Macias Haunts Lancaster as Van Nuys Wins, 10-1

The nickname is typical by baseball standards, whereby depressive types are called “Happy,” portly guys are dubbed “Slim” and junk-ballers are known as “Heat.”

Oscar Macias is called “Scary” by his Van Nuys-Notre Dame teammates for obvious reasons.

“Probably because it’s the exact opposite of what I am in appearance,” said Macias, a 5-foot-10, 150-pound right-hander. “Take a look at me.”

Wide-eyed intimidation must not matter much these days, because Macias improved to 5-0 in leading Van Nuys to a 10-1 victory over Lancaster in an American Legion District 20 game at Antelope Valley High on Wednesday night.

The win was the eighth in a row for Van Nuys (14-6) and kept alive the team’s wild-card playoffs hopes. With the loss, Lancaster (15-7) fell 1 1/2 games behind first-place Quartz Hill (16-5) in the Northern Division.

Macias allowed five hits, walked four and struck out two in five innings. If anything, Macias was scariest to his teammates in the early moments, when Lancaster loaded the bases in both the first and second innings and came away empty.

Lancaster stranded 13 runners in the seven-inning game, but Van Nuys Coach Jody Breeden didn’t seem to be on edge.

Not with his ace in the hole on the hill.

“He just throws strikes,” Breeden said with a shrug. “He keeps ‘em off balance. He doesn’t try to blow anybody away.”

Macias bobbed and weaved through the first and second innings, walking two and surrendering three hits. Macias retired Brandon Newcomb on a grounder to second in the first and struck out Jack Cox on a curve in the second to end the threats.

Red-hot Van Nuys--which plays Woodland Hills West in a critical makeup game Friday at El Camino Real High--scored five runs in the third off Lancaster right-hander Tony Moreno.

Moreno (3-1) walked three to load the bases and with two out, hit Chris Prince in the elbow to bring across the first run.

Moreno then walked Lou Tapia to force in another, and Vinnie Orlando drove in two more with a ground single to center. Macias capped the drive for five with a run-scoring single to right.

Lancaster scored its lone run in the fifth. Chad Eberhardt led off with a double to center and two outs later scored on Newcomb’s single to right.

Tapia’s two-run single in the fourth keyed a three-run outburst in the fourth to give Van Nuys an 8-0 lead. Eric Martorano doubled with one out and scored on Edgar Maldonado’s single to right.

Bruno Paniccia singled to left and both runners advanced on a ground out. Tapia followed with a single to center to give him three runs batted in.

Tapia, like Macias and most of the Van Nuys team, doesn’t look particularly threatening.

Tapia and eight of his teammates are listed on the Van Nuys roster as standing 5-10 or less.

Well, gremlins can cause plenty of trouble, too.

“That’s the thing about us,” Macias said. “We’re a scrappy team. We don’t have a lot of power or a lot of strikeouts. It’s just timely hitting, good defense and good pitching.”

For most of his senior season at Notre Dame High, Macias’ timing was nothing but bad.

A strained shoulder limited his pitching and he spent the season playing in the outfield or at designated-hitter.

“He played everywhere,” Tapia said. “He did it all.”