AMERICAN LEGION NOTEBOOK / JOHN ORTEGA : Rampaging Newbury Oaks Rides Hot Bats to State Tournament

Can anyone contain, let alone shut down, the Newbury Oaks offense?

That is the question many spectators were asking after Newbury Oaks defeated Van Nuys-Notre Dame, 10-4, Sunday to win the American Legion Area 6 baseball tournament at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Newbury Oaks, posting its 27th win in a row, advanced into the state tournament in Yountville that begins Saturday.

Although the team entered the Area 6 tournament with six players batting above .400, some questioned the quality of the team’s opposition.

Not any more.

Not after Newbury Oaks (27-1) outscored the opposition, 46-20, batted .430 (65 for 151), and had a slugging percentage of .616 during the Area 6 tournament.

“We can hit,” Coach Chuck Fick said. “A team has got to play nine innings to beat this team, and it’s awful hard to keep our bats quiet for that long. We can put up five runs in a hurry.”

Van Nuys knows the feeling.

Trailing, 5-4, after eight innings Sunday, Van Nuys was rocked when Newbury Oaks added five runs in the ninth to transform a close game into a rout.

Claremont was the victim of a similar outburst Friday, leading Newbury Oaks, 2-0, after two innings, then losing, 13-2, in a game that was called after seven innings because of the 10-run rule.

Van Nuys led, 3-0, Sunday after starter Chris Garza held Newbury Oaks to two hits through the first five innings. But when Garza had to leave the mound because he had reached the maximum number of innings pitched (12) for a 72-hour period, Newbury Oaks reacted like a school of sharks when it smells chum in the water.

“We were just a little overanxious in the first part of the game,” Newbury Oaks right fielder Jamal Nichols said. “Once they brought in the new pitcher, we kind of said, ‘Let’s go. Let’s get something going right away.’ ”

Shortstop David Lamb offered a similar view. “(Garza) pitched well,” he said. “But we just came out a little too excited. (Van Nuys Coach Jody Breeden) had said some things about them being a better team than us the other day and we wanted to prove that he was wrong.”

Newbury Oaks, and its bats, proved that.

Double trouble: The good news for Newbury Oaks’ opponents is that only two players on this year’s team, which is dominated by graduated high school players, are eligible to return next season.

The bad news is that those two players are Lamb of Newbury Park High and Nichols of Thousand Oaks.

Lamb, who is being touted by some as a potential first-round pick in next year’s amateur draft, hit .632 (12 for 19) in the tournament with five doubles. He scored six runs and drove in seven.

Nichols, the fastest player on the team, was six for 16 in the tournament, including a double and a triple. He scored seven runs, had two runs batted in and stole three bases.

Diamond vision: Nichols, a two-sport letterman in football and baseball as a junior, said he will not play football this fall.

As a 5-foot-8, 175-pound wingback, Nichols gained 259 yards in 29 carries and scored two touchdowns for the Thousand Oaks football team last season. He also returned kicks and punts.

Moving on: Newbury Oaks pitcher Adam West will transfer to Pierce College in the fall after attending Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., during the 1991-92 school year.

West, who posted a 5-3 record and 3.48 earned-run average as a senior at Thousand Oaks High in 1991, has a 9-1 record with Newbury Oaks.

“I just wasn’t that happy up there,” West said. “I don’t know why exactly I didn’t come back to Moorpark, but I decided to go to Pierce. I know (Bob) Lofrano is a good coach.”

Because the left-handed West appeared in only two games for Lewis & Clark last season, he was able to count it as a redshirt season, leaving him with four years of collegiate eligibility.

From bad to worse: The news continues to get worse for Breeden when it comes to the Notre Dame High baseball team.

Breeden, an assistant at Notre Dame for the past six years, found out Thursday that he will not be part of the coaching staff at the Sherman Oaks school.

Van Nuys-Notre Dame assistant John Riley will replace Breeden, who had been passed over for the vacated head coaching position the previous week in favor of Tom Dill, the school’s junior varsity coach last season.

“Obviously, I’m upset about the news,” Breeden said. “But what really ticks me off is the way the whole thing was handled. I still haven’t heard anything from the school. John (Riley) had to tell me.”