LEGION NOTEBOOK / JEFF FLETCHER : They Could Be Called for Traveling

Allen Paisano and Mike Smosna must really want to play American Legion baseball.

Paisano and Smosna play for Lancaster North, but they live in Ridgecrest, which is closer to the Nevada state line than it is to the San Fernando Valley.

Because there is no Legion baseball in Ridgecrest, they drive an hour and a half for the home games at Edwards Air Force Base and about two hours for games in Lancaster, Palmdale or Quartz Hill.

Why?

“There’s more competition down there,” said Paisano, a pitcher at Burroughs High in Ridgecrest.

Well, that seems like a good-enough reason to leave home at 8 a.m. for an 11 a.m. game with a bunch of guys you barely know. Paisano might have been regretting his decision on his first trip to meet the team, when his father’s motor home got a flat tire somewhere around Mojave.

“We drove to this place and the guy wouldn’t fix it,” Paisano said. “He said he didn’t do flats. So we drove the rest of the way with a flat tire,” he said in testimony to split-rim vehicles.

Paisano and Smosna, a pitcher-first baseman at Burroughs High, travel the farthest of any of their teammates, but they are not the only players who commute.

Lancaster North might as well be called just North. The team draws players from five high schools other than Burroughs: Desert, Rosamond, Tehachapi, Mojave and Boron. Not surprisingly, the team never practices. Coach Frank Harper said he just encourages everyone to arrive early for games to take batting practice and infield.

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Revenge: Westlake-Royal Coach Mike McClure can take solace in one thing: His players have no one to blame but themselves. They lost, 11-1, to San Mateo in the championship game of the Sierra Nevada tournament Sunday in Reno.

Westlake-Royal, which beat San Mateo for the championship of the tournament in 1992, walked three in the first inning and made four errors.

“It’s disappointing,” McClure said, “but we played three good games (in the tournament) and we won them, and played poorly in three and we lost them. I guess it’s supposed to be that way.”

Keith Loitz, the only Marmonte League pitcher to beat Simi Valley this season, was pulled after walking three batters in the first inning and allowing two hits to begin the second.

Dave Brown and Bryan Fernandez were named to the all-tournament team.

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Armed and dangerous: Barry Bonds has nothing on Van Nuys South left fielder Marc Scorza.

Remember Game 7 of the National League championship series last season, in which the Braves’ Francisco Cabrera singled to left field and Sid Bream beat Bonds’ throw to the plate with the winning run? Get this:

On Saturday, San Fernando’s Tony Cabrera singled to left with two out in the final inning and San Fernando down by a run. Danny Rodriguez rounded third and headed home with the potential tying run, but Scorza threw him out to end the game.

Scorza has ended two games this season by throwing out runners at the plate. He also gunned down an Encino runner to end a 6-5 Van Nuys South victory June 13.

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The silver lining: After losing to Woodland Hills West, 16-8, on Sunday, Van Nuys East is no longer unbeaten, but there is at least one positive to the loss: Coach Jody Breeden finally got to shave.

While Van Nuys East got off to a 7-0 start, Breeden refused to remove his lucky goatee that was, well, not going to get him on the cover of any fashion magazines.

“My wife hated it,” he said.

After the loss, he shaved it off “as soon as I got home,” he said.

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Have a day: While playing for Antelope Valley High this spring, Eric Cole drove in eight runs in a game against Highland. But that’s not his personal best. Not anymore.

Cole drove in 10 runs--on only three hits--for Palmdale South on Sunday against Littlerock. The final four RBIs came on a grand slam with one out in the top of the ninth inning that gave Palmdale South a 14-12 victory.

He had, in order, a sacrifice fly, a two-run triple, a three-run triple, then the slam, which he hit to dead center field, 410 feet away.

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In this corner: District 20 Commissioner Mel Swerdling said the state Legion officials have expanded a rule regarding fighting. The previous rule gave Legion districts the power to suspend players for the remainder of the season for “unnecessary roughness” on the field. Effective this week, the rule includes a specific reference to “fighting.”

The penalty, which could include expulsion from the district, will be based on an umpire’s report. Players can appeal any decision, Swerdling said.

So far this season, there have been two fights in District 20. The worst brawl occurred Saturday between Panorama City and Sunland-Tujunga. So many players were ejected, Swerdling said, both teams were forced to forfeit.

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Odds and ends: Newbury Oaks’ Jeff Hook was called out after an apparent two-run double Saturday because the umpires decided he had pine tar too far up the bat handle. Coach Joel Silverstein was puzzled by the call because, “I’ve never heard of anyone (using pine tar) on a metal bat.” Hook cleaned off his bat and got a two-run single the next time up.

Verdugo Hills’ Brendon Cowsill had five stolen bases Sunday against Van Nuys South, including two steals of home. . . . Woodland Hills West’s John Novak has had two five-hit games in the past two weeks.

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Quote of the week: Palmdale West Coach Russ Tepper, after watching his team and Glendale combine for 54 hits in a 26-21 Palmdale West victory Saturday: “We needed some uprights today.”