Harkness Holds Rule Breakers Up to Example

City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness has little sympathy for the Chatsworth and Kennedy high baseball teams, each of which forfeited a game this week because coaches were present last Sunday during player workouts, which is prohibited.

In fact, Harkness said the ruling should serve as a warning to City baseball coaches in the Valley whom he believes have gotten too big for their britches.

Nobody is above the law, he said.

“Collectively, they’ve got an incredible ego about their sport,” Harkness said. “If this had to be done to keep them in check, so be it. They cannot do whatever they want with impunity.”

Were there extenuating circumstances? Because of a shortage of umpires, Northwest Valley Conference baseball teams--such as Chatsworth and Kennedy--play on Mondays and Wednesdays, leaving players to work out on weekends to remain sharp.

Harkness said the scheduling hardship is no excuse for holding supervised workouts.

“That makes no difference whatsoever,” Harkness said. “If the kids want to go to school and work out, they should do it as a group of youngsters.”

Chatsworth assistant Steve Thompson, who was seen instructing players last Sunday in violation of City rules, said the forfeiture was unfair to players. Thompson maintains it was a coincidence that he was at practice Sunday and that he merely had stopped by for a few minutes to say hello to players. Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado also said his presence at practice was not premeditated.

“Maybe they should have suspended me for a game or two,” Thompson said. “But don’t take it out on the kids. They work too hard for this.”

With the defeat, Chatsworth (5-8, 2-4 in league play) fell four games behind Taft (8-2-1, 6-0) in the West Valley League. Kennedy is 7-4, 3-3.

Said Harkness: “I’m satisfied that we’ve sent a message that we will not tolerate it if they thumb their nose at us. There has to be some restraint on the part of the Valley baseball coaches.”

Said Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn, who bristles at the black eye his program has absorbed: “We have a lot of positive things going on out here. Kids are here playing ball and not on the streets, hanging out. . . . The whole thing really ticks me off.”

THE LAST LAUGH

Never mind the 10-run rule. At least the Reseda baseball team had something to smile about Wednesday after being thumped by San Fernando, 22-1, in a Northwest Valley Conference game.

San Fernando led, 20-0, after five innings, and finished with 18 hits--seven for extra bases, including three home runs. But Reseda players roared when Will Skett hit a two-out home run in the bottom of the seventh to spoil the shutout.

“They got fired up and they mobbed him,” Coach Mike Stone said. “We could have (imposed) a 10-run rule, but that wouldn’t have been fair to the kids.”

A NEW BEGINNING

Kennedy’s football team will start next fall where it left off in December--butting heads with Banning.

The Golden Cougars, who lost to Banning in the City Section 4-A Division semifinals last fall, will open the season with a nonleague game against the Pilots. Kennedy has lost to Banning in all four meetings during Bob Francola’s six seasons as coach.

In their second game, the Golden Cougars will face Bakersfield, a highly regarded team from the Central Section. Members of the Kennedy coaching staff jokingly have speculated that Francola has a few screws loose.

“I asked Fran, ‘Who’d we schedule for Week 3, the Rams?’ ” assistant Craig Raub cracked.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Home-field advantage means nothing to the Highland baseball team, which boards a bus every day to play ball.

“We’re even on the bus for practice,” Coach Mike Van Cheri said.

The construction for the school itself--which opened in 1989--was completed last fall. Construction on the school’s baseball fields is supposed to begin this week and be completed in 30 days.

The Highland freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams travel 20 minutes each day to Quartz Hill High for practice.

Highland (4-6), in its first year of varsity competition, has played its home games at Antelope Valley, Palmdale and Littlerock highs, Rawley-Duntley Park and Antelope Valley College.

HIGH TO LOW

Birmingham center fielder-pitcher Casey Doherty is not always ready to pitch at a moment’s notice.

“Everytime I tell Casey to warm up, he has to change his shoes,” Birmingham Coach Dave Contreras said.

Doherty’s game plan is simple. He wears high-top cleats to pitch and low-top cleats to play center field.

ANTELOPES’ LEFTIES

Ed t’Sas has his own ideas about playing the percentages.

Antelope Valley’s second-year coach uses two left-handers--seniors John Narhuminti and Raul McNaughton--as starting pitchers, even though the majority of high school batters hit from the right side and conventional wisdom holds that right-handers hit left-handers and vice versa.

Yet the Antelopes’ left-handers have held their own. In three Golden League games, Narhuminti is 1-1 with an 0.75 earned-run average and McNaughton is 1-1 with a 1.33 ERA.

“It’s worked out pretty good for us because there are not a lot of left-handers in our league,” t’Sas said. “A lot of hitters in our league don’t like lefties because they don’t see them that often.”

REST STOP

Many feel that Crespi has the best starting pitching in the region with juniors Jeff Suppan and Keith Evans and senior Phil Aghajanian.

The Celts might settle the issue by the end of the week: Because of rescheduled rainout, nonleague and tournament games, Crespi (10-2) is in the midst of playing six games in nine days.

The Celts defeated Cantwell, 7-4, last Friday, then fell to St. Bernard, 6-5. Crespi defeated Chaminade, 9-8, in a makeup game Monday, beat Bishop Montgomery, 4-1, Wednesday and play archrival Notre Dame today.

Crespi will face Millikan on Saturday night in the championship game of the El Segundo tournament. Millikan entered the week at 10-0-1 and is the defending Southern Section 5-A Division champion.

POWER SURGE

Simi Valley slugger Aaron Fischer might have been down with an ankle injury at the start of the season, but his recent performances prove that he is not out.

Fischer, who led area players at the large-school level with 38 runs batted in last season and also had nine home runs, hit three home runs and drove in seven runs Saturday in the Pioneers’ doubleheader sweep of Chaminade.

Thursday against Newbury Park, Fischer hit his fifth homer of the season. He has 13 RBIs in the past four games.

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

In his first three seasons at Nordhoff, Kevin Cochran established himself as one of the top high school volleyball players in Southern California. Splitting time as a setter and an outside hitter, he earned All-Southern Section 2-A Division honors the past two years.

But on a squad that is short on firepower, Coach Tim Grinwis asked Cochran to concentrate on hitting this season. The results have been remarkable. Cochran has recorded 18 or more kills in five consecutive matches, topped by a season-high 35 in a four-game win over Cate, the fourth-ranked team in the 2-A.

“I feel really confident with (the change),” Cochran said. “I like it a lot better than having to set.”

Cochran first experimented with the switch on his club team, West Hills-Sideout, when Royal standout Travis Ferguson came to the squad as a setter. “It was really hard for me at first to adjust to the different footwork,” Cochran said. But there have been few problems for him at Nordhoff: He has helped the Rangers to a 9-1 record. The switch also has helped Nordhoff sophomore Jeremy Stallings blossom as a setter. Stallings had 41 assists in the Rangers’ win over Cate and 35 last Friday in a sweep of cross-town rival Villanova Prep.

Cochran, a 6-foot senior with a 40-inch vertical leap, tentatively has decided to compete in the fall at Pepperdine. If he does, he will be playing for former U.S. Olympic Coach Marv Dunphy and assistant Andy Read, the coach of Cochran’s club team.

UNTIMELY HITTING

Poly (7-4), which is averaging better than nine hits a game, has six players batting better than .300. Those statistics, however, are not translating into wins, according to Poly Coach Jerry Cord.

“We still aren’t hitting the ball,” he said. “(The hits) aren’t timed right. A base hit with two out doesn’t do much for you.”

THIS IS THE END

The state’s longest hitting streak ended last weekend at 43 games. Torrance High senior Jason Kendall was 0 for 2 in a nine-inning, 2-1 win over Gahr in a consolation game of the Redondo tournament. He walked three times, twice intentionally. Kendall’s streak began in his sophomore season.

Through Wednesday, Kendall had hit safely in 65 of his 67 games.

David Coulson and staff writers Steve Elling, Vince Kowalick and Paige A. Leech contributed to this notebook.