Venditto Resigns as Cal Lutheran Softball Coach After Record Season

After leading the Cal Lutheran softball team to the best single-season record in school history, Tony Venditto resigned Tuesday as coach, according to the school’s sports information department.

In his only season at Cal Lutheran, Venditto coached the Regals to their third consecutive NAIA District 3 championship and a 32-12-2 record. Cal Lutheran advanced to the Bi-District tournament before being eliminated by Adams State (Colo.).

Venditto coached at Bel-Air Prep before he took the Cal Lutheran post. He reportedly is moving to San Jose.

Meanwhile, Hector Nieves, who resigned July 25 from his positions as women’s track and cross-country coach at Cal Lutheran, has been rehired for both jobs, according to a university release.

Nieves had coached the teams for four years before resigning for personal reasons.

Don Goetzinger, a biology teacher for 22 years at Thousand Oaks High, has been named boys’ cross-country coach at the Marmonte League school.

Jim Dunlap, who coached the Lancer boys’ team to the Southern Section 4-A Division preliminaries last fall, will head the girls’ program.

Jack Farrell headed the boys’ program for 14 years, guiding the Lancers to 4-A championships in 1980, ’84 and ’86. Farrell resigned after the ’88 season but Goetzinger, whose son Shawn competed for Camarillo--the 1989 state champion and a league rival of Thousand Oaks--opted to forgo the position for another year rather than risk a conflict.

The Agoura Brats, a softball team for girls aged 18 and under, finished in a four-way tie for ninth in the 60-team national tournament that concluded Sunday in Lodi, Calif.

The Brats won their first three games--beating the Utah Stars, the Oklahoma Sting and the California Grapettes--to reach the final-12 bracket of the tournament. The Brats then dropped two in a row and came home.

Melissa Thatcher, a senior-to-be at Agoura High who pitched the Chargers to Southern Section 1-A Division titles in 1989 and ‘90, led the Brats with eight hits in 17 at-bats. She also scored four runs from the lead-off position.

Ken Pedroza of Ventura defeated New Zealand’s Josh Grant, 6-2, 6-1, Tuesday in the U.S. National Amateur tennis championships at Kiamesha Lake, N.Y.

Emilee Klein of Studio City shot an 82 Tuesday and is 10 strokes behind the leader after two rounds of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Manasquan River Golf Club Course in Brielle, N.J.

Klein opened with a 75 on the par-73 course Monday and has a two-day total of 157. Vicki Goetze of Hull, Ga., is the leader.