Stark Leads Woodland Hills West Win

Boredom on the baseball bench can be a brain-numbing thing. The sun beats down, dust blows around the diamond and dried sunflower-seed shells crunch underfoot as the lazy days pile up.

The mind tends to wander, which was the case recently when Woodland Hills West catcher Justin Stark decided that his American Legion team needed a nickname. Somehow, Stark came up with “Sloths,” and even more remarkably, his teammates loved it.

“We wanted something with one syllable,” Stark said. “It’s a nocturnal marsupial that I remembered from biology--a totally worthless animal.”

For much of the summer, Stark felt about as useful at the plate, and more than once was accused of naming the team after himself. In a District 20 game Saturday at Granada Hills High, however, he rolled up four hits to lead Woodland Hills to an 11-6 win over Granada Hills West.

“I guess I busted out with flying colors,” said Stark, a 1990 graduate of Chaminade whose batting average had fallen below .300. “I’m trying to be more selective.”

Pickings were good against Granada Hills pitchers Bryan Martin (2-2) and Heath McElwee, against whom defending state champion Woodland Hills scored in six of the first seven innings and raced back from a 4-1 first-inning deficit.

Totally worthless? Says who?

“I don’t even know what a sloth is,” said Woodland Hills West Coach Don Hornback. “Stark says it’s a big, old, ugly lazy bear.”

The bear facts of a strange game:

* Martin, the losing pitcher, sheared off an aluminum bat at the handle while fouling away a pitch in the seventh, drawing oohs and aahs and several one-liners from the crowd.

* Woodland Hills third baseman Greg Lederman was hit in the back by a pitched ball--for the fourth consecutive game.

* There were nine extra-base hits, including six by Granada Hills, as the teams stranded a combined 21 baserunners.

* Granada Hills (11-6) hammered out three ringing doubles in the third inning, yet scored just one run.

* Mike Petruzates turned a hat trick of a different sort for Granada Hills, committing three errors at first base.

With the score tied, 5-5, in the fourth, Granada Hills blew its best shot at retaking the lead. With runners at first and third and one out, Brian Basowski missed a sign at the plate and McElwee was caught in a rundown off first and tagged out. Basowski flied to right for the third out.

Woodland Hills West (12-3) scored a pair of unearned runs off Martin in the fifth to take a 7-5 lead, then added three more in the sixth to break the game open. Tad Miyoshi (1-0) pitched the final 6 1/3 innings for Woodland Hills, allowing one run.