AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL / JEFF FLETCHER : Palmdale West Coach Finds Pitcher Right at Home

All Russ Tepper wanted for Father’s Day was two innings from his son. But Jeff Tepper gave him much more.

Russ, coach of the Palmdale West American Legion team, had watched his team lose its first seven games. But it got worse. After playing four games in a week, the team was out of pitchers with one game against San Fernando still to play on Sunday.

So Jeff, a catcher, volunteered to pitch, a job he had not performed in 10 years. The only pitching the All-Golden League catcher had done since he was 8 years old was “fooling around in the bullpen,” Russ said.

By tinkering with breaking pitches, but mostly just getting the ball over the plate, Jeff pitched a six-hitter and won, 2-1. He struck out six and walked four.

“It was a great Father’s Day present,” Russ said. “Now he’s going to be after me to let him pitch again. He’s earned another shot, but I need him more catching than I do pitching.”

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Mirror image: Granada Hills West has twins Robbie and Phil Cohen as relief pitchers. According to Coach Rod Yeaman, he can’t tell them apart until they pick up a baseball: Phil throws left-handed and Robbie is right-handed.

Other than that, “I have to look at their (uniform numbers) to know who I’m talking to,” Yeaman said.

Further confusing matters, the team includes Joe Cohen, who is not related to the twins. Phil has proven himself as a run-producer, though. He hit a grand slam and a three-run home run in back-to-back games last week.

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Getting it over: Valley North pitcher Rick Staves did at least one thing well Saturday. He threw the ball over the plate. Staves struck out 15 and walked one, but also gave up 13 hits in a complete-game, 16-7 victory over Sepulveda. “We either got good solid singles off him or he was throwing it by us,” Sepulveda Coach Dave Seidelman said.

Valley North Coach Pete Redfern said he needed the left-hander to pitch a complete game because, with players missing for the Bernie Milligan all-star game and the L.A. Watts Summer Games, the team was down to 11 players.

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Lesson learned: Oxnard Coach Tony Dellaturre, a first-year coach, has learned a valuable lesson: You can’t have too many players. “I think I was too selective about the guys I took,” said Dellaturre, whose team is 1-7. “I should have taken more players (because the ones I took) are not showing up.”

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Killing them softly: High school has give way to Legion ball, and Woodland Hills West’s Kevin Szymanski still has opponents scratching their heads. He throws almost hard enough to break glass, but he keeps getting hitters out.

The latest to wonder about him are the players at Quartz Hill, which was defeated by Szymanski, 11-2, Sunday.

“The players were saying to me, ‘Hey, Mr. C, he throws like you,’ ” Quartz Hill Coach Mike Caudillo said. “I said, ‘Then why can’t you hit him?’ He’s a smart pitcher.”

Szymanski, an All-City Section selection, was 10-1 with a 1.26 earned-run average for El Camino Real High, including a win in the City Section 4-A Division final at Dodger Stadium.

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Odds and ends: Granada Hills West’s Dave Cippola reached base in 17 of his first 19 plate appearances. . . . Van Nuys South pitcher Mike Weiss has given up only one earned run in 23 innings but has yielded 15 unearned runs. . . .

Newbury Oaks has a good pair of pitchers in Tim Farris and Jeff Hook. Farris is 2-0 with a 3.57 ERA. Hook, who has been drafted twice by the Houston Astros, is 2-1 with a 2.40 ERA.