Sylmar Team Banned From Tournament : Youth baseball: Club seeks injunction after organizers claim its roster includes players from too many cities.

Thirteen players and a handful of coaches from the Sylmar Palomino all-star baseball team walked into a San Jose hotel Tuesday and were met with blank stares at the front desk. Reservations had never been made, they were told.

Things didn’t go any better Wednesday, when the team discovered a possible explanation. Officials from the western zone tournament in San Jose informed Sylmar that it had been involuntarily checked out of the event because its roster included players from too many cities.

Unwilling to be turned away for the second time in as many days, Sylmar coaches hired an attorney Wednesday and are seeking an injunction to allow Sylmar to play its first-round game today. The winner of the six-team tournament advances to the Palomino World Series in Greensboro, N.C. Palomino teams are composed of players aged 17 and 18.

Final word on whether the injunction will be granted is expected today at 10 a.m.

Larry Kapuscinski, Sylmar’s manager, said that zone tournament director Abel Hernandez informed him Wednesday that Sylmar had been disqualified.

“He looked at our roster and said ‘You drew players from too big an area,’ ” Kapuscinski said. “I tried to tell him that places like Mission Hills, Northridge, Canoga Park, Studio City and Chatsworth aren’t cities, they’re communities in Los Angeles.”

A telephone plea to a national representative proved fruitless, Kapuscinski said. The national official backed Hernandez’s ruling.

Sylmar coaches nonetheless began discussing their options. Kapuscinski said he started phoning attorneys in the San Jose area. Once an attorney was hired, a request for an injunction was filed.

According to Kapuscinski, the judge with whom the request was filed said he “could not understand how a team could be disqualified after it had already won two tournaments.”