Canoga Park Struggles to Keep Its Composure During Winless Season

A shortage of players has taken its toll on Canoga Park High’s baseball team, which is 0-12, 0-12 in Mid-Valley League play this season, and the three players the Hunters lost to grades last week only makes things more difficult for Coach Jim Smith, who has just 10 players left on the team.

Smith, who recently was hospitalized because of an infected forearm, missed all three of the Hunters’ Valley Pac-8 Conference losses last week and was not around to bid farewell to senior starters Sam Harper, Justin Blum and Leo Roldan, who are academically ineligible. Blum and Roldan are pitchers, leaving the responsibilities on the mound to sophomores David Krieder and Danny Baker. Maintaining team morale has been a chore for Smith.

“You try to tell them that every game is different and to go out each game and forget about the last, but that’s really hard to do when you’re 0-12,” Smith said. “But they’re a good group of kids and we’re having a good time out there.”

Going places: Montclair Prep, the defending Southern Section 1-A Division champion, has won 10 consecutive games after starting 3-3, and Coach Walt Steele points to some new faces in new places as the reason.

After All-Alpha League first baseman Andy Shaw sustained an injured shoulder earlier this season, he became the designated-hitter. Steele moved slumping catcher Brent Polacheck, an All-Southern Section pick last season, to first base and made senior Dylan Jones the team’s catcher.

All three have responded with improved offensive numbers--Polacheck especially. The senior has 20 hits in his past 33 at-bats, including 13 in 22 at-bats in league play, a .591 clip.

Now, with Shaw back and ready to play first base, Steele will move Polacheck to right field and move sophomore Brad Fullmer to designated-hitter. Polacheck might not be thrilled about losing his position behind the plate, but Steele said that Jones’ value makes things difficult.

“The way Dylan is playing,” Steele said, “it’s hard to move him.” The Mounties look to be equally difficult to move. They lead the Alpha League at 6-0.

Easy choice: Hart Coach Bud Murray expressed little concern about inserting Keith Halcovich in the seventh inning of Hart’s 10-inning, 5-2 victory over Burbank last week. Halcovich had not pitched in five weeks because of a nagging shoulder injury but he pitched four innings of shutout relief.

“He ought to be able to get somebody out,” Murray said. “He’s an all-league player. I didn’t think twice about putting him in; he needed to pitch. It’s a lot like bear hunting. Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes it gets you.”

Camarillo turnaround: Camarillo (11-5), which began the Marmonte League season with four consecutive losses, has won four in a row to even its league record at 4-4.

Much of the credit for the turnaround can be attributed to the play of senior first baseman Ralph Guillen and senior catcher Robert Sanchez. Guillen has raised his batting average to .389 and Sanchez, a second-team, all-league third baseman last season, has moved to catcher and is hitting .361 in the leadoff slot.

“Ralph Guillen has been a major surprise for us,” Camarillo Coach Jack Willard said. “Sanchez started a little slow, but he’s had multiple-hit games his last five games and he’s catching real well for us. People don’t run on us as much when he catches.”

Youth is served: While Alemany might be struggling through a 2-5 Mission League season, Coach Jim Ozella believes that such losing ways will be short-lived at the Mission Hills school.

Ozella’s varsity is loaded with underclassmen. How much so? His No. 1 starter, right-hander Bill Scheffels, is just a freshman. Scheffels is currently 3-3 with a 2.79 earned-run average and has 34 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings.

“He’s doing nothing but getting better,” Ozella said. “He’s got a good arm, but more than anything he’s got remarkable poise for a kid his age. I would think a kid his age would fall apart in the situations we’ve thrown at him and he’s 3-3. I’ll take that.”

Ozella also praises third baseman Andy Dominique. The 5-foot-11 sophomore has hit a team-high five home runs this year, including a grand slam in an upset of St. Paul. He is batting .329 (24 for 73) and his 22 runs scored and six doubles are team highs. His 19 runs batted in are second to teammate Kirk Fellows’ 22.

“We’re young, ain’t no doubt about it,” Ozella said. “We’re just trying to play ‘em as much as possible and get there little by little.”

A tip of the hat: While Crespi has scrapped its way to a Mission League-leading 6-1 record, some have speculated that the Celts’ good fortune in close games may be reaching its statute of limitations. Most league coaches have claimed that Notre Dame, St. Paul and St. Bernard have more talent.

But Ozella says there is nothing mysterious about Crespi’s success. He points right to Celt Coach Scott Muckey.

“Hey, a lot of people say that this must be their year,” Ozella said. “But they don’t realize that that’s the way Scott coaches. They’re taught to execute and take advantage of mistakes. I think a lot of teams look past his club, and Crespi’s style is tough to beat. They’ve got good speed, guys that can run, they make contact, they don’t strike out a lot and their pitching is pretty good.

“Their style is tough to beat.”

Bad news: Santa Paula, engaged in a crusade to win the school’s first playoff game since 1941, is in position to clinch a postseason berth with at least three more wins down the stretch.

That task will be made tougher, however, without ace pitcher Pete Alamillo.

Alamillo, a senior right-hander with a “big-time arm,” according to Coach Mark Magdaleno, suffered a hairline fracture of his ankle playing pickup basketball. He likely will miss the rest of the season.

“He was the guy you could give the ball to,” Magdaleno said.

In his place, junior Eddie Rabago will assume the No. 1 role. Also ameliorating the pain of Alamillo’s loss is the return of pitcher Gabe Alcantar, who was academically ineligible at the start of the season. Alcantar was 4-0 last year.

Fit to be tied: In an effort to halt a six-game losing streak, Burroughs Coach Terry Scott wore a camouflage sweat shirt and a musical Christmas tie, which plays “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “Jingle Bells,” before the Indians’ game against Alhambra last Friday.

Burroughs won, 2-0, but Scott scrapped the Christmas tie for a Halloween tie before Tuesday night’s game against Burbank.

“The kids were ragging on me about my outfit and I wasn’t going to wear it again,” he said.

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