Top-Ranked Sylmar Was Bottoms Up

Sylmar High (17-3, 8-0 in the East Valley League) is the hottest baseball team in the region. The top-ranked team in the area has won 17 of 18 games, including the last 13.

Sylmar is ranked seventh in the state, according to Cal-Hi Sports, and 20th in the country in a recent USA Today poll.

How did the Spartans, a team that lost their first two games to Saugus and Alemany, get to the top?

Eight starters are batting better than .300, and the team is batting .344. The team’s earned-run average is 2.76. Sylmar has outscored Valley Pac-8 Conference opponents, 56-11. And nonleague teams haven’t fared much better, 90-68.

So this has got to be the greatest team in Coach Gary Donatella’s seven-year history at the school, right? Well, Donatella wouldn’t exactly put it that way.

“It’s probably the most surprising team I’ve ever had,” he said. “I thought we’d be successful, but not this successful.

“When you talk about the top 20 teams in the country, I don’t know (what to think),” Donatella said. “I thought my 1991 team could play with anybody. But this team? There’s something about this team. I don’t know what it is. Resiliency, I guess.”

EAST VALLEY LEAGUE

Poly Pop

Pitchers who relax against the bottom of the Poly lineup might find themselves in a jam.

Ray Montenegro and Gowdy Martinez, the Parrots’ No. 8 and 9 batters, have combined for 12 hits, nine runs and five RBIs in the Parrots’ last four games.

Montenegro, who had only three hits in his first 19 at-bats, has gone seven for 13 in the last four games and brought his average up to .313. Martinez is batting .348 and is one of eight players better than .300.

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

Smitten by Hart

Doug Worley’s tone was not bitter, but his frustration was evident. His Saugus baseball team, the consensus choice to win the league championship, lost to rival Hart for the second time this season. The Centurions were embarrassed, 10-3, as the Indians (14-4) improved to 6-0 in league play and moved two games in front in the standings. Saugus (12-5-1, 4-2) allowed 13 hits and committed four errors.

“We’ve been used to winning all the big games,” Worley said. “But I don’t understand this group. I think they want to beat Hart too much. They press too much. And Hart always seems to get a key call, a break here and there.”

Worley decided to start pitcher John Maggiora against Burroughs instead of Hart at the outset of the week. Maggiora recorded a no-hitter against Burroughs.

Maggiora struck out three, walked none and hit one batter. Maggiora, a sidearm right-hander, isn’t a dominating pitcher but he carries a 0.82 earned-run average and has walked only six batters in 34 innings. Saugus is 15-4 in games Maggiora started over the past three seasons.

MARMONTE LEAGUE

Who’s Hot

Westlake shortstop Dave Bartlestone started the season as a reserve, but he hit so well that Coach Rich Herrera moved Scott Morris into the outfield to put Bartlestone into the starting lineup.

How did Bartlestone reward the coach’s confidence? How about 10 hits in a row.

“We just gave him a chance to swing a bat and he proved that he could,” Herrera said, “and he’s been in (the lineup) ever since.”

Bartlestone, who first started two weeks ago during the Camarillo tournament, is hitting .440 in his first 25 at-bats.

*

Word around the league is: Don’t run on Royal right fielder Phil Derryman, who might have the strongest arm of any outfielder in the league. Last week, Newbury Park held a runner at third on what would have been a routine sacrifice fly with most other outfielders.

Derryman has drawn interest from pro scouts based solely on his arm and size--he is a skinny 6-foot-3 1/2, meaning he could fill out to major-league dimensions with the right diet and weight training.

Around the Leagues. . . .

* Sylmar right-hander Carlos Velazco (7-1), who has pitched five complete games and has three saves, has 69 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings and a 1.03 ERA.

* Sylmar’s staff pitched 14 scoreless innings last week against Van Nuys.

* Poly, which made 72 errors in 23 games last season, has cleaned up its act. The Parrots, who have won 10 games in a row and 14 of 15, have made 31 errors in 17 games.

* Rio Mesa and Dos Pueblos, who began the week tied for first place in the Channel League, will meet on the final day of the season, May 13, at Dos Pueblos.

Staff writers Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad and Paige A. Leech contributed to this notebook.

Baseball Top 10

Rankings of Valley-area high schools by sportswriters of The Times:

Rk LW Team League W-L 1 1 Sylmar East Valley 17-3 2 2 Chatsworth West Valley 17-3 3 3 Crescenta Valley Pacific 12-3 4 7 Newbury Park Marmonte 15-4 5 5 Poly East Valley 15-2 6 7 Notre Dame Mission 13-4 7 4 Simi Valley Marmonte 14-4 8 9 Moorpark Frontier 15-3 9 10 Hart Foothill 14-4 10 NR Rio Mesa Channel 14-5