Clinton Bedeviled by Strikes : Baseball: Two of them go for two-run home runs as East rallies in ninth to win Bernie Milligan all-star game, 6-4.

Unfortunately for Newbury Park High right-hander Ray Clinton, he threw a strike.

With Clinton’s West team leading the 18th annual Bernie Milligan all-star baseball game by two runs in the bottom of the ninth, Clinton threw a strike to Saugus’ 5-foot-6 1/2 Danny Cato, who sent it over the left-field fence with one out and a runner at first, tying the game.

One out later, Antelope Valley’s Chris Tapia homered to right with a runner at first, giving the East a dramatic 6-4 victory Saturday at Cal State Northridge.

Cato, who was named the game’s most valuable player because of excellent defense at shortstop to go with his home run, said he was determined to swing no matter where Clinton threw the ball.

“I just put myself into a rage,” Cato said. “I was going to hit it no matter where it was. I was just lucky it was a strike. It was fate.”

It might also have been fate that Tapia was still in the game. East co-coaches Tom Dill and Chuck Schwal said they considered pulling Tapia, who started, but for some reason they left him in.

“I don’t know why (Tapia wasn’t pulled),” said Dill, Notre Dame’s coach. “I guess we just forgot to tell someone.”

Cato and Tapia were the only players on either team to play the entire game.

“I think these guys are used to playing the whole game and when you get them just having two at-bats or so, it’s tough,” Dill said. “The two guys who hit them out were probably the most comfortable at the plate (because they played the whole game).”

Tapia said he figured he’d be looking at a fastball because he hadn’t been able to catch up to any of the fastballs he’d seen in his first at-bat against Clinton, but he was ready for the one in the ninth.

“That was probably the first home run I’ve ever hit that I knew was gone,” Tapia said.

But Cato, who walked twice and struck out in his other three plate appearances, edged Tapia for the MVP because of his eight assists and three putouts. The best play was on a ball hit up the middle, on which he made a diving stop and flipped to second for a forceout.

“The way he played today and in practice, I’d say he’s one of the best (shortstops) I’ve seen at this level,” Dill said of Cato, who will play at The Master’s College.

El Camino Real’s Randy Wolf, two-time City 4-A player of the year, started the game for the West and seemed like he was about to add another honor--the game’s MVP--to his list until the bottom of the ninth.

Wolf pitched three hitless innings, although he walked six and gave up a run, and was two for three with an opposite-field home run. Chatsworth catcher Brandon Murphy, who was two for two, was the only other player to have more than one hit.

Wolf was followed to the mound by Chatsworth’s Jim DeBiase, L.A. Baptist’s Matt Hernandez and Clinton.

Wolf, DeBiase and Hernandez held the East to only two hits through seven innings and Clinton took the ball with a 4-1 lead.

The East pulled to within 4-2 in the eighth on a double by Sylmar’s Art Diaz and two wild pitches.

Crescenta Valley left-hander Jim Parque pitched the first three innings for the East. He was followed by Palmale’s David Glick, Sylmar’s Carlos Velazco and Notre Dame’s Rich Igou, who picked up the victory.