NOTEBOOK / ROB FERNAS : Football Player Found Guilty of Battery in Postgame Brawl

Harbor College football player Dion Mills has been convicted of battery and sentenced to two years probation for knocking out a Pierce assistant coach during a postgame brawl Sept. 29 at Harbor. A Compton Superior Court jury reached the verdict last week after rejecting a higher count of assault with a deadly weapon against Mills, who hit Pierce assistant Pat Swift in the head with a crutch after Pierce’s 23-0 victory. An unconscious Swift had to be rushed to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for treatment.

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West Torrance topped all schools with four selections on the Southern Section Division III baseball team. Pitcher-third baseman Kirk Bolling, infielder Derek Nicholson and outfielder Jimmy Yates were named to the first team, and pitcher David Delgado was a second-team choice. El Segundo had two players selected--first baseman Mike Poor to the first team and pitcher David Reed to the second team. Pitcher Jim Livernois (15-3) of La Quinta, which beat West in the division final, was named player of the year. In Division IV, Mary Star catcher Joe Sulentor was named to the first team.

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Westchester, Inglewood and Peninsula are among the top-seeded teams in the L.A. Watts Summer Games boys’ basketball competition, which begins Saturday. In first-round games at 9 a.m., Westchester will play host to El Segundo and Inglewood will play host to Calvary Baptist. Peninsula has a first-round bye and will play the winner of the Moreno Valley-Bell Jeff game at noon Sunday at Carson. Westchester is led by guard Danny Walker, The Times’ 1994 Westside Player of the Year; Inglewood boasts forward Paul Pierce, The Times’ South Bay Player of the Year, and Peninsula returns four starters, led by all-star guard Phil Belin. Walker and Belin are sophomores. Pierce is a junior.

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Hawthorne’s Omarr Morgan, The Times’ 1993 South Bay Back of the Year, accounted for 116 all-purpose yards, scored a touchdown and intercepted two passes in the end zone Saturday to lead the West to a 17-9 victory over the East in the West Torrance Lions All-Star football game at Harbor College. Morgan caught a seven-yard scoring pass from Hawthorne teammate Kenji Tatum to give the West, coached by Hawthorne’s Dan Robbins, a 14-0 lead in the second quarter. Morgan later preserved the victory when he intercepted a pass in the end zone from San Pedro’s Chris Pappas with six seconds left.

Four Blue team pitchers--David Reed of El Segundo, Brian Bowles of Peninsula, Jose Hernandez of Gardena and Dan Croxall of El Segundo--combined on a four-hitter and 13 strikeouts Friday in a 7-0 shutout over the Red in the South Bay Athletic Club All-Star Baseball Classic at Recreation Park in El Segundo. Reed was the winner, giving up one hit and striking out five in the first three innings of the nine-inning game. Derek Nicholson of West Torrance and Morgan Ensberg of Redondo each drove in two runs. Ensberg led all players with two hits.

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Loyola Marymount senior Sheri Brown, a two-time All-West Coast Conference selection in women’s basketball, has been named female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in the WCC. Another Loyola athlete, baseball standout Anthony Napolitano, was named to the GTE Academic All-America second team. The senior first baseman, a three-time All-WCC selection, and the Loyola baseball team will play host to the R.B.I. (Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities) program on June 25 at George Page Stadium.

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Robert Burke and Daren Kalish have been added to the Loyola Marymount men’s basketball coaching staff, replacing former assistants Tom Pecora and Dave Fehte. Burke joins Coach John Olive’s staff as a full-time assistant after serving as an assistant at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County for the past six seasons. Kalish, a former Loyola administrative assistant, joins the staff as the restricted earnings coach. Chris Walker, who had served as the Lions’ restricted earnings coach for the past two seasons, was promoted to a full-time assistant.