NOTEBOOK : St. Monica High Hires Soto as Baseball Coach

Former Venice High and Santa Monica College standout Ernie Soto has been hired to coach the St. Monica baseball team. He will replace Bruce Meyers, who resigned in July.

Soto, 23, played left field for Cal State Dominguez Hills in 1991 and led the Toros in batting (.341), doubles (12) and runs batted in (32). He was selected to the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. second team. He also started as a junior for the Toros, batting .253.

Soto played for former Venice Coach Jeff Shimizu in 1986-87. In 1986, the Gondoliers won the City Section 3-A Division title. He also played two seasons at Santa Monica College.

“He has the baseball knowledge and the eagerness to learn about coaching,” St. Monica Vice Principal Leo Klemm said. “I was impressed with his honesty. I asked him some tough questions during the interview process and he gave me more than a pat answer.”

Promotional tour: Penny Baizer, another former Venice and Santa Monica College standout, has been hired as an assistant softball coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Last season, Baizer was an assistant at Crossroads High. The Roadrunners won the Southern Section Small Schools Division championship.

As a player, Baizer was a 1990 All-CCAA first-team selection at Dominguez Hills. She set a Toro record for most stolen bases (14).

Baizer was a three-time All-Western League player at Venice and was selected to the All-Western State Conference team at Santa Monica.

Record-setting loss: Hawthorne High’s 72-6 victory over Santa Monica was the sixth highest score in Southern Section history.

Surprisingly, neither team scored in the first quarter.

It was the most points scored by a Southern Section team since 1990, when Rancho Alamitos scored 74 against Magnolia. San Diego High holds the record, with 130 points against Carlsbad Army-Navy in 1920.

Getting back to business: When Brentwood Academy students went on their annual retreat last week, Eagle Coach Pat Brown was left with one day to prepare his team for its eight-man game against Masada.

The Eagles beat Masada, 40-12, to improve to 6-0.

“The intensity was there, but the execution wasn’t as sharp as it had been,” Brown said. “We face this problem every year.”

Seeing double: Westchester baseball Coach Ron Kasparian has a twin brother, Ray, who coaches B football and varsity golf at Hollywood.

The younger Kasparian has been living in the shadow of his brother.

“He has taken advantage because he is five to seven minutes older than me,” Ray said, jokingly. “He is hiding me. He has had great athletic teams at Westchester while I’ve been struggling at Hollywood.”

The Kasparians were nearly reunited in the fall of 1991 when Ray applied for a job as a driver’s education instructor at Westchester.

“I didn’t get the job because I let my driver’s education credential expire,” Ray said.