El Camino Real Cashes In on Lost Practice

Too wet to practice? Just pack up and go make some money.

The El Camino Real High varsity and junior varsity baseball teams could not practice last Friday because of a wet field, so players boarded a bus and headed for greener pastures.

The contingent ventured to Pepperdine, where players took part in a photograph session for Hitachi, an electronics company. Several schools participated in the session, in which players, cheerleaders and members of marching bands formed letters to spell out the name of the firm.

A photographer stationed atop a crane shot the pictures, which will be used in a print advertisement. El Camino Real Coach Mike Maio said he had agreed to allow his players to participate only if conditions were too wet to practice.

Maio said the money the firm paid the school for participating will help pay for El Camino Real’s stylish new blue and white uniforms, which, come to think of it, might be why the team was chosen in the first place.

STRUGGLING

Simi Valley’s Aaron Fischer, a senior first baseman who hit nine home runs and drove in a region-high 38 runs last season, hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth that gave Simi Valley a 4-3 win over Thousand Oaks last week.

It was the first homer in five games for Fischer, who has been hampered by a left-ankle injury. Fischer slumped again Friday when he went 0 for 3 in a 7-2 win over Camarillo.

“He’s not turning on (the ball) like he normally can,” Coach Mike Scyphers said.

YOGI-SPEAK

Don Cardinal has become a purveyor of wit for 26 seasons as the Channel Islands baseball coach. Even if he isn’t always aware of it.

Cardinal, raised in Oklahoma, combines a drawl and succinct manner to produce some off-beat humor.

After Channel Islands beat Royal, 6-5, in a Marmonte League game last week, Cardinal was in typical form. When one of his moves defied accepted baseball strategy, Cardinal said, “I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for a long time.”

When asked about the pressure of a one-run win in a league opener, Cardinal did not say, “It ain’t over till it’s over.’ ”

Instead, he might have topped that:

“You got to put ‘em in the pressure cooker to see if the chicken’s going to boil,” he said, then paused. “Or whatever.”

Exactly.

AND COUNTING

Agoura failed to win a Marmonte League baseball game last season after moving from the Southern Section Division 2-A Frontier League to the 5-A Marmonte. The outlook for this season’s team, which is young and inexperienced, isn’t much better.

But that doesn’t affect the optimism of second-year Coach Bart Morefield.

Asked how he felt his team would fare in league play, Morefield pondered the question.

“How will we do in league?” he repeated. The question elicited laughter from a group of Agoura coaches.

“These guys are laughing because we’re young and this is a tough league,” Morefield said, “but we’re not going to roll over just because we might not be as talented as some other teams. We’re not afraid to admit that our goal is to win the league title.”

Morefield’s optimism is commendable. But the Chargers (3-6 overall) are winless in three Marmonte games, including a 17-3 loss to Channel Islands.

Agoura, which won consecutive Frontier League titles in 1988 and 1990, has lost 17 consecutive Marmonte games.

THE ENERGIZER

Meet Stacey Kleiner, the walking battery.

Kleiner, a junior catcher from Taft, also has been seeing time on the mound for the Toreadors--and not of necessity. In fact, in 8 1/3 innings Kleiner has not given up a run.

In Taft’s 5-3 victory over Cleveland last week, Kleiner removed his catching gear and pitched the final 3 1/3 innings to earn the victory. Earlier, he pitched five scoreless innings in a tournament game against Rio Mesa.

NO-HITTER NAYSAYER

Controversy swirled after Grant beat Van Nuys last week on what Grant Coach Tom Lucero thought was a no-hitter for Lancer Tony Kuper.

With two out in the seventh, Van Nuys’ Juan Pelayo hit a looping liner into left field. Left fielder Carlos Sepulveda said he got a glove on it but missed it because he misjudged it. Van Nuys Coach Bill Gordon, acting as the official scorer because it was a home game for Van Nuys, credited Pelayo with a double and Kuper with a one-hitter.

Even one of Kuper’s teammates agreed with Gordon.

“One of the Grant kids came over and said to me that it was a hit,” Gordon said. “He said, ‘Coach, that was a hit all the way.’ ”

Gordon did not reveal the name of the Grant player but said he was on the field and “very close to where I was at third base.”

KEEPING IN TOUCH

To show former Van Nuys player Rusty Howard that there were no hard feelings about his transfer to Grant, the Wolves visited Howard before the teams took the field in a Valley Pac-8 Conference opener last week.

“Before the game, I made a point to have the team line up and shake his hand,” Gordon said. “We may not be very good, but we do have some class.”

Each member of the Van Nuys team, including those who did not know Howard, shook Howard’s hand and wished him well.

Everyone ?

“Everybody but me,” Gordon quipped.

Howard, a junior who batted .392 for Van Nuys last season, was one for seven in the two-game series and struck out three times.

GIBBONS’ GOOSE EGGS

Oak Park’s Jeff Gibbons hurled a one-hit shutout Tuesday in a 4-0 Tri-Valley League victory over Bishop Diego to run his record to 4-0 and his scoreless-innings streak to 16. Gibbons, a senior right-hander and three-year varsity player, has not yielded an earned run in 23 innings.

“He looks really good,” Coach Mike Bolyog said. “He’s got outstanding control. You hold the mitt there and he’ll hit it.”

Gibbons has struck out 36 and walked 12, and he is batting .455 (10 for 22). His talent has not escaped college recruiters. Gibbons, who also lettered in football and soccer, has drawn interest from several Southland schools, including Fresno State, Cal Lutheran and UC Irvine.

“Right now, it’s looking like Fresno State,” said Gibbons, who also plays third base and shortstop. “They have a great baseball program.”

THE NATURAL

There has been at least one bright spot in what Bell-Jeff Coach Sab Manente calls an “unbelievable, freak year.”

As the baseball season rolls into its second month, four players have sustained injuries while playing pickup basketball and a fifth has been bitten by a dog. Plus, the Guards’ starting shortstop has been out since March 12 because of a twisted ankle.

Freshman John Pawlik, one of several players called up to fill the breach, has established himself as one of the Guards’ top pitchers. He has given up two earned runs in nine innings.

“As a freshman, he throws harder than anyone we’ve got,” Manente said. “He has control, which is surprising. He doesn’t get rattled.

“He’s just a natural.”

A natural in more sports than one. Steve Wahl, the basketball coach and a baseball assistant, sees the 5-foot-10, 175-pound Pawlik as a basketball prospect. Additionally, Pawlik has his eye on the quarterback job in the fall.

THE NATURAL II

From worst to first for Village Christian? The Crusaders are 5-2 entering their Alpha League opener today.

“I don’t think by any means we’ll be a power,” Coach Mike Henzie said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who need to learn. I think we’ll represent the school and do a good job.”

Last year the Crusaders went 0-10 in league play. One might be skeptical with sophomores at third base, second base and catcher--and even more skeptical when a freshman is the top pitcher. But there is hope.

Much of that hope can be attributed to the success of freshman right-hander Jason Robitaille. He is 3-0 with a 1.40 ERA and has struck out 22 and walked four in 15 innings.

“He’s a more mature freshman,” Henzie said. “He doesn’t get flustered and emotional. That is unusual for a kid his age. The most important thing is he’s throwing strikes. I don’t think he’s that overpowering but he has a pretty good curveball, and sometimes a good fastball. You watch him warm up and you just don’t think he’ll do anything.”

Imagine the 5-9, 155-pound Robitaille throwing to sophomore catcher Newt Wimer. “That guy doesn’t weigh 130 pounds,” Henzie said of Wimer, who is 5-7.

FAST FLASH

It is difficult for one to get noticed for track exploits at Fillmore, which boasts two of the nation’s best high school girls’ distance runners in Nikki Shaw and Maribella Aparicio, but Joel Lopez is doing his best.

The senior finished fourth in the 800 meters and sixth in the 1,600 in the Pasadena Games at Occidental College on Saturday night with personal bests of 1 minute 54.98 seconds and 4:26.38. His 800 time was the fastest in the region this season.

Not bad for someone who ran in only a few meets as a junior before quitting the track team because he had to hold down a part-time job.

“We’re elated with the way he ran,” assistant Epi Torres said. “We were looking for a 1:58 or a 1:57 in the 800, so we’re really happy.”

Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega, T.C. Porter and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.