Newbury Park Will Finish Second to 1

The battle for second place--the real race in the Marmonte League this season--has finally been won.

Newbury Park High survived a seventh-inning rally by host Royal on Wednesday to escape with a 5-4 victory that assured the Panthers (16-8, 11-2 in league play) of a second-place finish.

Royal (14-9, 9-4), which has clinched third, dropped two games behind Newbury Park with one to play.

Simi Valley (23-2, 13-0) clinched the league championship outright Wednesday with a 15-4 victory over Channel Islands.

The Panthers, whose chase of first-place Simi Valley ended Friday in a loss to the Pioneers, focused early on the task at hand.

Senior David Lamb rifled a two-run home run off senior right-hander Keith Loitz (5-5) in the first inning. It was Lamb’s third--two of which have been first-inning blasts off Royal.

Newbury Park stretched the lead to 4-0 in the second inning on a two-run single by Tim Farris.

“This was a good game for our guys,” Newbury Park Coach Gary Fabricius said.

“We’ve been hitting the ball really well lately. Even our outs were hit hard.”

Royal was forced to scramble almost from the beginning. Senior Gene Strojek, the Highlanders’ leading hitter, was ejected in the first inning after arguing a called third strike.

Royal scored a run in the second when Joel Mellinger’s fly ball drove in Jack Kocur from third. But the Highlanders mostly were frustrated by junior right-hander Ray Clinton.

Clinton (7-1) scattered four hits through 6 1/3 innings, striking out five with the aid of an effective slow curve.

Newbury Park scored a run in the fifth and took a 5-1 lead into the seventh. Clinton retired the leadoff batter but yielded a pinch-hit double to Mike Worford, a walk to Brent Egan and a run-scoring single to pinch-hitter Mike Boggs.

“I didn’t feel that good,” Clinton said. “I wasn’t hitting the spots, but they weren’t hitting me.”

Farris relieved, giving up a run-scoring single to Bryan Fernandez and a sacrifice fly to pinch-hitter Maki Kramer before retiring David Brown on a game-ending groundout.

“Ray looked tired,” Fabricius said. “We’ve got a couple of guys who can throw, so there’s no reason to keep him in there.”