Newbury Park Never Runs Out of Gas

The Newbury Park High baseball team might as well be going to El Paso, Tex.

The Panthers are playing in the Loara tournament, which is based in Orange County. For five games, making about a 160-mile round trip between Newbury Park and Orange County, the Panthers will travel about 800 miles. If they drove east on Interstate 10 the same distance, they would wind up in El Paso.

“Our kids get to get on a bus and get to know each other,” Coach Gary Fabricius said.

The Panthers began playing in the Loara tournament in Fabricius’ first season eight years ago because they couldn’t get into any local tournaments. Because of the quality of competition, Fabricius has chosen to return every year.

Let’s see, eight years multiplied by 800 miles per year is 6,400 miles. Hmmm. Got a map?

MARMONTE LEAGUE

Wounded Knee

Did she break a mirror or just walk under a ladder?

Royal soccer player Kelly Adamson, a member of the under-20 national team, figured to be one of the area’s top players, but the junior striker never played a minute for the Highlanders this season.

In November, Adamson strained the lateral collateral ligament in her left knee at an Olympic Development Program camp in Florida. After seven weeks of rehabilitation, Adamson returned to practice and strained the anterior cruciate ligament in the same knee.

Royal advanced to the Southern Section Division I quarterfinals, but Adamson was relegated to watching from the sidelines.

“I wish I could have been a part of it,” she said. “It was kind of sad.”

A recent examination revealed that her anterior cruciate ligament was still too loose to play, so Adamson will undergo arthroscopic surgery next week and hopes to return to playing this summer.

*

Simi Valley is ranked sixth in the nation in Baseball America magazine’s preseason top 25. The Pioneers were ranked No. 1 for much of last season and finished at No. 5, after losing to Esperanza in the Southern Section Division I final.

Pioneer third baseman Ryan Hankins was named to the magazine’s second-team preseason All-American team. Hankins batted .500 with 12 home runs and 57 runs batted in last year.

FRONTIER LEAGUE

Perhaps Lou Was Due

Santa Clara’s 71-65 loss to Verbum Dei on Friday was only the third time Coach Lou Cvijanovich had lost in 16 Southern Section championship games. Cvijanovich, 67, said he doesn’t remember the results of any of his championships, but you can bet somebody at Verbum Dei did.

Two of the past three Saints’ titles were achieved with wins over the Eagles, including a 76-48 rout in 1990.

WEST VALLEY LEAGUE

Strike Three? Again?

Fortunately for the batters in the West Hills Pony League, Randy Wolf doesn’t work as a home-plate umpire. Not yet.

Wolf, El Camino Real’s star left-handed pitcher and slugger, is working as a base umpire in the youth league, making $20 a game. If he worked behind the plate, what kind of a strike zone would he have?

“It would be big,” he said.

CHANNEL LEAGUE

Anybody Out There?

Hueneme baseball Coach Reg Welker doesn’t have too many lineup decisions to make these days. He has only 11 players.

“It’s lonely in the dugout,” Welker said.

Welker has resorted to placing a help-wanted ad in the school bulletin. It reads: “Desperately seeking outfielders. Experience and a 2.0 grade-point average required. See Coach Welker.”

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Dr. Frankenstein

The Hoover baseball team is pretty beat-up despite playing only one scrimmage and one game so far. Several players have suffered minor injuries and two starters--center fielder Chris Butler and catcher Ron Pirayoff--have sore arms.

“I don’t know what it is, but we have a lot of soreness,” Coach Bob Cooper said. “Maybe we’ve conditioned too hard. We have strains that we never had before.”

Butler, who was injured shortly before the start of the season, will be the designated hitter until he can throw. Pirayoff is questionable for two weeks. He landed on his shoulder diving for a fly ball in Hoover’s 10-4 loss to St. Francis.

*

If his first outing is any indication, Crescenta Valley senior Jim Parque will enjoy a great season. The 5-foot-9, 140-pound left-hander led the Falcons to a 6-0 victory over La Canada. Parque, who had a 1.88 earned-run average last season, allowed no hits and struck out six with one walk in four innings.

Senior right-hander Garrett Lee finished the game and struck out five.

EAST VALLEY LEAGUE

A Peek at Poly

Poly Coach Chuck Schwal had some pleasant surprises in the Parrots’ 12-4 victory over San Fernando in their baseball opener.

Senior Sam Vizcarra, who had four hits in his first 25 at-bats last season, went three for four against San Fernando. And Francisco Dorame, Poly’s best hitter a year ago, also had three hits.

Poly, which was outscored, 55-8, in its first five games a year ago and finished 11-12, is looking much improved. San Fernando has seven returning starters, but not enough experience to slow the Parrots. But Schwal maintains a low-key approach. “I don’t want to get too excited,” he said.

MID-VALLEY LEAGUE

Welcome Party

It was Rick Weber’s first game as coach of the Birmingham baseball team--and one he isn’t likely to soon forget. The Braves faced El Camino Real’s Randy Wolf, the 1993 City Section 4-A Division pitcher of the year--and failed miserably.

Wolf tossed a one-hitter with five strikeouts and El Camino Real rolled, 11-0.

It was a loss that makes a coach long to be elsewhere. In Weber’s case, he longed to be back at Buckley, where he had coached for several years.

“The same day (Birmingham lost to El Camino Real), I saw my old school just killed their opponent,” said Weber of Buckley’s 14-1 victory over Viewpoint.

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The other first-year coach in the league, Van Nuys’ Jim Friery, is learning to take the good with the bad.

The bad news: The Wolves have committed 18 errors in four games. The good news: Van Nuys is 2-2.

“We’re not gonna win very many games in league or conference playing like that,” Friery said.

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

Feast or Famine

Before the season, Burbank Coach Chad Nammack said his team had no power and would have to use speed to score runs. Burbank’s only long-ball hitter was first baseman Shawn Montgomery.

“He’s an all-or-nothing hitter,” said Nammack, meaning Montgomery will either hit it far or not at all.

Montgomery’s bat made no noise in Burbank’s opening game last week, an 8-3 loss to North Hollywood. But he hit two home runs the next day in the Bulldogs’ 5-4 victory over Verdugo Hills. Montgomery drove in four runs.

TRI-VALLEY LEAGUE

So Good It Hurts

La Reina girls’ soccer player Michelle Nuesca finished her high school career last week as the school’s all-time leading scorer and assist leader.

Impressive? Consider that the senior midfielder, who amassed 86 goals and 64 assists in her career, missed an estimated 25% of the team’s matches because of injuries dating to her freshman year.

The four-year starter’s most recent mishap came on Christmas Eve when she was involved in an automobile accident. She suffered torn ligaments in her back and neck and received 25 stitches in her right leg.

She was out of action for a month but has scored 26 goals this season.

Ankle injuries shortened her junior and sophomore seasons, and she missed about a month of her freshman season with pulled ligaments in her back.

Around the Leagues . . .

* Montclair Prep has scored 26 runs and had 24 hits in its first two games, victories over San Pedro and Culver City.

* Royal scored 26 runs in its first two games and scored in all but two innings.

* Oxnard’s Manuel Canales took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Friday at Bishop Montgomery. He finished with a two-hit shutout.

* Nice crystal ball: Kennedy catcher Kevin Serr was touted by Coach Manny Alvarado as a newcomer who should make an immediate impact. Serr had three hits and drove in five runs in his first game.

* Chatsworth shortstop Bryan LaCour, a Times’ All-Valley pick who has signed with Stanford, was hit by a pitch three times in a game Saturday against Ventura.

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Irene Garcia, Dana Haddad and Paige A. Leech contributed to this notebook.