Woodland Hills East Continues to Go South While Dropping Pair to West : Legion baseball: Wolf pitches a one-hitter for 7-1 victory in second game after a 12-4 first-game romp.

A funny thing happened in the last week and a half. Woodland Hills West against Woodland Hills East turned out to be not such a big deal after all.

Sure, the matchup stuck out on the District 20 American Legion schedule back when East had one loss and West had only two. But, as the teams began a home-and-home Western Division doubleheader on Saturday, East had lost four in a row.

Make that six.

West beat East, 12-4, at Taft High in the first game, and also won the nightcap, 7-1, at El Camino Real.

Randy Wolf (4-1) pitched a one-hitter for West in the second game. Wolf, City Section 4-A Division player of the year, had a no-hitter for 6 2/3 innings before giving up a bloop single to center by Josh Ervin. John Schaeffer scored for the East’s only run.

Wolf, who pitched his third complete game, struck out eight, walked three and hit a batter.

Jeff Astgen led the Woodland Hills offense. He was three for three in the second game and five for six in the doubleheader, scoring three runs, driving in one and stealing four bases.

“We just haven’t been coming out ready to play,” East shortstop Stacy Kleiner said.

“We’re not getting any hitting and our pitching is falling apart.”

In the first game, East (9-6) had no defense, either. After setting West down in order in the top of the first and taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning, East began to crumble. West scored five unearned runs off left-hander Gregg Zutler (1-2) in the second on one hit, three walks and three errors.

“I thought we had a chance in the early innings,” Kleiner said. “Then they just started taking us apart.”

Kleiner and his teammates have seen it before. Playing for Taft, they lost all three regular-season meetings against City 4-A champion El Camino Real, the base school for West (16-2).

West shortstop Justin Balser drove in five runs on two hits in the first game and designated hitter Wolf added a double and his fourth home run. Mike Glendenning also homered for West, and Bill Burnette and Astgen each had two hits.

Greg Kmet (3-0), West’s No. 3 starter behind Wolf and Kevin Szymanski, allowed two earned runs on six hits in a complete-game victory. He struck out two and walked two.

“He’s been pitching well like this lately,” West Coach Don Hornback said of Kmet, who allowed one run in seven innings in his last start.

Zutler, who hit his first home run in the third inning, had the only extra-base hit against Kmet.