You Can Tell He’s a Snyder; Check the Arm

You might not recognize Chad Snyder as the younger brother of Dodger utility man Cory Snyder right away, because Chad lacks the long, flowing blond hair that is his older brother’s most recognizable feature.

Chad had his hair sheared with the rest of the team for the Southern Section Division II baseball playoffs.

But when you watch Chad patrol right field for Rio Mesa High, he’s unmistakably Cory’s younger brother.

“I throw just like him,” Snyder said. “Everybody says that.”

As a first-year varsity player, Snyder has been among the leading hitters and best defensive players for the Spartans, who will face J.W. North on Tuesday at Ventura College in a section semifinal.

“Chad has been as consistent as anybody we have,” Coach Richard Duran said. “Early on, it seemed like every ball he hit was hard. His ability to put the ball in play with authority was reminiscent of few players I’ve had in the past.”

A junior batting in the No. 3 spot, Snyder finished the regular season batting .440 with 23 runs batted in. He is also an exceptional outfielder with a strong arm, Duran said. Snyder made a diving catch near the right-field line for the final out in Rio Mesa’s victory over Santa Barbara that clinched the Channel League championship.

“I think Chad takes a lot of pride in doing the fundamental things that prepare you to make a play like that,” Duran said.

Snyder has worked hard on his swing too. He heads to Dodger Stadium some afternoons and works out on the field with his brother before games. He even has his own Dodger uniform.

Snyder, who said he plans to work out at Dodger Stadium virtually every day the team is home this summer, shrugs off what would be a dream for most high school baseball players.

“It’s nothing for me,” he said. “I’ve been there a lot so it’s just another place to go.”

The Snyders moved to Camarillo in 1984 from the Santa Clarita Valley, where Cory was a high school star for Canyon High. Cory, 30, also played at Brigham Young and was a member of the 1984 Olympic baseball team. He was a first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Indians in ’84.

Duran, who also coached 1991 first-round pick Dmitri Young, has high hopes for Chad Snyder too.

“There’s no telling how good he can be because I think he’s still filling out,” Duran said of the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Snyder. “And I don’t think he lacks confidence, so you put those two things together and we’re looking for big things from him next year.”

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Knight again: The Notre Dame baseball team took no one by surprise when it made the Southern Section Division I semifinals last year. The team included three Division I college-bound players and was highly ranked all year.

But the 1994 team, with largely unheralded players, is in the semifinals again.

“I think we have a better team this year than people give us credit,” Coach Tom Dill said. “I think we had a lot of depth on last year’s team and they are coming through.”

One who has answered the call is pitcher Rich Igou, who didn’t see much action last year because of pitchers Chris Leveque and Chris Garza. Igou has won two playoff games and saved another. He threw a three-hit shutout against Nogales on Friday.

But Dill said he probably won’t start Igou (11-2) in the semifinals against Lakewood on Tuesday at Blair Field in Long Beach. Dill said he probably will start Andy Lutz (7-1). “I learned my lesson about that last year,” he said.

Last year Dill brought Leveque back on three days’ rest in the semifinals and Notre Dame lost, 10-0, to Simi Valley.

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Tough loss: The Simi Valley softball team’s 2-0 defeat at Lompoc in the Southern Section Division I quarterfinals on Tuesday was difficult for Coach Suzanne Manlet to handle because she couldn’t be there.

Manlet was home sick. It was the first playoff game she had missed in 13 seasons as the Pioneers’ coach. When she heard the news that her team would not defend its section title, she was disappointed, but not totally surprised.

“I was shocked because we haven’t had a whole lot of runs scored against us,” she said, “but I realized having to travel takes a little out of you.”

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Off the hook: Taft and Poly baseball players combined to ease Toreador Coach Rich McKeon’s guilt Friday in the first round of the City Section 4-A Division playoffs.

With Taft trailing, 2-1, and with runners at first and third and none out in the fifth inning, McKeon called a bunt play that his team hadn’t practiced much. The play, intended to drive in the runner from third, didn’t work. It went only as a sacrifice, moving the runner to second while the other held at third. Taft didn’t score in the inning and later fell behind, 3-1.

But four Taft hits--and four Poly errors--in the seventh helped the Toreadors to five runs and a 7-3 upset of Poly, the third-seeded team in the playoffs.

“I was feeling that I had taken us out of perhaps an opportunity to score some runs,” McKeon said. “I was eating myself up, praying I didn’t have to live all summer with that.”

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The cycle: Hart junior golfer Steve Farris accomplished an unusual feat in his round Monday in the Southern Section Individual Golf Championships at La Cumbra Country Club in Santa Barbara.

He was four-over on the front nine, then the “roller coaster started on 10,” he said.

Farris’ back nine included an eagle, birdie, par, bogey, double-bogey, triple-bogey and a quadruple-bogey. Farris finished with an 11-over-par 82.

Staff writer Steve Elling contributed to this notebook.