Perpetrator of Hoax at Westlake Unlikely to Be a Whiz in English

A copy of a letter addressed to Westlake High administrators and signed by Rich Herrera was received by The Times last week, detailing the third-year baseball coach’s request for a one-year leave of absence effective at the end of the season.

The letter, addressed to Westlake Principal Curt Luft and Athletic Director Jack Loritz, was dated April 4 and included a handwritten note that read, “Thought you might find this interesting.”

Herrera certainly did. Although the Warriors, who were 28-2 last season, have won only eight of 20 games this season, Herrera said he has no intentions of leaving the program.

“I love baseball too much and love Westlake too much to just get up and go like that,” Herrera said. “It’s just a bad joke.”

Herrera, who has won more games than any Westlake baseball coach, said he does not know who sent the letter. Certainly, it was not the work of an English major. The letter contained numerous grammatical errors, and the culprit also managed to misspell baseball .

Even the signature, which simply read Rich Herrera , turned out to be inaccurate.

“I always sign my full name,” Richard F. Herrera said.

Pity party: The Notre Dame baseball team, which three weeks ago was in the thick of the race for a Mission League playoff berth, must have broken seven mirrors, walked under a ladder and let a black cat cross the basepaths. The Knights are now 4-5 in league play (12-8 overall), two games behind third place St. Bernard with three to play.

Three attempts to gain victory No. 13 have failed.

“I’m hanging low,” Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville said.

Friday night’s game against Bishop Montgomery is a prime reason. With a win, the Knights could have kept pressure on the teams ahead of them and they could have made a strong bid for the playoffs in the homestretch.

But 3 hours 55 minutes after the 7 p.m. game started, it ended amid weirdness and disappointment better suited for the theater of the bizarre than a baseball diamond.

In brief, Notre Dame fell behind, 12-1, after three innings.

“We just have to chip away,” Mandeville told his team.

Notre Dame rolled a 12 in the fourth inning to take a 13-12 lead. “That’s a big chip,” Mandeville said.

The Knights extended the lead to 15-12 heading into the seventh. With a backup shortstop and a backup second baseman playing for Notre Dame while shortstop Edgar Maldonado pitched and second baseman Vinnie Orlando sat out because of stomach cramps, Bishop Montgomery closed the gap to 15-14 and had the bases loaded with two out.

When a soft line drive headed toward shortstop, the Knights figured the nightmare was over.

Wrong. The ball glanced off the shortstop’s glove, two runners scored and Notre Dame lost, 16-15.

“It’s unbelievable,” Mandeville said. “Everything that could have gone wrong, did.”

Add Notre Dame: Adding to the strange mix of events was the fate of Ryan Stromsborg, Notre Dame’s starting third baseman who played a solid shortstop in Maldonado’s place.

Stromsborg doubled in the sixth inning and, trying to steal third base, was smacked square on the nose by the pickoff attempt.

Stromsborg’s nose was broken. He was rushed to the hospital and will miss the rest of the season. Not weird enough?

Notre Dame had to insert a pinch-runner, reserve Francisco Dongo, to trot from third to home in Stromsborg’s place when the ball went into dead territory.

Not bad for an understudy: The same day that Montclair Prep’s Russell Ortiz fired a no-hitter against Maranatha, Mountie junior varsity pitcher Mike Gursey did the same thing.

He faced Maranatha’s junior varsity. He threw a no-hitter.

Maranatha’s junior-varsity and varsity teams made 42 outs Friday. Without a hit.

Gursey’s effort came in his first start of the year and he made just 68 pitches and faced one batter over the minimum.

Oddly enough, Coach Walt Steele plans to make Gursey his starting catcher next year--which means that he will catch Ortiz’s pitches in 1992. And, yes, there will certainly be plenty of memories of that battery for Maranatha.

Schedule change: The final Sylmar-Poly baseball matchup of the year has been rescheduled from Friday to Thursday, at Poly at 3 p.m., in order to accommodate each school’s Prom Night. All other Valley Pac-8 Conference games will be played Friday as originally scheduled.

The agony of the feet: It took the Harvard volleyball team nearly 12 hours to reach the final of the prestigious Redondo tournament Saturday.

But the Saracens, ranked second in the Southern Section 3-A Division, fell to San Marcos, the top-ranked 4-A team, 15-12, 15-11, in the championship.

“That was a heartbreaking loss,” Harvard Coach Mark Zalin said after his team’s 13th game of the day. “It was the longest day of volleyball known to man. I have to pace myself and watch the athletes and make sure they get enough rest when we go to things like this. I have to be careful how much I jump up and down.”

Despite the precautions, the tournament took its toll.

“We were exhausted,” Zalin said. “One player fell asleep after dinner while watching the Kings’ game on Sunday and didn’t wake up until the next morning for school 14 hours later. We had a match on Monday and I had to rest the ones that played in the tournament because they could barely walk.”

Impressive newcomer: North Hollywood’s Adrian Perez, a junior who was ineligible for the first 10 weeks of the season, has been impressive since rejoining the Huskies (4-14 overall, 3-10 in Valley Pac-8 Conference) two weeks ago.

In his first two games against Canoga Park, Perez went five for seven (.714), hit two home runs and drove in nine runs. He also pitched two innings in relief, faced six batters and struck out five.

In just 17 at-bats, Perez leads the team in runs batted in (12), home runs (two--tied with Mike Lewis) and hits (10--also tied with Lewis).

Add North Hollywood: Although the Huskies’ win percentage is getting progressively worse, their offense keeps getting better.

“Our team batting average is .262 now,” Coach Fred Grimes said. “At one time I’d say we were down around .100, especially after we played Poly and Sylmar in the first round. I think we had something like four hits in three games.”

Respect for his elders: San Fernando Coach Steve Marden knows full well the accomplishments of Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh. Five City Section titles in baseball, another in football, 22 years as baseball coach, etc.

But Marden, Stroh’s longtime league rival, could not help but toss a few good-natured jibes in Stroh’s direction upon learning that the Highlander coach had recorded his 300th career victory in baseball last week.

“If he has 300 it’s only because he is very old,” Marden cracked. “I’m not real old, so I don’t have that many . . . I’d probably feel bad if I did (have 300), because that would mean I’m very close to retirement.”

Fall from grace: The Antelope Valley baseball team tumbled out of first place in the Golden League standings last week. The Antelopes, who started the week with a half-game lead (6-2) over Saugus and Palmdale (both 6-3), lost three consecutive games by an aggregate 32-16 score after winning their previous five.

While relatively good defense (only six errors in five games) had keyed the Antelopes’ winning streak, shoddy fielding fueled the losses, 14 errors leading to 16 unearned runs.

“We just played horribly,” Coach Ed t’Sas said. “We did it to ourselves. But to be on the bright side, we lost three games, yet we’re only a game out of first.”

Antelope Valley (9-9, 7-5) beat Ridgecrest Burroughs on Tuesday and trails Saugus (12-7, 8-4) and Palmdale (11-6, 8-4) by a game.

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