L.A. Baptist Out to Steal Notoriety

The L. A. Baptist High baseball team, according to Coach Mark Bates, had stolen 90 bases in 101 attempts through Monday and is setting its sights on 10th place in Southern Section history, a position currently occupied by North Torrance, which stole 148 bases in 1989.

“We don’t have a lot of power,” Bates said, “so we try and make up for bases on the paths. We don’t hold anybody back.”

Shortstop Brad Imbler leads the team with 15 steals.

The Knights are not the only ones who appear to have confused baseball with track, however. Entering the week, Thousand Oaks had stolen 69 bases in 73 attempts.

Senior second baseman Ryan Kritscher, who was successful in 26 of his first 27 attempts, leads the way for the Lancers. Cory Bowen was 13 of 13, Brian Sturges was nine of nine and Jim Chergey was eight of eight.

L. A. Lutheran, meanwhile, has three players who have stolen 12 or more bases. The Lions, who have 87 stolen bases in 11 games, are led by junior Kevin Brown, who had 28 through Monday.

Batting: Westlake’s Todd Preston, who batted .205 last year in the No. 5 slot in the Warriors’ lineup, was hitting .500 (28 of 56) in the No. 3 position through Monday. Preston, who has nearly doubled his hit total of last season (15 in 1990), was six for 10 with six runs batted in and six runs scored in three games last week.

Westlake’s No. 4 hitter, Rico Lagattuta, was five for 11 with seven RBIs last week and is batting .404 as a first-year starter at first base. . . . Newbury Park’s Robert Fick was five for five last week.

Hart softball player Jamie Dean, who stole 10 bases in 10 attempts in her first 10 games, has 17 hits in 31 at-bats (.548).

Tennis: Chaminade’s doubles tandem of Ara Mamian and Chris Bosco is 24-0 overall, 18-0 in San Fernando League matches.

Track: Canyon’s Dave Hartman moved to 10th on the area’s all-time two-mile list when he won the 3,200 meters in 9 minutes 0.63 seconds in the Arcadia Invitational on Saturday. Hartman, whose time converts to a 9:03.82 two-mile, also set a Santa Clarita Valley record. The previous best was 9:05.20, set by Daren Stonerock of Saugus in 1986.