Umpires Have These Coaches Under Thumb

Marmonte League umpires aren’t much for lending an ear.

The rate at which the men in blue have been levying ejections lately has some coaches sitting on their hands, others biting their tongues.

Last week, Rich Herrera of Westlake, Gary Fabricius of Newbury Park and Bart Morefield of Agoura got the thumb after voicing what they say were less-than-volatile complaints with a plate umpire. Three weeks ago, Royal Coach Dan Maye says he did the same in a game against Thousand Oaks and immediately was given the boot.

“That’s the only time I’ve ever been thrown out of a game in my life,” Maye said.

It might not be the last.

“I think they’re getting very short in listening to us,” Fabricius said.

Fabricius was ejected Friday in the fourth inning of a 5-4 loss at Simi Valley after disputing a balk called against junior right-hander Keith Smith with the score tied, 2-2.

Fabricius’ ejection likely surprised the overflow crowd, considering the conversation between coach and umpire was conducted in hushed tones and nary an arm was waved by either man.

“I said, ‘You’re brutal,’ ” Fabricius said. “He said, ‘You’re gone!’ I said, ‘I’m gone? That’s it?’

“I didn’t curse or anything. I didn’t even get a warning. He gave me no rope.”

Morefield was banished after arguing a call in the sixth inning of a 12-3 loss Friday to Royal. Morefield claims he uttered few words, none of them offensive.

“I didn’t think it was anything bad,” Morefield said. “They gotta be more thick-skinned than that.”

Herrera was tossed in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to Channel Islands after questioning the umpire’s interpretation of the strike zone.

“I’d been on him a little,” Herrera admitted. “I believed he was shrinking the strike zone on us.

“There’s a real problem in our league with the umpires and it’s gotten worse in the past two or three years,” Herrera said. “We’ve got about five coaches who feel the same way. Every time there’s a meeting among the coaches, that’s the first topic of discussion.”

MARMONTE LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Shaun Murphy picked a bad year to join the Simi Valley baseball coaching staff. Lately, it seems as if his name is erased with every swing of the bat.

Murphy, a Simi Valley graduate who played in the minor leagues last season, has seen several of his single-season school records, each set in 1985, bite the dust.

Several more are in serious jeopardy.

Aaron Whitley, who has scored 43 runs, broke Murphy’s mark (41). Britten Pond has scored 42 times and Kevin Nykoluk has added 41. Pond has 48 hits, breaking Murphy’s mark by one.

Next to fall probably will be Murphy’s record for runs batted in (47). Ryan Hankins has 44, Pond has 40 and Nykoluk 39. . . .

Royal runners continue to run like water. On Friday, freshman Brent Egan stole second against Agoura to raise the Highlanders’ season total to 100 steals in 114 attempts. Royal broke the previous school single-season record (80) two weeks ago.

Senior Gene Strojek has been Royal’s offensive catalyst. Strojek’s .395 average, 11 doubles, two home runs and 24 runs batted in are team highs.

TRACK & FIELD

Shawanda Hotchkiss of Channel Islands did not count in the official team scoring in Friday’s league finals at Camarillo, but she did win the triple jump and place second in the long jump to advance to Saturday’s Southern Section Division I preliminaries at Trabuco Hills High.

The unusual situation arose after Hotchkiss missed the league preliminaries earlier in the week for undisclosed reasons. Usually, an athlete must compete in the preliminaries to qualify for the finals, but the league’s coaches made an exception for Hotchkiss, provided that she not count in the team scoring.

Marion Jones, who leaped a personal best of 21 feet 7 inches to win the girls’ long jump in the league finals, ranks among the top three performers on the all-time U.S. high school list in three events.

Jones holds the national high school record in the 200 (22.58 seconds), is second in the 100 (11.14), and ranks third in the long jump. . . .

A recount of the team scoring in the league finals shows that Channel Islands--not Thousand Oaks--finished second in the girls’ meet behind Agoura. The mistake arose because Thousand Oaks was incorrectly awarded six points when Westlake’s Stephanie Bladen finished third in the 400. In addition, Channel Islands was inadvertently slighted 11 points in the team scoring.

Channel Islands totaled 96 points under the revised scoring, Thousand Oaks 82.

VOLLEYBALL

The paths of two former college roommates, Thousand Oaks volleyball Coach James Park and Newbury Park Coach Robert Haar, crossed again last Friday when the teams met in their regular-season finale, won by the Lancers.

Parks and Haar roomed together at Cal Lutheran and played for the Kingsmen in the 1983-84 season. Haar was also Park’s assistant for both the Thousand Oaks boys’ team and the Moorpark girls’ team the past two seasons. Park was listed as one of Haar’s references on his application for his current job: first-year coach of the Panthers’ boys’ and girls’ teams .

For the record, Haar is 1-2 against his former teacher. The Newbury Park girls’ team beat Moorpark, but the Panther boys lost both matches against the Lancers.

“I hate playing against him,” Park said. “Win or lose, there’s something missing. You’re not sure if you should beat him or not.”

The two are close friends despite coming from widely different backgrounds: Haar grew up in Fresno; Park was born in Korea and moved to downtown Los Angeles when he was 12.

“Our personalities meshed well,” Haar said. “It’s continued to grow into a real strong friendship.”

Both teams earned Division II playoff berths. Newbury Park (10-6, 9-5 in league play) plays host to Nordhoff today in a wild-card match, and Thousand Oaks (16-2, 12-2) is at home against Montebello in a first-round match Friday.

FRONTIER LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Calabasas’ Josh Morton and Todd Cignarelli have been a dynamic pitching duo.

Morton (6-3), a junior right-hander, leads the league in victories, saves (three), innings pitched (47 1/3), strikeouts (61) and earned-run average (0.59). As a closer last season, he was 2-0 with three saves, a 1.05 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings.

“Josh has excellent control and that makes him tough,” Coyote co-Coach Scott Drootin said. “He also has a good mix of pitches that keeps hitters guessing.”

Opponents don’t catch a break when Cignarelli takes the hill. A senior right-hander, he is 5-0 with a 2.27 ERA. Last season he was 3-1 with a 3.00 ERA.

Morton, who also plays third, leads the league in RBIs (27). . . . Junior outfielder Anthony Morales leads the league in batting (.500). . . . Moorpark leads the league in RBIs with 93.

CHANNEL LEAGUE

VOLLEYBALL

Two Ventura seniors, Felipe Plascensia and Curt Vaughan, helped the surprising Cougars earn two things this season: their first playoff berth and respect from the Santa Barbara-area schools.

“They’ve earned the respect of our counterparts up north, who have ruled the roost for so long,” Coach Mike Russell said.

The duo has drawn interest from several college coaches, Russell said, and keyed the Cougars’ win over Buena in a one-game playoff last Friday, which clinched third place for Ventura (9-5, 7-5). The Cougars will play at Arcadia in a first-round Division I match Friday.

MISSION LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Crespi, Notre Dame and Loyola have clinched the Mission League’s three playoff berths. Crespi (12-0 in league play) will finish with the first spot because the Celts beat second-place Notre Dame (10-2) twice this year. Loyola (8-4) could finish second if the Cubs beat Notre Dame twice this week. Alemany has been eliminated because of six consecutive losses after winning its first six. . . .

Alemany third baseman Andy Dominique, who is one of the area’s better hitters but is built more like a speed bump than a speed burner, is nine for nine in stolen-base attempts this season. . . .

Chaminade sophomore catcher Brandon Gray was called up from the junior varsity several weeks ago, but shortly thereafter he went out because of a pulled groin. He returned last week, but was hit by a foul tip and re-injured the groin. He will miss the final week of the season. “He looks like walking death out there,” Coach Dave Desmond said.

Crespi catcher Casey Snow is hitting .531 with runners in scoring position. . . . The Celts are hitting .356 and have a 1.50 ERA. . . . Jeff Suppan has a .927 slugging percentage.

Harvard-Westlake’s Jon Schaeffer is leading the team in batting (.510), triples (six), home runs (four) and RBIs (20).

VOLLEYBALL

For just a moment in April, Alemany Coach Jamie Quaglino feared that his turnaround season would be derailed by the chicken pox.

After learning that outside hitter David Winner contracted the illness, Quaglino--grimly envisioning his starting lineup covered in dots--asked his players whether any of them previously contracted chicken pox.

“My heart skipped a beat there,” he said. “I just dreaded who was going to raise their hands.”

Fortunately for Quaglino, the rest of his players previously had the illness.

The Indians (10-4 in league play) finished in third place and earned the program’s first playoff berth in its six seasons. Alemany will play Brentwood on Friday.

Winner recently returned and is splitting playing time with Scott McMenamin, who played well while Winner was sidelined.

“They’re both cool with it,” Quaglino said. “I’m really lucky, because sometimes you can have a lot of problems with egos.” . . .

Notre Dame’s surprise five-game victory against Loyola in the Knights’ season finale last Thursday was a silver lining in a cloudy season, but even that small ray of sunshine was a bit gloomy.

“Finally at the end we proved that we were a good team,” Coach Jim Hall said.

“But now the players feel like they missed out because they feel like they should have been playing that way since the beginning of the year.”

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