Hawthorne High Is Right on Track

Hawthorne High enters every track season with one objective: To win the state championship.

The high expectations come naturally at a school that has won six state titles in the past eight years and routinely runs circles around the local competition. This is a program that exudes confidence.

A few weeks ago, though, Coach Kye Courtney was worried. His top sprinter, Erik Allen, suffered a strained hamstring muscle, an injury that has plagued the talented senior for the better part of two years.

Without a healthy Allen, Courtney said, Hawthorne could kiss its hopes of winning a seventh state title goodby.

Friday, the Cougars signaled their return to contention with a successful performance in the Bay League championship meet at Beverly Hills High.

With Allen leading the way with an encouraging victory in the 200 meters, Hawthorne qualified all of its key athletes for the CIF-Southern Section 4-A Division prelims Saturday at Gahr High in Cerritos. The prelims are the first of three qualifying meets leading to the state championship May 31 and June 1 at Cerritos College.

If the Cougars can get through that mine field, anything is possible.

The way Courtney sees it, Hawthorne needs points from nine sources to have a good shot at outpointing Compton, which is probably the favorite because of its fabulous sprinter, Ricky Carrigan, who figures to give his team 30 points in the 100 and 200 sprints and 400 relay (10 points for each victory). Compton can also gather points in the 1,600 relay and from another athlete in the 100, Courtney said.

Hawthorne is hopeful of offsetting Compton’s strength in the short races by getting points from a wider range of events--Allen in the 200, Demond Smith in the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles, Donnie Phifer and Derek Scurry in the long and triple jumps, and both relay teams.

Call it the Notorious Nine. If the Cougars lose any of them along the way, potential points disappear, and with it a chance for a state title.

The return of Allen this week makes matters interesting. The UCLA recruit won the Bay League 200 with a strong time of 21.9 seconds Friday. His season best is 21.3. If and when he can return to the relays, Hawthorne will really be in good shape.

“Having Allen puts us back in contention,” Courtney said. “We’re taking it race by race, day by day. He’s confident, and if he’s confident that’s half the battle.”

While Allen’s importance to Hawthorne cannot be denied, the most valuable member of the team is probably Smith, the junior hurdler.

A potential state champion in two events, Smith won both his races Friday going away, running the 110 highs in 14.70 seconds and the 300 intermediates in 39.49.

Also winning league titles for Hawthorne were Scurry in the triple jump (47 feet), Phifer in the long jump (23-4 1/2), Jared Tuione in the shot put (48-6 1/2), and the 400 (42.55) and 1,600 (3:28.4) relay teams.

Perhaps the most attractive baseball game of the season will be played Wednesday, when Torrance visits West Torrance in the first of a two-game series for the Pioneer League title.

Torrance (18-5 overall, 9-1 in league) leads West (16-7, 8-2) by one game in the Pioneer standings heading into the final week of the regular season. The teams play Friday at Torrance Park, the Tartars’ home field.

“We just have to win one out of two, but we’d like to win both of them,” said Torrance pitcher Kris Radcliffe, who will start Wednesday’s game. “We can’t have a letdown. We just have to do our thing: swing the bats and play defense.”

Radcliffe (7-2), a left-hander, figures to be matched against right-hander Brian Fitzgerald (9-3), who picked up both of West’s victories this week over North Torrance. Fitzgerald pitched 1 1/3 innings of two-hit, scoreless relief and drove in the winning run with a sixth-inning single Friday in West’s 3-2 victory.

Radcliffe and Torrance defeated Fitzgerald and West, 7-2, in their first league meeting April 5 at Torrance Park. Fitzgerald, though, reportedly was weakened by illness in that game and was not at his best. In the past month, he has been one of the area’s most dominant pitchers. He leads the South Bay with 86 strikeouts in 60 1/3 innings.

“He’s a good pitcher,” Radcliffe said. “He had the flu last time. I had faced him before that, batting, and he was a lot tougher.”

Batting, of course, is something Torrance knows about. The Tartars’ potent lineup collected 10 hits Friday as they defeated Ocean League leader Rolling Hills, 7-2, in a nonleague game.

Senior third baseman Antone Williamson, who sat out Wednesday’s 9-0 loss to Rolling Hills with a sore back, collected three hits and scored three runs to lead Torrance.

The anticipated two-game showdown between El Segundo and St. Francis of La Canada for the San Fernando Valley League baseball title has lost some of its impact.

The games, which will be played Wednesday night at Brookside Park in Pasadena and Friday night at Recreation Park in El Segundo, remain important. But what was expected to be a meeting of two unbeaten league leaders fizzled this week when St. Francis lost two games to Harvard of North Hollywood.

That allowed El Segundo to clinch at least a tie for the title Friday with a 9-1 victory over La Salle of Pasadena. The Eagles improved to 8-0 in league play with two games remaining.

St. Francis (6-2) lost to Harvard, 1-0, Friday as junior right-hander Greg Peters pitched a no-hitter for the Saracens (4-4).

Judging by that decision, it doesn’t appear that St. Francis swings the bat nearly as well as El Segundo. The Eagles collected 14 hits off Peters on April 24 in an 8-6 victory over Harvard.

El Segundo catcher Jeff Poor, with three runs batted in this week, raised his season total to 48 entering Saturday night’s nonleague game against Lompoc. The school record is 50 RBIs set last year by Tate Seefried, and the Southern Section record is 58 set in 1987 by Redondo’s Scott Davison.

Mark Chavez proved again Friday that there is more than one pitcher at Banning.

The Pilot right-hander, who has performed admirably in the shadow of his more publicized teammate, Mike Busby, hurled a one-hitter as Banning clinched the Pacific League title with a 2-0 victory over visiting Carson.

Chavez improved to 6-2 as Banning (16-5, 14-1) opened a three-game lead over San Pedro (14-5, 11-4) with the Pacific leaders matched in a two-game, league-ending series next week.

Jennifer Mortensen, the strikeout queen of the South Bay, fanned 21 batters in a 15-inning game Friday to lead Bishop Montgomery to a 2-1 Mission League softball victory over host Chaminade of West Hills. She now has 284 strikeouts this season. The Knights improved to 13-7 overall and 3-5 in league play.