Total Recall of Lofrano Finds Error

Former Chatsworth High baseball Coach Bob Lofrano remembers the approximate dates, the sites, specific players and the outcome.

San Fernando Coach Steve Marden’s memory is a bit more selective, but he has conceded that Lofrano might be right.

“He says I owe him a retraction,” Marden said. “Aww, I don’t know. He may be right.”

Last week, Marden said that he could not recall San Fernando losing to Chatsworth in his 15-year tenure, and that the Tigers were 7-0-1 against Lofrano’s teams. Lofrano, who left Chatsworth two seasons ago to coach at Pierce College, told Marden that the Chancellors beat San Fernando in a spring tournament game at Cal State Northridge in 1981. Lofrano also recalls defeating the Tigers in a Chatsworth tournament game in 1984 or ’85.

“In the second one, it was a Saturday and the score was 3-1,” said Lofrano, who remembers the dates because he said he recalls players on his team at the time.

Marden’s response to Lofrano, a personal friend: “OK, Bobby, if you say so.

“That was a long time ago, I really don’t remember ever playing them in an Easter tournament game at CSUN or anywhere else.”

Cracked Lofrano: “Steve’s a little bit older than I am, so maybe his memory’s going. Seriously, I remember those games as if they were yesterday.”

Last week, however, the point became moot. San Fernando dropped two games to the Chancellors by identical 5-4 scores. In fact, Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn has turned the tables on Marden, compiling a 2-1-1 record in the two years since he replaced Lofrano.

Get well soon: Cleveland’s abrupt about-face in last week’s 12-5 win over El Camino Real was about just that--about face. Or more specifically, saving face.

“We thought we’d just be hitting the hell out of the ball,” said Cleveland assistant Marty Siegel. “And we didn’t hit at all until that game.”

No kidding. Cleveland (1-4) had managed a mere 19 hits over its first four games, then whacked out 16 against El Camino Real. The Cavaliers had scored seven runs in the four losses. David Cipolla, Cleveland’s shortstop, had one hit in 12 at-bats entering the game, then racked up three in the first three innings alone.

Sidelined: El Camino Real’s Corey Bromberg, who along with Sean Boldt was expected to give the Conquistadores perhaps the best pitching tandem among area City Section teams, missed a start last week because of tendinitis in his throwing shoulder.

Bromberg, a mainstay on the Woodland Hills West American Legion team that won the state title last summer, was scheduled to be examined by physicians this week.

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Tricks of the trade: Every summer, Hart Coach Bud Murray takes a group of players in his summer baseball camp to Dodger Stadium where Murray makes it a point to chat with Dodger pitching Coach Ron Perranoski. The two played against each other in a semipro league in Nebraska in the 1950s.

Last summer, the two discussed the technique of throwing the cut fastball, which is thrown like a fastball but with an altered grip.

“It’s a fastball and slider combined into one pitch,” Murray said.

Hart pitchers R.J. Simone and Shane O’Brien have used the pitch successfully this season. Simone (3-0) has pitched three complete games and has an 0.84 earned-run average. O’Brien (2-2) has pitched a two-hitter. Simone has 38 strikeouts, O’Brien 34.

Family ties: Kennedy sophomore Jeff Tagliaferri, whose brother Gino was City 4-A player of the year in 1989, is batting .333. . . . Granada Hills infielder Darryl Stroh, a senior whose father, Darryl, coaches the team, is batting .333 and has four stolen bases. . . . El Camino Real infielder Daniel Cey, a sophomore and the son of former Dodger All-Star Ron Cey, is second on the team in RBIs with six in five games.

Staff writers Steve Elling and Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.