Miller Not Convinced of Fremont’s Ranking, Routs Notwithstanding

Although Fremont High defeated North Hollywood by 41 and 33 points this season in basketball, Husky Coach Steve Miller is not convinced that the Pathfinders deserve their No. 1 ranking in the state.

“I want them to prove it to me,” Miller said. “I’m not impressed with their half-court offense. I’m not sold on their offense at all.”

North Hollywood’s most recent loss to Fremont was a 70-37 rout in the City Section 3-A Division championship game Friday at the Sports Arena.

“It’s their press that’s good,” Miller added. “You need a big guy in the middle, or a very good guard to break their press. We had Dana (Jones) in the middle last year, and that made the difference. Dana relieved so much of the pressure of the press last year.”

Jones, who had 29 points and 29 rebounds in the Huskies’ upset of Fremont last year, is now at Pepperdine.

Rank play: Fremont (31-1), ranked No. 1 in the state for months, has blown out several opponents this season. Miller wonders why the Pathfinders’ bench has not cleared earlier.

Fremont starters Chris Ford and Michael Tate came back into the championship game with two minutes left, according to Miller. Tate’s slam seconds later gave Fremont its biggest lead of the game, 70-33.

“They still had their starters in with a minute to go,” Miller said. “Last year they had a class program, but somewhere down the line they’ve lost it.”

Earlier this season Fremont beat Canoga Park, 106-56, in a nonleague game in January. Canoga Park Coach Jeff Davis also thought it overkill to have the starters running the floor in the waning minutes.

But Davis tried to rationalize Fremont Coach Sam Sullivan’s motives.

“I can kind of understand it because they’re playing for a national ranking,” Davis said after the loss.

Ford, who scored a game-high 17 points in the championship game, played 28 minutes, Miller said.

“I think (Sullivan) feels pressure to be No. 1 in the state,” Miller said. “He has become totally engulfed by being No. 1 and living up to that kind of ranking.”

Playing for pride: Although North Hollywood trailed Fremont, 32-7, at halftime, Miller said the team was able to maintain a positive attitude.

“We told them to go out and see if we can play them equal in the second half,” Miller said of his halftime instructions. “And we did.”

Not quite, but the Huskies’ second-half effort was much more successful. Fremont outscored North Hollywood, 38-30, in the second half.

Running with the big dogs: Teammates started calling Cody Beaumaster “Pup” two seasons ago when the Kennedy right-hander made the varsity baseball team as a sophomore. For much of the off-season, Beaumaster was a sick puppy.

According to Coach Manny Alvarado, a tendon problem in the back of Beaumaster’s right shoulder slowed the pitcher in the off-season. A winter of therapy and weightlifting apparently has solved the problem, however.

In 13 2/3 innings, Beaumaster has not allowed a run. In his first start last week against Birmingham, Beaumaster carried a no-hitter into the seventh, whereupon he yielded an opposite-field single to the leadoff batter. Kennedy won, 1-0, in the eighth.

“I know it looks bad that we let him go eight innings in his first start,” Alvarado said, “but he only threw 89 pitches.”

On Monday, Beaumaster recorded the final two outs in relief to save Kennedy’s 6-5 victory over Franklin.

“He says he feels good now,” said Alvarado, who two weeks ago was uncertain whether Beaumaster would be able to pitch this season. “I know he’s looked pretty good.”

Rematch: Chatsworth and El Camino Real, finalists for the City 4-A baseball title last year, will play a West Valley League opener Thursday at 3 p.m. at El Camino Real.

Flyers reportedly have been circulated at El Camino Real in an attempt to fill the stands and help exact revenge against Chatsworth, which scored twice in the bottom of the seventh inning at Dodger Stadium to defeat the favored Conquistadores, 3-2.

Conquistadore Coach Mike Maio is hardly getting caught up in the hype, however.

“Our student body is excited about it, but it’s a different ballclub this year and a different game,” he said.

Add El Camino Real: Freshman Randy Wolf has earned a starting berth in the outfield, becoming the teams’s first freshman starter since Ryan McGuire in 1987.

Wolf is not exactly McGuire’s size--the latter was a 190-pound first baseman--but he gets the job done.

“He fields the ball real well,” Maio said of the 5-foot-6, 145-pound Wolf. “He may take his lumps, but he’ll be OK.”

Starting from scratch: Taking over a baseball team that went 4-13 last year and tied for last in the Frontier League, Nordhoff Coach Steve Blundell figured to have a rough go of it in his first year. He didn’t know how rough until the first day of practice.

It seems that there is a shortage of baseball players in Ojai this year. Blundell has at his disposal 14 players--some of whom have not played since Little League.

Blundell reports that baseball is making a comeback among underclassmen; 32 players tried out for the freshman team.

It’s in the cards: Former Westlake catcher Mike Lieberthal, who signed a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies after being selected third in last June’s amateur draft, is still a big man on campus.

An Upper Deck baseball card of Lieberthal was among the case of 1991 cards provided to Westlake by organizers of the Upper Deck Classic, an Orange County tournament in which Westlake will play March 25-27.

The case, which Coach Rich Herrera said is worth $700 to a card dealer, is the tournament’s reimbursement for the Warriors’ travel expenses.

Herrera distributed the case to his players, who are selling the cards individually to raise money. “One kid came across Lieberthal’s card and bought it for himself,” Herrera said. “It was pretty funny.”

If Lieberthal becomes the player the Phillies envision, he could be laughing all the way to the bank.

Title blues: The Buena girls’ basketball team has won only two of seven Southern Section title games, and Coach Joe Vaughan said Saturday’s 67-57 loss to Thousand Oaks on Friday was even more difficult to swallow than last year’s 49-45 loss to Hart.

But he has not lost faith in his players. “They say championship games come down to coaching, so I can’t blame the players,” he said.

Goal-oriented: Last season, Burbank baseball Coach Dave Johnson made it a goal for the team to win more than four games--the combined win total for Burbank’s football and basketball teams. Burbank finished 6-13.

This season, the football team won two games and the basketball team won six.

“I think we can keep up our end of the bargain,” Johnson said. “Last year I said that any game we could come within four runs would be a good game. This year, we’re going to try to win.”

Records: Newbury Park’s Tim Lane made 40 three-point baskets this season, eclipsing Wayne Cook’s 1989-90 record of 33. . . .

Buena junior Lance Fay set a school record with 209 free throws attempted, exceeding Jeff Oliver’s record of 206 last season.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Kirby Lee, Paige A. Leech, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.

AREA BASEBALL TOP 10

Preseason Poll Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Rk Team League 1990 Record 1 Rio Mesa Channel 18-6-2 2 Poly East Valley 22-4 3 Chatsworth West Valley 24-5-1 4 Westlake Marmonte 28-2 5 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 11-9 6 Notre Dame Mission 18-11-1 7 El Camino Real West Valley 21-3-1 8 Saugus Golden 20-6-1 9 Hart Foothill 23-3-2 10 San Fernando North Valley 18-7-2

AREA BASEBALL TOP 10