Conejo Valley Made It Tough but Often Found a Way to Win

Conejo Valley established a reputation for playing exciting baseball this year, but it wasn’t always in a positive manner.

In fact, Conejo Valley’s young team had a tendency to be downright sporadic, as it was Saturday during a 10-9 win over District 16 rival Camarillo in the third round of the American Legion 6th Area playoffs.

A gallon of bleach could not have cleaned Conejo Valley’s mess, but Coach Craig Sturges was still beaming over the opportunity to play at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Saturday.

“We do some strange things out there, but you gotta love it,” Sturges said.

Sturges’ heart has been in his mouth lately. His team avoided a disaster by inches when Jim Chergey’s diving catch ended a nerve-wracking ninth.

Conejo Valley took a 10-4 lead into the inning, but Camarillo (21-5), the District 16 champion, scored five runs--four unearned--courtesy of three Conejo Valley errors.

“You probably saw more of that than I did, because I had my hands covering my eyes most of the time,” Sturges said.

It was not the first time Conejo Valley fans had seen such unspectacular play. Last spring, all but one of Conejo Valley’s players attended Thousand Oaks High. The Lancers led the Marmonte League in errors last season, still, the team developed a knack for come-from-behind wins.

Garth Marcus, the Lancers’ assistant coach, was at Saturday’s game sporting a familiar grin. “TO baseball, baby,” he said. Conejo Valley, a.k.a. Thousand Oaks, had lost three of four games to Camarillo during the regular season.

Conejo Valley continued to employ its cardiac style in the playoffs. It came from behind to beat Santa Monica, 9-8, in 10 innings Thursday, and its shaky defense allowed Camarillo to crawl back into Saturday’s contest. The magic ended a few hours later, however, when Woodland Hills West eliminated Conejo Valley, 13-8.

“We emphasize a loose approach, but I think we played it a little too loose,” Sturges said with a smile.

Camarillo’s Chris Borchard, who had led off the ninth inning Saturday with a walk and reached third on Jon McMullen’s single, scored after an error on Mike Mitchell’s grounder. Mike Muncy’s bloop single drove in two more runs and cut the deficit to 10-7.

Conejo Valley pitcher Bryan Corey, who had relieved Nick Brown, dropped a pop fly that would have ended the game. Then Kasha Clemons--who had hit his 11th home run in the sixth--stepped into the batter’s box representing the tying run.

“I told (Conejo Valley third baseman) Billy Hall that if Kasha hits a three-run dinger, we’ll have to run over and revive Sturges,” Camarillo Coach Gary Wagner said.

Clemons didn’t homer but still gave Sturges palpitations with a long fly ball to right field that Glenn Marshall dropped on the warning track. The error allowed two more runs to score and pulled Camarillo to within 10-9. And Clemons stood eagerly at second base.

“I’m hoping for a popup, and we drop it. Then I want a fly ball, and we drop that , “ Sturges said. “Then I just didn’t want them to hit it to short, where my son (Brian) was.”

Mitch King lofted a fly ball into short center field and Chergey, who got a late jump, charged and made a diving catch. Chergey, who played on the junior varsity at Thousand Oaks last spring, started in place of Brent Christenson and was three for four. Christenson, who is batting .350, missed the game in order to practice with the U. S. Amateur team.

“Chergey’s only a sophomore, but he had a great game,” Sturges said. “We put a load on his shoulders, and he carried the world.

“Oh, yes, we play an exciting brand of baseball.”

McMullen, the son of former major leaguer Ken McMullen, was three for five, and King, Garth Teron and Muncy each had two hits for Camarillo, which was coming off a last-inning, 5-2 loss to Claremont on Friday evening.

“We had some tough things happen to us,” Wagner said. “But this group really developed, and we’re happy with the way they played.”

Mike Lee (6-2) allowed only one run in seven innings of relief for Conejo Valley. Hall, David Skeels and Corey each had two hits.