Rio Mesa’s Young Swings at Record

Rio Mesa High shortstop Dmitri Young has hit six home runs in the Spartans’ initial eight games, extending his career total to 24.

If he continues at that pace, he would break the Southern Section career record of 32, set by Scott Sharts, the former Simi Valley High star now playing at Cal State Northridge.

Young already has matched his average of six in each of his first three seasons at Rio Mesa. Young, a natural right-handed hitter who is switch-hitting this season, even hit a two-run shot left-handed.

But Rio Mesa Coach Rich Duran says this just might be the beginning for Young, 6-foot-2, 215 pounds.

“The older he gets, the more he’s going to learn about hitting, and he’ll refine those tremendous tools he has,” Duran said.

Hitting: The Granada Hills offense has been paced by four transfers. Ari Jacobs (from Montclair Prep) is 10 for 30 for a .333 average; Heath McElwee (L.A. Baptist) is nine for 25 (.360); and Sam Voita (Calabasas) and Bryan Martin (Decatur, Ill.) are each eight for 27 (.296). Before last week’s shutout loss to Taft, the Highlanders had outhit every opponent yet managed a record of only 4-4. . . .

Montclair Prep’s defense of its Southern Section 1-A title is sputtering. The Mounties are off to a 4-3 start and Coach Walt Steele blames his team’s hitting: Only two of his players--Dylan Jones (.500) and Jared Baumblatt (.400)--are batting better than .300. Last year’s All-Southern Section catcher, Brent Polacheck, is batting just .111. . . .

Santa Paula has found a big stick in outfielder Effren Munoz, who leads the team in batting with nine hits in 23 at-bats (.391) and was four for four with four runs batted in in a win over Calabasas. . . .

Two El Camino Real senior infielders have, at last temporarily, reversed their fortunes of a season ago when the team advanced to the City Section 4-A Division final. Third baseman Greg Lederman, who batted .493 to lead the Northwest Valley Conference in 1990, is off to a slow start at .235 (four for 17). Shortstop Gregg Sheren, who struggled with a .211 average as a junior, is now batting a team-high .500 (eight for 16) and has driven in six runs in five games. . . .

Hart’s Keith Halcovich is batting .464 in 28 at-bats and Ted Kiester (.250) has only five hits in 20 at-bats. However, Halcovich is four for seven (.571) and Kiester is two for three (.667) with runners in scoring position and two out. Hart’s Doug Distaso is batting .517 and is six for 10 after the fifth inning.

St. Genevieve’s Fred Flores, the MVP of the Highland Hall tournament, is batting .500 (seven for 14) and three of his seven hits are doubles. . . . Santa Paula has succeeded on 34 of its 36 stolen-base attempts.

Track: Cal State Northridge standout Darcy Arreola was a senior at La Mesa Grossmont in 1986 when she ran a meet-record 4 minutes 55.33 seconds in the 1,600 at the Pasadena Games. Five years later, Fillmore’s Nikki Shaw nipped Arreola’s record with a 4:55.24 clocking.

Shaw, only a junior, ran virtually alone and recorded negative splits--running the second half of the race faster than the first.

Shaw beat Thousand Oaks’ Stacy Auer (5:09.39) by about 80 meters.

REGIONAL BASEBALL TOP 10

Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Poly East Valley 8-1 2 2 Rio Mesa Channel 7-1 3 3 Notre Dame Mission 7-0 4 6 Simi Valley Marmonte 10-1 5 4 Channel Islands Marmonte 6-1 6 7 Chatsworth West Valley 7-2 7 10 Canyon Golden 5-1-1 8 NR Royal Marmonte 6-0 9 NR Westlake Marmonte 5-3 10 NR Fillmore Frontier 6-1

NR--Not ranked.