Dated Gag Has Coach Speechless

Rick Nathanson, a co-coach of Calabasas High’s baseball team, got quite a scare last week.

Shortly before practice, several players and co-Coach Scott Drootin told him the team’s new portable outfield fence was missing. Nathanson looked to the outfield and, sure enough, no fence.

“I wandered out (to the outfield) in sort of a daze,” Nathanson said. “I was just speechless. All I could think was how much money that thing cost us.”

One of his players told Nathanson he spotted something attached to home plate. Nathanson raced to the plate and picked up a note lying there. The note read, “Thanks for the fence.”

“I was reeling,” Nathanson said. “I broke out into a cold sweat and I was shaking. I didn’t know what to do.”

Nathanson was so upset he hadn’t realized that Drootin and the rest of the team was standing directly behind him. Drootin stepped in front of Nathanson and said, “April Fool.”

“They really got me good,” an amused Nathanson said. “They had the fence hid all along. I was had.”

FRONTIER LEAGUE BASEBALL

The streak is over.

Calabasas third baseman Josh Morton had his 28-game hitting streak snapped in an 8-6 league loss to Santa Paula on Friday. Morton--named the state sophomore player of the year by Cal-Hi Sports after batting .483 last season--hit in all 20 games last season and the first eight this season.

“I think the pressure really got to him,” Nathanson said. “The expectations on him are so high.

“It’s really unfair. I think people sometimes forget he’s just a high school kid playing baseball.”

Morton leads the Coyotes in batting (.423), home runs (two) and runs batted in (17). Former Torrance catcher Jason Kendall holds the state hitting streak record of 43 games, which he set last season.

MARMONTE LEAGUE BASEBALL

Simi Valley catcher Kevin Nykoluk, a senior and the Pioneers’ cleanup hitter, celebrated his 18th birthday Friday by going one for four with a walk in the Pioneers’ 17-6 win over Agoura. Nykoluk had a run-scoring single, scored twice, stole two bases and earned the praise of Agoura assistant Ed Aguilar.

“Kevin Nykoluk is the toughest out in this league,” Aguilar said. “Every at-bat.”

Nykoluk is being recruited by several Division I schools, including Arizona State.

Who is Jason Tubb and what business does he have hitting a pair of home runs, including a two-run game-winner in the bottom of the seventh Friday to give Newbury Park an 8-7 win over Thousand Oaks?

Tubb, a senior utility player and designated hitter, came back with a double Saturday in the Panthers’ 8-5 win over Burbank in the opening round of the Babe Herman tournament.

On Monday, Tubb had the game-winning hit in the sixth inning of a 3-2 tournament win over Saugus.

Pretty surprising, considering his name was not among those mentioned by Coach Gary Fabricius in the preseason.

Said Fabricius: “He’d been hurt with a bad leg. But he’s been feeling better and swinging the bat better in practice.”

Agoura’s Kevin Sass stole two bases against Simi Valley on Friday to surpass Jamal Nichols of Thousand Oaks for the league lead. Sass has 15, Nichols 13. Andy Wilson of Thousand Oaks stole four bases last week to give him 13.

PACIFIC LEAGUE BASEBALL

This no-hitter needs two asterisks. Not only did it come in less than a full game, the victim was less than a full team.

Crescenta Valley left-hander Jim Parque pitched three perfect innings against Ocean View in the first round of the Babe Herman tournament Saturday, then had to leave the game because of the state rule prohibiting pitchers from throwing more than 10 innings in a week. Shortstop Kirk Hagge, who hadn’t pitched this season, held Ocean View hitless for the next two innings before the game was called because of the 10-run rule. The Falcons won, 12-1.

But Ocean View was playing with a split squad of sorts.

It seems the Seahawks had booked themselves into two tournaments the same weekend.

When organizers of the Babe Herman tournament wouldn’t release Ocean View from its commitment, the Seahawks used junior varsity players along with the varsity and split into two teams.

TRI-VALLEY LEAGUE BASEBALL

“Wild and crazy.”

That’s how Oak Park Coach Mike Bolyog characterized the Eagles’ 14-13 league win over visiting St. Bonaventure last week.

The Eagles overcame a 10-run deficit--the largest comeback in school history--in a game called after six innings because of darkness.

St. Bonaventure had scored one run in the first and nine in the second.

Oak Park rallied with four runs in the third and eight in the fourth to go ahead, 12-10. St. Bonaventure regained the lead, 13-12, with three in the sixth, but the Eagles scored four in the bottom of the inning for the victory.

The teams combined for 22 hits, all singles. Seven pitchers delivered 20 walks.

“I didn’t have enough hair before that game and I lost a lot during it worrying,” Bolyog said. “It was just incredible.

“The word ‘miracle’ comes to mind.”

VALLEY PAC-8 CONFERENCE BASEBALL

Sylmar is one of three area City Section teams heading to Las Vegas today for a 30-team tournament. Coach Gary Donatella, who was married in Las Vegas last year, noted sardonically that he doesn’t have to cross a border to roll the dice.

“I work for L.A. Unified. . . . I’m definitely a gambler,” Donatella cracked.

Sylmar batters have been hit by pitches 24 times in 11 games. Jaime Cordero is the team’s No. 1 target, having been hit 11 times.

“He’s got the thickest skin on the team,” Donatella said.

Ten games into the season and North Hollywood (6-4) already has equaled its win total of the past two seasons (6-38). What is the secret to its success? The Huskies are hitting the ball--and doing it more efficiently than any other team in the conference. Eight starters are batting .333 or better on a team that sports a .360 average.

“We’ve changed their mechanics,” first-year Coach Rick Pally said. “Their body alignments at the plate are more proper now and they’re seeing the ball better.”

The problems behind Grant’s 3-7 start are obvious. The Lancers have committed 45 errors; 13 of Grant’s 17 players have made at least one.

Considering its 0-5 start, Poly, a City Section 4-A Division finalist a year ago, has made some dramatic changes--mainly in its record. After being outscored, 55-8, in their first five games, the Parrots rebounded and outscored opponents, 37-6, to record five consecutive victories.

“It was like a chain reaction,” first-year Coach Chuck Schwal said. “We moved our infield around and started playing well. Then all of the sudden, the pitching got better.”

Perhaps the turnaround is best epitomized by the play of veteran Bobby Iglesias, the team’s only returning starter. Iglesias went hitless in his first seven at-bats, but has gone 14 for 21 since and is batting a team-high .500.

BASEBALL

North Hollywood softball Coach Steve Drott was stunned in a recent game against Canoga Park when his starting pitcher, Patty Urrutia, called time out from the mound and asked to be removed from the game. The reason? Not a sore arm, not a blister, not an injury. She was thirsty.

Said Drott: “She asked, ‘Can somebody else pitch?’ ‘Why?’ I said. ‘I’m thirsty,’ she said. I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ ‘No.’ . . . I was dying of embarrassment.”

Drott withheld the water bottle and put his pitcher in right field.

MISSION LEAGUE BASEBALL

Good pitching stops good hitting, or so the axiom goes. If there’s any question, wait until Alemany faces Crespi or Notre Dame.

The Celts and Knights clearly have the top pitching staffs in the league. Crespi’s top starters are Jeff Suppan (4-1, 1.00 earned-run average) and Keith Evans (3-0, 1.94). Notre Dame is led by Chris Leveque (3-1, 0.62) and Chris Garza (2-0, 2.14). Alemany might have the bats to challenge those staffs.

Alemany, alone in first place at 6-0, has scored 10 runs or more in six consecutive games. Heading into this week’s games, Nevada-bound third baseman Andy Dominique led the team with a .585 average, three home runs, eight doubles and 20 RBIs. He was followed by Robbie Glenn (.457), Brian Shaw (.444), Rene Rodriguez (.400), Chris Tashima (.333) and John Tucker (.305).

Glenn, Shaw and Tucker also have three home runs each. Alemany has hit back-to-back homers three times.

Rodriguez is the hottest hitter. Last week, the senior shortstop was 10 for 13 with three triples, raising his average 130 points.

“When we play in a small park, I kind of feel sorry for pitching staffs,” Coach Jim Ozella said. “If we continue to (hit so well), I don’t know who can stop us.”

FOOTHILL LEAGUE BASEBALL

These are trying times for the Saugus baseball team.

A perennial area power, Saugus was expected to battle Hart for the league championship. Numerous Centurions returned from last year’s Golden League championship team.

However, Saugus has struggled the first part of the league season, which the Centurions entered with a 7-2 record. They then lost four of five games, including three straight league games. Saugus (8-6, 0-3) trails Canyon and Hart--tied for first at 2-0--by 2 1/2 games. Saugus Coach Doug Worley, in his 18th season, seldom has seen a team so frustrated.

“You hope to work through your frustrations, but if you don’t do it early, it might never stop building,” he said. “I keep waiting for something good to happen, but it’s not.”

Hart’s five-game winning streak was snapped Saturday in a nonleague doubleheader loss to Buena. Hart fell, 8-4, 3-2. . . . Senior right-hander starter Gary Stephenson continues his strong play for the Indians. He is 3-1 with a save and a 1.83 earned-run average. He has struck out 37 in 30 2/3 innings.

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Staff writers Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad, Vince Kowalick, Paige A. Leech and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.