SPORTS

DEPARTING COACH

Notre Dame Academy has notified girls’ basketball Coach Ed Aronin that he will not be returning next season.

Aronin, 50, was told in a letter from Principal Gina Marie that his coaching philosophy did not meet school standards.

“I don’t know exactly what she means by that,” Aronin said in dismay. “I handled myself and the team in a professional manner.”

Marie refused to comment about Aronin’s dismissal.

Aronin, a lawyer, was a walk-on coach at the school for four seasons. He had a 64-13 record and was named The Times’ 1992 Westside Coach of the Year.

The Regals have reached the quarterfinals three of the past four seasons.

Notre Dame Academy (17-3) had to forfeit a game against Immaculate Heart when Aronin substituted a junior varsity player who had played earlier in the day. Notre Dame was leading the game by 40 points

“I didn’t know the rule that a junior varsity player could not play two games on the same day,” Aronin said. “I was trying to avoid running up the score.”

Earlier in the season, Notre Dame Academy scored 90 points against St. Matthias, with sophomore Taryn Reynolds scoring 51 of the points. Aronin said he was criticized for running up the score.

Still, Aronin questioned whether that was the cause for his dismissal.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Aronin said. “I’ll get another job. I just feel sorry for the kids.”

Aronin, who has coached softball at Loyola Marymount, is currently a softball coach at Malibu High.

PITCHING PROSPECT

Pepperdine pitcher Cade Gaspar was recently listed as the eighth best major league prospect by Baseball America.

Gaspar, the son of former New York Met Rod Gaspar, has a 4-1 record, 2.66 earned-run average and 56 strikeouts in 64 1/3 innings. The sophomore right-hander has given up only 44 hits, a .191 batting average against him.

Gaspar was listed eighth among the top 25 players expected to be picked in the June amateur draft.

The Waves, meanwhile, defeated the University of San Francisco, 10-5, to improve to 27-17. After Monday’s win, Pepperdine (16-8 in the West Coast Conference) trailed first-place Santa Clara by 1 1/2 games with six conference games remaining. Pepperdine has a 4-2 edge in head-to-head competition with Santa Clara but must win the rest of its games to have a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

PENNANT RACE

Santa Monica has a chance to tie Peninsula for first place in the Bay League when the teams play a two-game series this week. The Vikings (10-7, 4-2 in league) have lost three games by one run, including a 5-4 loss Saturday to Beverly Hills.

Peninsula is 6-0 in league.

“We get guys in scoring position, but we need to clutch up and score these runners,” Santa Monica Coach Pete McKellar said. “We’re leaving (an average) of four to five players in scoring position.”

The Vikings will need to beat Peninsula pitcher Brian Bowles, who has a 5-2 record and an 0.85 ERA. Bowles pitched a no-hitter against Hawthorne.

SOFTBALL MADNESS

Culver City will see how strong of an arm Kimberlee Johnston has. She will be pitching two crucial Ocean League games against Redondo that should determine first place.

On Saturday, Johnston will match up against Crossroads’ Jessica Schulman in the second round of the Thousand Oaks tournament. On Monday, Johnston will pitch against Santa Monica in a rescheduled game between two of the area’s top teams.

Johnston, a right-handed senior who signed with Texas Arlington, entered the week with a 10-4 record with 168 strikeouts.

“We have a young team to support Kimberlee,” Culver City Coach John Sargent said. “She’s an integral part, but we need the team to play well to beat opponents of this caliber.”

SOARING COMETS

After opening the season 1-7, Westchester has won 10 of 11 games, including eight in a row.

Those eight victories came in the Coastal Conference, where the Comets are battling University for the best record.

Entering this week’s showdown against University, Westchester pitcher Mike Escamilla has a 4-0 record and 0.00 ERA in conference games. Jelani Ferguson, who pitched a five-hit shutout last week against Manual Arts, has given up only one walk in 24 innings. He has a 3-0 record and a 1.65 ERA in conference play.

The Comets also have been using sophomore Mike Hayes as a spot starter and he has an 0.88 ERA in eight innings.

“He’s going to make a good coach out of me,” Westchester Coach Ron Kasparian said.

Hitting has played a big part in the Comets’ rebound. Rod Washington leads the team with a .415 batting average, followed by Seka Edwards (.379) and Henry Jones (.367).

The Comets’ exceptional speed has contributed to an area-leading 16 triples. Jones and Ramel Greenfield each have three triples.

SCHEDULING WOES

St. Monica Coach Norm Lacy got his wish and filled one of two openings in his football schedule. Unfortunately, the Mariners will have a tough task when they open the 1994 season at Westchester in the first meeting ever between the two Westside schools.

“I have my hands full,” Lacy said. “Other than that, everything is pretty good.”

The Mariners also play nonleague games against Santa Clara, Blair, St. Francis and Calabasas. They begin play in the revamped Camino Real League against St. Anthony. They also play Verbum Dei, Harvard-Westlake and Cantwell-Sacred Heart.

HOT STREAK

St. Bernard’s Brandon Pernell hit his sixth home run Saturday in a 10-4 win over Harvard-Westlake. Pernell, a junior shortstop, drove the first pitch of the fourth inning over the left-field fence to make the score 4-3.

Pernell also hit a home run April 20 against Harvard-Westlake to tie the score, 4-4. The Vikings won that game, 5-4, on Paul Lopez’s home run with two outs in the seventh.

Danny Melendez, who plays for the Dodgers’ double-A team in San Antonio, holds the school record with nine.

RECRUITING

One of the area’s top point guards, Duane Davis of Fairfax, scored 830 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

The six-foot junior is eligible to take campus visits in September and accept a scholarship during the November signing period.

Davis averaged 15.2 points and 3.9 assists and was named to The Times’ 1994 Westside all-star second team.

FALCONS PICK KLEIN

Former Palisades and Carson High quarterback Perry Klein was selected by the Atlanta Falcons Monday in the fourth round of the NFL draft.

The 6-3, 210-pound Klein, who attended Cal before transferring to C.W. Post in Brookville, N.Y. for his senior season, passed for 3,757 yards and accounted for 4,042 yards in total offense in 1993 to lead C.W. Post to a 9-1 record.

“People thought it was stupid for me to leave Cal, but I felt like the situation at Cal was a dead-end for me,” said Klein, whose family lives in Malibu.

Klein worked out for Falcon Coach June Jones and assistant Mouse Davis on April 18 at Santa Monica College.

“Believe me, the guy can throw it,” Jones said. “In high school, he completed 46 of 49 once and (speaking) as a former quarterback, you don’t do that even throwing against air most days.”