny Dykstra, the leading hitter in the major leagues and a former Garden Grove High player.

With two seasons to go at the Small Schools Division level, Ratanatraiphob is almost certain to break the career record of 113, set by Dave McLelland of Rio Hondo Prep (1976-80).

Leaps and bounds: Judging by the order of competitors in the long jump at Friday’s state track and field preliminaries, Marcus Reed of Canoga Park was given little chance of qualifying for the final Saturday night.

Entering the state championships with a personal best of 22 feet 10 inches, Reed leaped 23-0 3/4 in the preliminaries and 23-8 in the final to finish third. Jerome Price of San Diego University City took first with a leap of 25-3 1/4.

Reed is only the third Canoga Park athlete to finish in the top three in the state meet in 22 years. Ricco Sanchez won the 800-meter title in 1968 and Anthony Bailous was second in the long jump in ’84.

Wake-up fall: Creighton Harris of Hoover placed fifth in his heat of the 1,600 meters in a personal-best 4:14.33 in the preliminaries of the state meet on Friday.

Harris had the 10th-fastest qualifying mark and missed the ninth and final berth in Saturday’s final by 0.28 seconds.

He had planned to run in the 3,200 meters instead, but a fall from the top of a bunk bed a week before the Pacific League finals in the first week of May altered those aspirations. He sustained contusions on his left leg and a laceration that required stitches.

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

REGIONAL BASEBALL TOP 10 Final Poll Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Rk Team League Record 1 Westlake Marmonte 28-2 2 Chatsworth West Valley 24-5-1 3 El Camino Real West Valley 21-3-1 4 Hart Foothill 23-2-2 5 Poly East Valley 22-4 6 San Fernando North Valley 18-7-2 7 Birmingham Mid-Valley 19-7-1 8 Saugus Golden 20-6-1 9 Montclair Prep Alpha 25-3 10 Rio Mesa Channel 18-6-2