Grant’s Kuper Loses No-Hitter in Scoring Dispute

Grant High right-hander Tony Kuper lost a no-hitter and a shutout on one pitch Tuesday when left fielder Carlos Sepulveda was unable to flag a looping liner off the bat of Van Nuys’ Juan Pelayo with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Grant won the Valley Pac-8 Conference opener, 11-2, but the teams could not agree on whether Sepulveda should have been charged with an error. Two runs scored on the play.

“It was definitely a hit,” Van Nuys Coach Bill Gordon said. “The outfielder never got a glove on it.”

Au contraire , said Sepulveda.

“I did touch the ball with the glove--the very end of it,” said Sepulveda, a senior. “I could have had it real easy. I misjudged it, though.”

Even though the game was played at Grant, Van Nuys was deemed the home team, and the home team is responsible for the official scoring. Van Nuys (3-2) has no baseball facility on campus and will play its conference games on the road, although it will be designated the home team in half of its home-and-away games.

Kuper, whom Coach Tom Lucero said is being courted by a handful of NCAA Division I schools, was in control throughout. He struck out 12 and walked three. The players who scored in the seventh reached base on a walk and a fielder’s choice.

Lucero, whose team improved to 3-3, said he was under the impression that Kuper finished with a no-hitter, which would have been the first for a Lancer since Javier Delahoya--now a Dodger farmhand--threw one in 1989.

“Our public-address guy announced after the game that it was a no-hitter,” Lucero said. “Everybody in the stands thought it was a no-hitter. I wish (Gordon) would have said something about it then, so there would be no controversy.”

Kuper, a senior who improved to 1-1, struck out the next batter for the final out.

Lucero said that Pelayo, a left-handed batter, did not get around on a Kuper fastball and sent a looper to left that was slicing away from Sepulveda, who didn’t leave his feet as he attempted to catch the ball with a backhanded swipe.

“It wasn’t even that close to the (foul) line,” Lucero said. “It should have been a routine fly ball. In my opinion, it should have been the third out, no doubt about it. To lose a no-hitter and a shutout on one ball is tough.”