Wolf Guns His Way Past Monroe, 10-1 : High school baseball: Scouts flock to duel between El Camino Real ace and Vikings’ Zamudio.

The radar guns were lined up two deep behind the Monroe High backstop Tuesday, which meant one thing--El Camino Real’s Randy Wolf and Monroe’s Joel Zamudio were pitching. Six scouts clocked their every toss.

That’s life as a live-armed prospect. One scout had to stand on tiptoes, straining to hold his gun above an equipment shed attached to the rear of the backstop.

“It feels good (to get so much attention),” Zamudio said.

“I get kind of nervous, but after a while I forget about the scouts and concentrate on my pitching.”

Both Zamudio and Wolf were clocked in the mid-to-high 80 mile-per-hour range, so call their speed duel a draw. As far as the game was concerned, though, the matchup was one-sided. Wolf dominated, pitching a two-hitter in the Conquistadores’ 10-1 nonconference victory.

Wolf, the City Section 4-A player of the year last year, improved to 3-0. In his three starts this season, the senior left-hander has thrown three complete games and allowed only seven hits and three runs.

“I’m doing all right,” he said. “I have to do work on a lot of things, though. My mechanics aren’t straight on. I’m trying to work on that every game.”

Only three Monroe batters reached base against Wolf, who allowed merely two third-inning singles. The second hit, by Viking third baseman Michael Perez, scored Evan Lovett from second base and trimmed a Viking deficit to 2-1.

However, Wolf promptly picked off Perez to end the inning and did not allow a ball to be hit out of the infield the remainder of the game. He finished with seven strikeouts. Monroe dropped to 0-4.

Zamudio (0-2) also pitched well, allowing only one earned run through six innings. However, his teammates committed three errors, and by the time he left the game at the end of the sixth, Monroe trailed, 5-1.

“We made too many botches defensively,” Monroe Coach Kevin Campbell said. “Against a kid like Wolf, you can only give him three outs per inning, not four or five like we did.”

El Camino Real (4-0) scored five runs in the top of the seventh against reliever Michael Perez, including two on a triple by Wolf.

Said El Camino Real Coach Maio: “He just keeps on doing the job.”