Sixth Inning Perfect Time for Sixth Sense

During the sixth inning of last Thursday’s baseball game between Ventura and Moorpark colleges, the public-address announcer in the Ventura press box received a phone call from the school’s trainer inquiring about a report of an injury at the baseball field.

Told that no one had been injured, the trainer said he would come to the field anyway.

One pitch after the phone call, Ventura catcher Mitch King was struck and cut on the top of the head by the bat of Moorpark’s Jeff Sommer, who had swung through a pitch to end the inning.

Fortunately, King was not seriously hurt, and after several minutes on the ground, he returned to the dugout and finished the game. The trainer arrived within minutes to treat King’s wound.

No word on who made the initial injury report.

ANXIOUS MOMENTS

The King incident made for some anxious moments for more reasons than the obvious.

The sophomore has been a catalyst in Ventura’s surprising run for the Western State Conference title. The Pirates will wind up the regular season next week with games against Santa Barbara (April 23) and first-place Pierce (April 25).

The 6-foot, 170-pound King, a former Camarillo High player who has signed a letter of intent with Texas Tech, entered the week with a .339 season average and team-leading totals of 24 runs, nine stolen bases and 19 runs batted in.

But King’s most impressive statistic has to be that he had committed only one error in 30 games for the Pirates (20-8) entering play Wednesday.

GO BACK TO GO FORWARD

After crashing and burning in the men’s 400-meter relay in the Fresno Relays on April 4, the Moorpark foursome of Darrick Gaines, Phil Antoine, Jeff Ingalls and Bryan Krill eased off the accelerator at the Meet of Champions at Azusa Pacific on Saturday, and it resulted in a school-record time of 40.80 seconds.

Riverside won in 40.71.

Antoine, a sophomore from Newbury Park High, and Ingalls, a sophomore from Agoura, failed to hook up on the second baton exchange at Fresno when Coach Doni Green had instructed his charges to “push it to the limit.”

Green told them to be less aggressive in the exchange Saturday, and they shattered the record (41.36) they set earlier this season.

“It’s a pretty good time considering we don’t have a true sprinter among the four guys,” Green said.

Krill, a freshman from Thousand Oaks, and Ingalls specialize in the 400 meters. Gaines, a freshman from Louisville, Ky., and Antoine, concentrate on the 200.

Sky-high after its 400-relay time, the foursome came back to defeat Riverside in the 1,600-meter relay with a school-record time of 3:11.09 seconds. Riverside finished second in 3:11.70.

The previous Moorpark record of 3:12.3 was set in 1985.

FRENCH FRY KING

Brent Lofton, the former El Camino Real High guard who is transferring from Utah State to Cal State Northridge, was a hit with Aggie fans this season.

In three games during December, Lofton scored the 80th point for Utah State, earning free french fries for fans at a local eatery. There were precious few other highlights in Lofton’s three seasons in Logan, Utah.

“It was really tough,” said Lofton, the 1989 City Section 3-A Division player of the year. “The first year, you don’t think you’ll play that much, but I actually played more minutes as a freshman than I have the last two years.”

Lofton’s averages of nine minutes and 3.0 points dwindled after his first season to four minutes and 1.3 points last season and even less this past season. “Coach (Kohn Smith) told me the person I was playing behind was really good. Well, that player (Kendall Youngblood) is leaving and he (Smith) has given me no indication that I will be playing,” Lofton said. “He hasn’t given me a chance.”

With only one season of eligibility remaining, Lofton hopes he can salvage his college career.

“I’m just looking for a place to play and to help a team,” he said.

Lofton chose Northridge on the recommendation of former El Camino Real assistant Jeff Davis (now the Canoga Park coach), a friend of CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy.

“Pete has been very encouraging,” Lofton said. “It is a hard thing for him to do to take me for one year. I’m grateful for him to even consider me. For him to have faith in me.”

Cassidy has succeeded with single-season players in the past. Kyle Kerlegan, the most recent example, led Northridge in scoring and set school records for three-point shooting in 1990-91.

CATCH AS CATCH CAN

Cheryl Aschenbach walked in the footsteps of Cal Lutheran Coach Teri Rupe when she joined the Regal softball team in 1990, but now, Aschenbach is clearing her own path.

Rupe was Cal Lutheran’s catcher from 1987-89, and Aschenbach succeeded Rupe when Rupe became an assistant the next year.

“I think she’s doing better than I did,” said Rupe, who batted .278 in her Cal Lutheran career.

Aschenbach has improved her batting average from .276 last year to .370, second on the team behind Brenda Frafjord (.394). Aschenbach has eight doubles, one triple and 11 stolen bases for Cal Lutheran (18-11). She has made only three errors and “is what a catcher is supposed to be,” Rupe said.

PAID HIS DUES

It was well before his first victory of the season Feb. 8 and well before his school-record ninth win on Saturday that Steve Dempsey established himself as Cal Lutheran’s top pitcher.

Last season, when Dempsey still was trying to break into the starting rotation, he appeared in only 14 games--four as the starter. But on Feb. 7, 1991, he earned his second win of the season in a 12-4 victory over Christ College of Irvine. He ended the season with a 5-1 record, but that second win began a streak of 13 wins for Dempsey, nine of which have come this season.

Over the summer, playing for the Valley Rangers, Dempsey posted the fourth-best earned-run average in the National Baseball Congress.

Currently, Dempsey (9-0) has a 1.64 ERA in 71 1/3 innings, and he has given up only 13 earned runs for Cal Lutheran (29-2). Mike Clark set the previous record for wins with eight in 1989.

SHORT SEASON

The Master’s will not be heading to the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics District 3 baseball playoffs for the first time in three years.

Three teams from the Golden State Athletic Conference and one independent are invited to the District 3 playoffs. The Master’s and Biola are the only independents in the district. Biola prevailed in a five-game series and will go to the playoffs.

Biola won the first two games, and The Master’s, needing to win the last three, shut out Biola, 7-0, on Friday and took the first game of a doubleheader Saturday, 7-2. Biola, however, won the second game, 5-2.

Considering that The Master’s is 13-22, 8-8 in District 3, missing the playoffs was not unexpected.

“I don’t feel as bad as if we were 21-11 and just stubbed our toe against a team,” Coach Chris Harrison said.

“I definitely think it’s fair,” Harrison said of having a postseason berth decided by a five-game series, “(but) it is something that I would rather not do.”

BACK WITH A BANG

When Andy Martin recovers from a slump, he does so with a bang.

Martin, a junior first baseman, broke two school records Tuesday in The Master’s 11-5 win over Cal State San Bernardino. Martin hit four home runs to break the record of two and he had eight runs batted in, breaking the record of seven.

The pressure of being The Master’s top player might have weighed on Martin this season. He batted only .253 in the first two months, although Tuesday’s performance raised his average to .293.

“Maybe he has tried to do a little too much for us this year,” Harrison said.

Last season Martin set The Master’s season record for home runs with 12. He has 10 so far this season.

Ron Twersky and staff writers Theresa Munoz, John Ortega and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this notebook.