NOTEBOOK / ROB FERNAS : El Segundo’s Pitchers Overpower Competition for State Legion Title

El Segundo didn’t overpower anyone with its hitting or dazzle anyone with its defense at the American Legion state baseball tournament.

In four games, the team failed to hit a home run and committed 11 errors.

So how did El Segundo manage to win its first state title?

Pitching, as usual, was the difference.

With the foursome of left-hander Dave Reed and right-handers David Scanlan, Jamin Kear and Frank Bignami playing at the top of their games, El Segundo finished the six-team tournament at Yountville with a 4-0 record, winning the title Tuesday night with a 3-1 victory over Fairfield.

“The pitching was the highlight of the tournament,” Coach John Stevenson said. “You can’t really say it was any one guy. All four of them did a great job. They showed tremendous poise and a lot of guts.”

El Segundo (33-7) advances to the Southwestern regional Aug. 20-24 at Las Vegas, with the winner of the eight-team tournament advancing to the American Legion World Series Aug. 27-31 at Roseburg, Ore.

Although not considered one of the favorites entering the state tournament, El Segundo prevailed thanks to clutch pitching and timely hitting and defense. After committing nine errors in the first two games, the team had one error in each of its two championship-round victories over Fairfield.

“It’s funny,” Stevenson said. “We did just enough to win. We were able to scratch for enough runs, and the pitching was superb.”

Bignami (2-2), a 1992 Redondo High graduate who played at El Camino College last spring, was the hero of Tuesday’s championship game. He pitched El Segundo’s third complete game of the tournament, giving up eight hits, and only three in the last five innings. He struck out eight and walked one.

Ryan McCloskey broke a 1-1 tie against Fairfield with a two-out double in the third inning, scoring Pat Cappasola, and Mike Poor singled home Lawrence Norris, who had singled and stolen second, in the sixth to make it 3-1.

El Segundo’s first three victories in the tournament were by one run. Reed (11-1) figured prominently in two, giving up six hits in a 3-2 complete-game victory over Marina of Huntington Beach on Saturday and pitching the last two innings--he struck out the side with the bases loaded in the eighth--to pick up a save in Monday’s 5-4 victory over Fairfield. Kear (7-1) got the victory.

In between, El Segundo avoided defeat by rallying for two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning to edge Lodi, 5-4, Sunday. Marco Estrada doubled home Jake Coulter with the winning run, and Scanlan (9-1) pitched all 10 innings, giving up seven hits and striking out 11.

“After that game, we were pretty confident,” Reed said.

However, Stevenson said few others were confident that El Segundo would do well.

“We were not really given a lot of respect,” he said. “The five other teams were supposed to be super teams. They kind of looked upon us as someone to walk over.”

Fairfield, representing the Sacramento area, entered the tournament with a 52-10 record after having won 31 of 32 games. Claremont was also considered a favorite, based in part on its 13-0 victory over El Segundo last month in a tournament in Montana.

But Claremont lasted only three games in the double-elimination tournament, losing twice after winning its opener.

Fairfield, meanwhile, remained confident it could win the state title even after its first loss to El Segundo sent the team into the losers’ bracket.

“They were totally convinced it was a fluke,” Stevenson said. “They were confident in the newspaper that they were going to beat us. They had their No. 1 pitcher going, and they thought our pitching was used up. But they didn’t know about Frank (Bignami). He came out and matched their No. 1 right down the line.”

Fairfield’s Jason Olson, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound pitcher/third baseman, struck out 13 in the final and hit three home runs in five games to earn the tournament’s most valuable player award.

El Segundo, though, got what it wanted--the team trophy.

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El Segundo is believed to be only the second South Bay team to win the American Legion state tournament. South Torrance won the title in 1967 under Jerry McIlvaine, whose assistants were Stevenson and Torrance’s Dale Walker.

The 1967 team featured all South High players, with the exception of pitcher Bart Johnson and catcher Mark Intermill of Torrance. Intermill’s son, Joe, now plays for West Torrance. Johnson pitched for the Chicago White Sox for eight seasons, compiling a 43-51 record from 1969 to 1977.

After winning the state title, South lost in the regionals.

El Segundo’s only previous appearance in the regionals was in 1986, after it finished second in the state tournament. The team won the regional title to reach the American Legion World Series, where it finished third.

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Four former South Bay prep standouts are competing for the starting quarterback job at El Camino.

Sophomore Larry Roberts (Gardena), who was the backup to Jerry Singleton last season, is considered the front-runner. But he is being pushed by freshmen Steve Sarkisian (West Torrance) and Chris Keldorf (St. Bernard) and sophomore Rino Marconi (San Pedro), Coach John Featherstone said.

Sarkisian is playing football again after spending a year at USC as a baseball player, Keldorf sat out last season after leaving Utah State, and Marconi is playing quarterback again after spending last season as a long snapper at Cal State Northridge.

Notes

The Mary Star Connie Mack baseball team had its season end in the semifinals of the Pacific regional tournament Sunday, as the Orange County Cardinals rallied for a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win, 9-8. Mary Star, featuring several South Bay community college and high school players, went 2-2 in the tournament and 24-6-1. The Orange County Giants won the regional title and begin play Friday in the Connie Mack World Series at Farmington, N.M. . . . Mike Noonan, defensive coordinator at St. Bernard the past two seasons, has been named Viking football coach. Noonan replaces Tom Strickland, who resigned July 30. Noonan, 58, has coached football for 25 years in seven states. He guided Cantwell to an 8-3 record in 1990.