Southern Section Snubs 2 Soccer All-Americans

Soccer players Cindy Daws of Louisville High and Alyze Lowen of Harvard-Westlake are conspicuously absent from the recently released list of All-Southern Section honorees, despite being named to the U. S. Youth Soccer Assn. All-American team.

Both were suspended by the Southern Section for two matches in January for playing in a match for a women’s team as a part of a tryout during Christmas vacation, violating the high school rule against participation on an outside team during the high school season. That violation caused some league representatives at the selection meeting to cast their votes elsewhere.

Daws and Lowen already had received an abundance of other honors. Daws has accepted a scholarship to Notre Dame and Lowen has signed with Stanford. Both are members of the under-19 national team and Daws, 17, recently played for the under-21 U.S. squad during a 3-1 win over Denmark in the Tournament of the Nations championship in France. Daws also became the first athlete in Louisville history to have her jersey retired during a ceremony at the team awards banquet.

MISSION LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Harvard-Westlake has played without Kevin O’Malley the past three games. The first baseman was spiked in the right heel against Brentwood on April 13, opening a gash that required 20 stitches.

Alemany first baseman Chris Tashima was three for five with four walks, two home runs and six runs batted in last week. . . . Ed Bushey was six for 10 with four runs.

GOLDEN LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Highland might be the best offensive team in the Antelope Valley region. Pitching is another story.

The Bulldogs have a batting average of .380, but on the flip side, the opposition is batting .351 against Highland.

Furthermore, Highland is averaging nine runs a game, but giving up eight.

In last week’s 14-13 victory over Littlerock, Highland jumped to a 14-5 lead, “then barely hung on, in another typical game for us,” Coach Mike Van Cheri said.

The Highland staff earned-run average is a stratospheric 6.79.

CHANNEL LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Who’s hot: Junior James Melcher of Buena has 11 hits in his last 12 at-bats, and 17 in his last 22, a five-game stretch during which he has raised his batting average almost 200 points to a team-high .522. . . .

Junior right-hander Manuel Canales is about the only bright spot in what has been a forgettable season at Oxnard. On Friday, Canales hit two solo home runs and pitched a complete game in a 5-4 victory over Rio Mesa.

Canales struck out five and scattered seven hits.

The victory was the Yellowjackets’ first in league play against seven losses.

Canales (2-5) leads Oxnard in batting average (.393), home runs (three), innings pitched (40 2/3) and complete games (three).

MARMONTE LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Jamal Nichols of Thousand Oaks stole two bases last week to raise his season total to 29, nine shy of the school’s single season record set by Ryan Kritscher in 1991.

SOCCER

Thousand Oaks soccer player Raja Hawa recently returned from England, where he had two weeks of tryouts with English League teams.

Hawa, 18, tried out for Premier League team Wimbledon and First Division team Swindon. As he expected, he was not offered a contract in the brief period but was invited to return in the summer for more extensive evaluation.

And after Hawa’s tryout with Wimbledon, scouts from Liverpool and Brentford expressed interest in placing him on their reserve teams.

“I thought they were going to be a lot better than they were,” Hawa said. “Tactically and technically they’re so good, but they’re not that athletic.”

And they were unexpectedly friendly.

Martin Desmond, a former English League player who arranged the tryout, had prepared him for potential hazing.

“But it wasn’t like that. They were really nice, and were all really interested in California,” Hawa said. “They asked about girls: ‘Are they all blond and tan?’ ”

NORTHWEST VALLEY CONFERENCE

BASEBALL

El Camino Real’s designated hitter is John Novak, though some folks wouldn’t recognize the name. Novak, who was 18 for 43 with 14 RBIs entering the week, routinely answers to a new moniker.

It seems when Novak transferred from Taft last season, an El Camino Real teammate didn’t know his name. So he made one up.

“He said, ‘You look like a Chuck,’ ” Novak said. “It caught on. Everybody calls me Chuck. The fans call me Chuck, my parents even call me Chuck.”. . . .

At opposite ends of the selectivity spectrum are pitcher-outfielder Randy Wolf of El Camino Real and shortstop John Toven of Kennedy. Wolf is 14 for 34 (.411) and has drawn 23 walks. Toven is 31 for 73 (.425) and has walked once . . . .

SOFTBALL

* Who’s hot: Taft’s Keri Borzello, a 6-foot senior who in February signed a letter of intent with No. 16 Missouri, is batting a team-high .609 (28 for 46) with 23 RBIs, two doubles and three triples.

At shortstop, Borzello has made only four errors in 51 chances (.927). Borzello is not the only athlete in the family.

Brother Michael, who graduated from Taft and played for Cal Lutheran, is playing for a St. Louis Cardinals’ Class-A farm team.

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Who’s hot: Burroughs senior outfielder Troy Wilson hit two two-run home runs in an 8-7 win over Canyon last Thursday. . . . Hart sophomore right-hander Luis Sanchez defeated Saugus, 4-1, Friday to break Jason Edwards’ team record of 11 consecutive victories. Sanchez (5-0, 2.15 ERA) has won 12 in a row over two seasons. Edwards was 11-0 in 1988. . . . Hart junior infielder Aron Miyata leads the league in runs scored (23) and has stolen 13 bases in 16 attempts. . . . Saugus junior infielder Danny Cato (.378) leads the league with 25 hits.

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Vince Kowalick, Paige A. Leech, and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.