AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL / JEFF FLETCHER : Wisdom of Solomon Increases After Day With Mariners’ Scout

Wonder why baseball scouts look at bodies and radar guns more than they look at stats?

See Solomon, Lucas.

Solomon, a Newhall-Santa Clarita right-hander, is 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, and his fastball has been clocked at close to 90 m.p.h. range. But his senior season at Canyon High was less than spectacular.

He had a sore arm and a 2-3 record.

No matter.

The Seattle Mariners drafted him in the 62nd round. Then Mariner scout Bill Sizemore straightened out his mechanics. Suddenly, Solomon has no more arm problems and he is 6-0 with a 3.19 earned-run average in American Legion play.

“Sizemore worked with him one day and showed him what he was doing wrong,” Newhall-Santa Clarita Coach Pat Eggleston said. “Now he’s throwing really well.”

Solomon, who will continue to work with Sizemore next spring at Cerro Coso College in Ridgecrest, also attributes the improvement to the team behind him. Newhall-Santa Clarita includes not only players from Canyon, which finished last in the Foothill League, but Hart, which finished first.

“We had a rough year (at Canyon),” Solomon said. “(The pitchers) just had a hard time getting any support. In Legion, I’ve got some good defense and good offense.”

And good mechanics.

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They’re in: Van Nuys West beat Mission Hills, 7-6, in a makeup game Monday at Birmingham High to slip into the 10-team District 20 playoffs. The double-elimination tournament to determine the district’s representative in the Area 6 playoffs began Tuesday.

The game was necessary because the umpires did not show the first time the teams were scheduled to play, Van Nuys West Coach Mike Challgren said.

Van Nuys West was the last team to qualify for the playoffs, but it is seeded No. 9, ahead of Valley North, because Van Nuys West defeated Valley North during the regular season.

The seedings: 1. Antelope Valley South (18-3), 2. Newhall-Santa Clarita (17-4), 3. Quartz Hill (16-5), 4. Encino (16-5), 5. Van Nuys East (15-5-1), 6. Sun Valley (15-5-1), 7. Verdugo Hills (15-6), 8. Woodland Hills West (14-7), 9. Van Nuys West (13-8), 10. Valley North (13-8).

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They’re in too: Two teams from District 16 have qualified for the six-team, double-elimination Area 6 playoffs next week at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Westlake-Royal has clinched the district title and Rio Mesa, which draws players from Rio Mesa and Camarillo highs, has clinched second place.

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High scoring: Antelope Valley South finished with the best regular-season record in District 20, largely because of an explosive offense led by Nos. 3 and 4 hitters Chris Tapia and Eric Cole.

“They are the best 1-2 punch I’ve ever had,” said Coach Mike Eberhardt, who has been coaching Legion since 1986.

Cole, a freshman at Antelope Valley College last spring, is hitting .549 with five triples, four home runs and 44 runs batted in. He was drafted last month in the late rounds by the Kansas City Royals. Tapia, a 1994 graduate of Antelope Valley High who plans to play at Antelope Valley College, is hitting .500 with three home runs and 31 RBIs.

Despite the offense, Eberhardt is apprehensive about his team’s playoff chances because the format--at least one game a day--is tough for a team without deep pitching.

“We have relied on our batting most of the season,” Eberhardt said. “That’s what’s going to make it real tough in the playoffs because pitching is what you need.”

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In the spotlight: When Pepperdine-bound pitcher Randy Wolf chose not to play for Woodland Hills West, it gave some unheralded players from El Camino Real High a chance for attention.

Billy Burnette finished the Legion regular season hitting .520 with four home runs and 54 RBIs, including 15 in four games last week. Burnette hit grand slams on Saturday and Sunday.

“I think he’s had an opportunity to shine and he’s come through,” Coach Bob Marks said.

Burnette is not alone, though.

Justin Balser (.571), Mike Glendenning (.555) and John Novak (.507) also are hitting over .500 for Woodland Hills West.

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Some bullpen: It’s an unusual sight if you’re not used to it. Westlake-Royal assistant Ed Aguilar trots to the mound to talk to his pitcher. On the way, he winds up and fires a baseball out to center fielder Scott Morris.

Left fielder Bryan Fernandez runs toward Morris and squats about 60 feet away. Morris starts warming up in a makeshift bullpen--no mound necessary--for as long as the umpire will allow Aguilar to kill time on the mound.

It’s a necessity when Morris, the closer for Westlake-Royal, is playing center field. Morris is 1-0 with five saves and a 1.24 ERA.

“Usually I don’t have that much time,” Morris said. “When he does toss me out the ball, I just have to warm up as quickly as I can. So far it’s working pretty well.”

Morris, a recent Westlake graduate, has signed to play at Texas Tech, where he also will play center field and pitch.

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Legion lines: Van Nuys West’s Donny Wingo was taken to the hospital Sunday after he was hit in the head by a pitch from Studio City’s Carlos Velazco. A CAT scan was negative, but Wingo will miss the rest of the season, said Challgren, Van Nuys West’s Coach. . . .

Two items jump off the final Sepulveda statistic sheet. First, pitcher Joe Cohen allowed 40 runs, but only eight were earned. Also Ethan Parker had 26 stolen bases, but only 19 hits. . . .

Littlerock finished 0-21 for the second consecutive season. . . .

Las Virgenes players kept a lizard in the dugout for good luck last season and the team streaked into the playoffs. This season, Las Virgenes (12-9) had no lizard. No playoffs. “I looked all over for one,” said Jinny Hoover, the team’s statistician.