AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL NOTEBOOK : Sturges Uses a Light Touch to Turn Conejo A Into a Heavyweight

Craig Sturges gained a measure of recognition last season because of his way with words as coach of the Conejo American Legion team. This year, Conejo has changed its name to Conejo A, but Sturges remains the same.

Last Thursday, his team met Camarillo in a District 16 game and Moorpark College was his stage. Some of Sturges’ more memorable comments:

“Hey, fellas, look at all the scouts out there,” he said, pretending to survey the stands for major league representatives. “You got the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts . . . “

In the fourth inning of a scoreless tie, Camarillo’s Jon McMullen stepped to the plate. Sturges considered an intentional walk to McMullen, who was six for nine with eight runs batted in in two previous meetings with Conejo. Yet Sturges allowed Mike Lee to pitch to McMullen, who lined an opposite-field home run.

“Well, I guess we don’t have to walk him now,” Sturges said.

In the fifth, Conejo’s Adam West was at bat with two runners on base and two out.

“Hey, there’s two guys out there who want to come home and give you a big kiss. Whaddaya say, kid?”

West hit the next pitch for a three-run home run to propel Conejo to a 7-6 victory.

Sturges, whose team is 15-2, was asked if he has altered his coaching strategy since last season. “Nah, that would mean I’d have to do some thinking,” he said. “And we all know I don’t like to think.”

Finally, he addressed his team’s knack for committing mistakes. “We met our enemy, and it was us.”

Earning his stripes: In his National League playing days, Gary Matthews was nicknamed “The Sarge.”

Matthews, a San Fernando High product, was selected the National League rookie of the year with the Giants in 1973 and he also played for the Braves, Phillies, Cubs and Mariners during a 16-year career.

In the fall, Matthews’ son, Gary, will be a senior at Granada Hills High, where he was used sparingly last season. He has seen playing time this summer for the Granada Hills West Legion team and is batting .258 with six runs batted in as a part-time shortstop. The younger Matthews (5-foot-11, 142 pounds), at least in comparison to his father (6-2, 185), seems to be awaiting a growth spurt.

So are a few friends.

“Scouts know who he is,” Granada Hills West Coach Dave McElwee said. “They come by the games and sit by him. He gets a lot of attention.”

Add Granada Hills: Call him “Mike Hammer” if you must, though the name doesn’t really fit.

Mike Petruzates is the area’s improbable home run leader with five. Petruzates is no giant at 5-foot-9, so perhaps it has something to do with the way he warms up. Petruzates, who bats and throws left-handed and will be a senior in the fall at Cleveland, uses a sledgehammer to get loose when he is on deck.

Petruzates may qualify as the team’s arm and hammer: as a pitcher, he is 6-1 with an earned-run average of 3.04.

Add hammer: That warm breeze emanating from the high desert may have nothing to do with climatological factors.

P.J. Jackson of Lancaster, who attended Rosamond High, has struck out 50 in 32 1/3 innings, tops among area players.

Jackson, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, doesn’t mess with finesse and throws in the mid-80 m.p.h. range. In a recent game against Encino-Crespi, Jackson struck out eight of the first nine batters.

“He was saying, ‘Here comes the fastball,’ and nobody could do anything about it,” said Encino-Crespi Coach Scott Muckey. “I was surprised he struck out so many, because everybody knew it was coming.”

Yet Jackson has not been untouchable--he is 1-4 with an ERA of 3.22. In fact, Encino-Crespi rallied to defeat Lancaster and Jackson, 2-1, behind pitchers Jeff Suppan and Phil Aghajanian, who combined to strike out 17.

Name the big leaguer: His surname is about the last thing this former District 20 player hopes happens when he’s pitching.

In his younger days, or so the story goes, he was thrown out of a game at Dodger Stadium for rowdy behavior. In his recent professional career, however, he has rarely been driven from Dodger Stadium. (Answer below).

Statwatch: Chatsworth, which leads the District 20 Western Division, remains the lone unbeaten team in the area at 11-0.

Good pitching, you say? Good hitting? Try a little of both. Chatsworth’s team batting average is .411 and the staff ERA is 2.67.

“I’m knocking on wood right now,” Chatsworth Coach Pete Redfern said. “Everything seems to be going our way.”

“Waiding” through the field: Will Camarillo be favored to win its own tournament? Not necessarily.

Camarillo is 12-2, but the field in the Gene Waid tournament, which opens Thursday at Moorpark College, includes no patsies.

Teams from Arizona and Nevada are included in the eight-team event, including an entry from Chaparral High in Las Vegas. Chaparral won Nevada’s large-school title in the spring. The field also includes Escondido, which advanced to the state Legion tournament last summer.

Westlake-Royal, Ventura, Tucson, El Monte and Brophy Prep of Phoenix also are entered. The tournament is named for the late Gene Waid, a longtime supporter of baseball in Ventura County. Waid’s son Pat is a Camarillo assistant.

Quiz answer: Pittsburgh Pirate right-hander Bob Walk, who played for the Newhall-Saugus Legion team and pitched at College of the Canyons, was a Dodger fan before he signed with the Phillies in 1976.

Walk has said that he used to sit in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium and razz opposing players to the point that he was occasionally asked to leave. While pitching at Dodger Stadium, however, nobody can drive Walk to cover. In his eight seasons with the Pirates, Walk is 5-0 at Dodger Stadium.