Swapping Aces Reveals Coaches as Pair of Jokers

In a move that rocked the Mission League, the Notre Dame High baseball team Monday traded unbeaten junior left-hander Chris Garza to rival Alemany for a right-handed starter and a player to be named later.

Garza (7-0) threw a no-hitter earlier this month and leads the region’s pitchers in victories. He was swapped for Alemany sophomore right-hander Greg Kmet (4-0), who has not allowed an earned run in 31 innings.

The trade makes sense: Alemany did not have a left-handed pitcher on its staff; Notre Dame is loaded with left-handers.

Garza will make his Alemany debut today in a game against . . .

File the preceding under fantasy baseball, but Alemany Coach Jim Ozella did, in fact, kiddingly make the trade offer to Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville at the St. Paul tournament Monday.

“I told him he could have Kmet if we get Garza,” Ozella said. “They could even have a player to be named later.

MR. MASH

Midway through last season, Kennedy outfielder John Davis was batting an anemic .150 and nobody knew why. His coach, Manny Alvarado, steadfastly left Davis in the lineup and the move--or lack of one--paid off when Davis beat Chatsworth with a dramatic home run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Since then, Davis has been smoking.

Davis was five for 11 in four games of the Las Vegas tournament last weekend--and his batting average went down .

Entering the week, Davis was 24 for 47 (.511) and led the team in doubles (four), home runs (three), runs batted in (18) and stolen bases (seven). Impressive numbers, especially when there are eight other Kennedy players batting .300 or better.

In a game last week against Reseda, Davis homered twice and drove in nine runs to lead the Golden Cougars to a 23-4 victory.

UNEARNED REPUTATION

E-3. E-4. E-5. E-6.

The latest jet fighter prototypes? No, just a routine notation in the Westlake score book.

If members of the Westlake pitching staff prefer not to watch where ground balls end up, it is more than understandable. Westlake (9-6) pitchers have been solid, but the team defense has been like Swiss cheese--lots of holes.

The Warrior trio of John Snyder (1.23 ERA), Tony Dellamano (1.28) and Scott Singleton (1.66) has allowed just 17 earned runs in 86 2/3 innings, but total runs is a different story.

Westlake’s defense has committed 56 errors, an average of almost four a game, undermining a staff ERA of 1.16 over 96 innings. The aforementioned trio has allowed a total of 50 runs, for an unearned-to-earned ratio of almost 3 to 1.

SQUEEZING PAST

One more squeeze and the baseball would have squirted orange juice all over the Crossroads third baseman.

Last Friday, Buckley defeated Crossroads, 4-3, marking the first time in school history that the Griffins had beaten the Roadrunners. Crossroads, the defending Delphic League co-champion, recently was ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section 1-A Division.

Buckley (5-5-1) scored four times in the sixth inning via less-than-conventional means. The Griffins rallied without benefit of a hit and successfully used the suicide squeeze three times in the inning. And one squeeze produced two runs.

It is more difficult than it sounds.

“We try to do it a lot,” Buckley Coach Rick Weber said, “although it worked this time.”

MUST BE A LEAP YEAR

Camarillo track Coach Mike Smith can forget about converting sophomore Jeremy Fischer into a hurdler after last week’s Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

Smith had toyed with the idea because of Fischer’s combination of speed and agility--he has long-jumped 21 feet 7 1/2 inches--but Fischer put those plans on the back burner Friday when he cleared a personal best of 6 feet 10 inches to win the invitational long jump.

Fischer (5-foot-10) missed three attempts at 6-11, which would have broken the Camarillo record of 6-10 1/4, set by Viktor Nehring in 1982. “I wanted to get the record,” Fischer said. “But I was just too tired by the time the bar got to that height.”

Camarillo assistant Dennis Riedmiller said it is only a matter of time before Fischer, who began the season with a personal best of 6-4, breaks Nehring’s record.

“He’s such a raw talent,” Riedmiller said. “When he came to me at the start of the season, it was like he was sitting in a chair when he was going over the bar. Now, he’s starting to learn some of the technical aspects of the event.”

THE YEAR THAT WAS

Sports history is not among the most popular topics at Moorpark High.

For most people associated with the school, the Musketeers’ 51-game losing streak against Carpinteria in football is where the conversation begins and immediately ends.

However, the recent success of the school’s baseball team has Moorpark followers thumbing through record books.

Moorpark began the season with 11 consecutive wins before losing Saturday to Redlands, 2-1, in a nonleague game. The Musketeers’ 11-0 start is the best in school history--as far as anyone can figure. Although the school opened in 1922, records of the school’s baseball team do not go back that far.

Larry McDermott, Moorpark’s baseball coach from 1974 to 1982 and now the softball coach, is not certain whether the team’s start is without parallel. But he knows the team never bolted from the gate like this when he was coach.

“I’ve been associated with the school since 1969,” McDermott said. “I can’t ever remember the team starting out like this.”

FOR THE RECORD

Stu Cohen of Calabasas tied a Westlake Golf Course record by shooting a nine-under 58 last Wednesday in a match against host Agoura. The record had been held by current pros Dave Stockton and Wayne Case.

“After I made about five birdies, I thought it was going to be one of those days,” Cohen said. “Nothing could go wrong.”

He finished with 10 birdies and one bogey.

Cohen, a senior who won the league title and finished 14th in the Southern Section individual finals last season, played the Westlake course regularly until he began high school.

The senior has been low medalist in each of Calabasas’ four matches this season. “I didn’t realize I tied the course record until I finished,” he said. “It didn’t even cross my mind.”

ENOUGH ALREADY

Burroughs baseball Coach Terry Scott just doesn’t have the heart--or the stomach--for any more games against Hart.

Hart has defeated Burroughs twice in Foothill League play, 12-3 and 11-7. Last week, Hart again beat Burroughs, 10-5, in the Glendale tournament.

This week? Another game against Hart. The teams’ third and final league matchup is scheduled for today at Hart at 3 p.m. “Four times is enough,” Scott said. “I’ve been seeing more of (Hart Coach) Bud Murray than I’ve been seeing of my wife.”

ROSTER REDUCTION

Oak Park junior center fielder Damian Delfino has been dismissed from the team for disciplinary reasons, Coach Mike Bolyog said.

Delfino missed two practices and failed to show for a game against Carpinteria, Bolyog said.

FINALLY

This was not a bad way to snap a losing streak.

Nordhoff, which went 0-22 last season, was 0-11 entering Saturday’s nonleague game at Thacher. Sophomore right-hander Brian Rooney pitched a six-inning no-hitter and the Rangers won, 15-0.

Thacher, a tiny school, did not want to play Nordhoff so the Rangers promised that a sophomore would pitch. Rooney was the choice.

He entered Saturday’s game having allowed 16 runs in 9 1/3 innings.

This was not a tidy no-hitter: Rooney, who struck out six, walked 10.

Among the hitting stars were sophomore Enrique Beltran (home run) and senior Chris Breck (five for five with three doubles).

But it was back to the old ways Monday. Nordhoff lost to Littlerock, 7-1.

DOUBLE STANDARD

Times have been rough for the Buena baseball team.

First, Grandon Aubert (3-0), a junior right-hander who had established himself as the Bulldogs’ top pitcher, was declared academically ineligible April 10. Then, to make matters worse, Buena administrators forced the Bulldogs to withdraw from the Thousand Oaks tournament last week.

Coach Stan Hedegard was told by the administration that his team could not compete unless all of its games were played after the school day had ended.

While many school districts took spring breaks last week, the Ventura Unified School District took the previous week off. When tournament organizers could not provide a guarantee, the Bulldogs were forced to pull out and were replaced by the Thousand Oaks junior varsity.

Adding to Hedegard’s frustrations was the fact that Ventura, from the same school district, not only played in the Thousand Oaks tournament but finished as runner-up.

Ventura Coach Dan Smith said there is an obvious difference between the two schools.

“Our administration basically lets our athletes play their schedules,” Smith said.

GOOD-LUCK CHARM

When Ventura pulled out a pair of wins with seventh-inning rallies last week to reach the final of the Thousand Oaks baseball tournament, Smith was quick to point to a special good-luck charm.

Smith wore underwear that matched the Cougars’ pin-striped uniforms.

Even the underwear could not help Ventura in the championship game against Channel Islands, however. Angel Aragon pitched a one-hitter to beat the Cougars, 5-0.

GIMME THE BAT

Sylmar’s six-game win streak came to a screeching halt last week against Monroe in Valley Pac-8 Conference play. Monroe swept Sylmar (8-7, 6-2 in league) in a two-game series, 12-7 and 6-1, and Sylmar Coach Gary Donatella knows why.

“The team is batting .232,” Donatella said. “I told them I can bat .232 left-handed, right now.”

HANKINS FILE

Simi Valley third baseman Ryan Hankins, a sophomore who is one of the region’s top players, might return this week from an ankle injury that has sidelined him all season.

Hankins, who underwent surgery in early March, has been taking batting practice.

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