Freshman Martin Gets a Fresh Start at Redondo High

Kerry Martin was calling it quits.

After too many games and too much pressure, Martin was tired of playing softball.

She was retiring at age 13.

“I was burned out,” said Martin, 15, now a Redondo High freshman. “It seemed like I had been playing forever.”

After taking a year off from softball, Martin decided to give the sport another whirl.

Martin, who has pitched five no-hitters, has not allowed an earned run in Ocean League play to help put Redondo (15-5, 9-1 in league) in contention for its first league softball title in school history.

The Sea Hawks, who have two league games remaining, can clinch the championship with a victory over Mira Costa on Wednesday or Thursday.

Martin (13-4) leads the South Bay in strikeouts with 129 and earned-run average at 0.32. Earlier this season, she pitched 30 scoreless innings during a five-game stretch.

She struck out 19 in two games against defending champion Culver City last week, including 10 in a 2-1 10-inning victory on Wednesday.

The 5-foot-4 Martin also leads the Sea Hawks with 15 stolen bases. A switch-hitter, Martin is one of eight Redondo players batting over .300 at .317.

“I’m surprised to be doing so good,” Martin said. “I didn’t think I would make varsity and thought I’d have to work my butt off to make the cut. We’ve got a great team and I’m enjoying it.”

Martin couldn’t say the same about her previous experiences playing softball.

“I had some really bad coaches who applied a lot of pressure,” Martin said.

She played nearly 300 games over two seasons with the Riverside Pirettes, an American Softball Assn. traveling team.

With Martin pitching on the age 12-and-under team, the Pirettes won the National City and Moreno Valley tournament championships in 1990. Her accomplishments prompted a feature on the ESPN program “The Sunkist Kids.”

But weekend conflicts also promoted a need for a change. Her father, Glen, is a pastor.

“We would drive to a tournament on Saturday, then I would drive as early as 4 a.m. on Sunday to do my services and try to make it back to the tournament,” Glen said. “It was real hectic, but I’ve always been dedicated to not let my profession get in the way of her activities.”

It wasn’t a problem after she dropped softball after moving from San Bernardino to Hermosa Beach because her father started working at Community Baptist Church in Manhattan Beach.

Among the church’s constituents was Christie Martin (no relation), a junior left fielder at Redondo who heard of the exploits of the new pastor’s daughter. She asked junior catcher Jennifer Rios to give Martin a telephone call to persuade her to come out for the team this season.

“She was a little nervous after playing travel ball and taking a year off,” Rios said.

Martin declined the invitation at first, but decided to come out for the team several weeks later.

The rest is history.

Out of the starting Gates: Charles Gates, the 1992 City Section 100-meter champion at Locke who transferred to Gardena last week, won the 100 and 200 meters in 11.1 and 22.7 seconds in his Gardena debut Friday in the Mohicans’ 81-46 Southern Pacific Conference victory over visiting Washington.

The senior was suspended from Locke after becoming involved in an argument with campus security last month.

Gates, who attended his first day of classes at Gardena on Wednesday, also helped the 400 and 1,600-meter relay teams to seasonal bests.

He anchored the winning 400-meter team of Marvin Peatross, Lequion Ulrich and Sheldon Murren to its fastest time of the season at 43.5. Running the third leg of the 1,600-meter relay, Gates teamed with Murren, Keith Lyon and Ulrich to a seasonal-best 3:32.6.

“I’m really excited to be here and on the relay team,” Gates said. “The coaches are here to help me. I like that.”

Morris Giddens and Ronald Stewart led Gardena sweeps in the 1,600, long jump and triple jump. Giddens, the defending City 3,200-meter champion, won the 800 and 1,600 in 2:00.0 and 4:34.7. Stewart won the long jump and triple jump with marks of 20-feet-9 and 43-2.

Gardena (5-2) will play host to the conference preliminaries Thursday with the finals scheduled for May 13 at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.

Comparative strength: The facts are hard to ignore:

* The Carson baseball team defeated Gardena, 17-0 and 8-0.

* Banning needed a two-run home run by Carlos Garibay in the eighth inning to beat Gardena, 3-2, on Wednesday. On Friday, the Pilots held on for a 1-0 victory over the Mohicans.

Carson Coach Mike Kline, however, isn’t quite ready to guarantee victories against Banning in a pivotal two-game series this week.

The Colts (15-9, 10-2 in the Southern Pacific Conference), seeking their first league title since 1977, have a one-game lead over Banning (11-6, 9-3) with five games remaining.

“If you look at the scores there’s no comparison, we should beat them,” Kline said. “But we’re playing Banning and they’ve been there before. If we win these two, we just about have the title won. We’d have to completely collapse in our final three games to lose.”

The Colts defeated San Pedro (9-9, 7-5), the defending City 4-A champion, the first time in more than five seasons last week. They beat the Pirates, 8-2, on Tuesday and 2-0 on Thursday.

How the West was lost: The West Torrance baseball team’s hopes for the Pioneer League title took a major setback with two losses to first-place El Segundo (15-5, 10-1) last week.

El Segundo has a 2 1/2-game lead over West with four games remaining.

The Eagles will play at Centennial on Tuesday and play host to the fifth-place Apaches on Friday. West will play third-place Torrance (9-10, 6-5) at home on Wednesday and away on Friday.

Entering the week, West (13-8-1, 7-3-1) had climbed to within a half-game of El Segundo after a 1-1-1 start in league. The Warriors won six consecutive league games after a 6-4 loss to the Eagles in March.

West squandered a three-run lead in a 6-5 eight-inning loss on Wednesday before suffering a 12-1 loss on Friday.

“Barring some miracle, we’re not looking too good,” West Coach Harry Jenkins said. “We let the first game slip away and I don’t think our spirits were quite the same for Friday.”

El Segundo, which scored in each of the first five innings, took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning on Friday. West loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the inning, but came away with only run.

“I think that kind of changed the whole complexion of the game,” Jenkins said.

Marco Estrada had three hits for El Segundo on Friday, including two doubles. Ryan McCloskey and Pat Cappasola, who drove in the tying run to force extra innings on Wednesday, drove in two runs each to pace a 13-hit attack.

David Reed (8-1), who picked up the win in relief in Wednesday’s game, pitched his fourth complete game, striking out nine.

Notes

Marquis Jones of Hawthorne has signed a letter of intent to run track at Cal State Northridge. Jones, who has personal bests of 14.59 seconds and 38.8 in the 110-meter high hurdles and 300 intermediates, was the runner-up in the seeded high-hurdle race of the Arcadia/Foot Locker Invitational last month. Jones won both hurdle races in Thursday’s Ocean League meet against Inglewood to help the Cougars to a 118-27 victory. Hawthorne (6-0-1, 3-0-1) extended a 22-year unbeaten streak against Inglewood and clinched a share of the league title with Peninsula. It was the 12th league title for Coach Kye Courtney, who is retiring after 15 seasons at Hawthorne.

Arnold Ale, The Times’ 1987 South Bay lineman of the year at Carson, and teammate Louis Perez, have signed free-agent contracts to play with the Rams and New England Patriots. Ale, a linebacker who transferred to UCLA from Notre Dame after his freshman season at Notre Dame, was voted the most valuable player of the 1992 Hancock Bowl in the Bruins’ 6-3 victory over Illinois. At Carson, he was an All-City Section selection as a senior in 1987. Ale is the school record-holder for most sacks (24), most tackles for losses (48) and most tackle yards for losses (251) in a career as well as the Carson single-season record with 22 sacks.

Perez, a kicker at El Camino College for two seasons before transferring to UCLA, ranks fourth on the UCLA career list for field goals. He kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Bruins to a 9-6 victory over Oregon in November. An All-City selection as a junior at Carson in 1987, Perez holds school records for career kick scoring (136 points), extra points (103) and extra points in a season (51).

Steve Rawson and Scott Albin of Redondo drove in five runs each in a 17-2 Ocean League victory over visiting Culver City Friday night. Rawson had a two-run home run in the first inning and Albin knocked in three runs on a home run in the third as the Sea Hawks improved to 13-8 and 7-3. . . . Kevin Fujimoto of Mira Costa drove in three runs on a bases-loaded triple and Sirju Patel was three for four with two runs batted in a 12-2 nonleague victory against Inglewood Friday.

The San Pedro softball team, the defending 4-A champion, clinched its fifth consecutive Southern Pacific Conference title with a 13-2 victory over Carson on Tuesday. Tami Anderson had two home runs and scored four times to lead San Pedro (18-3, 6-0) to an 18-1 victory over Narbonne on Thursday.

Alex Kouzmanoff shot a 36 on the back nine at the Palos Verdes Country Club to lead the Peninsula golf team (12-0, 4-0) to the Bay League title with a 196-233 victory over Mira Costa Friday. . . . Ted Oh shot a 37 to pace Torrance (8-0) to the Pioneer League title with a 208-236 victory over South Torrance at Los Verdes Country Club Friday.

The Southern Section adopted a half-court line for girls’ basketball at its council meeting on Thursday. It will now be a violation to return the ball to the backcourt after it crosses the half-court line.