West’s Szymanski Overcomes Nerves, Valley North

Woodland Hills West reliever Kevin Szymanski needed to throw another pitch out of the strike zone like he needed another consonant in his surname. In short, he had inherited a mess.

Runners were soon dancing off every base, the game was on the line in the bottom of the ninth inning and the strike zone seemed as minuscule as, say, Szymanski’s confidence and experience.

“I was nervous out there,” Szymanski said. “I haven’t really been in that situation before. Most of the games I’ve been in haven’t been really close.”

But Szymanski survived the white-knuckle ride to save West’s 6-5 victory over Valley North in an American Legion District 20 Western Division baseball game Saturday at Cal State Northridge.

With West holding a 6-4 lead in the ninth, starter Evan Howland (6-0) walked two batters to open the inning. Szymanski was called in to face David Stevenson, and issued another walk to load the bases with none out.

“I almost goofed up,” West Coach Don Hornback said. “I left Howland in too long--I figured I’d give him a shot because he’s such a bulldog. But it really put the pressure on Szymanski.”

Up stepped Bryan LaCour, who leads the district with seven homers. LaCour sent a 3-and-2 grounder to shortstop Dan Cey, who backhanded the ball in the hole and flipped to second for the first out as Mark Lopez (who had two hits) scored from third to pare the lead to 6-5.

With runners on first and third, Mike Muir took a called third strike for the second out.

“That took a load off my back,” Szymanski said. “ Then I settled down.”

Doug Dean grounded to Cey for the final out, which kept West in playoff contention at 14-5 in district play.

“The bottom line is that we needed it worse than they did,” Hornback said. “And we got it.”

For most of the game, both teams played like nobody wanted it. West scored four times in the second off starter Brandon Nickens but it took two errors to keep the rally alive. West broke a 4-4 tie with two runs in the ninth despite not getting a hit. A potential double-play ball that was booted by Dean at short aided the rally.

West, in fact, didn’t have a hit through the final 6 1/3 innings. Valley North (14-3-1) had four hits, none after the sixth, and committed four errors.

* LEGION ALL-STAR PREVIEW

Today’s District 20 game, moved from Birmingham High to the friendly confines at Burroughs, may be a slugfest. C14