On a Catch Out of the Blue, There’s No Doubting Thomas

The play of the week occurred Monday during infield practice for the Moorpark High softball team.

Shortstop Elizabeth Christensen lunged toward third base to scoop up a grounder off the bat of Coach Tom Humphreys. Christensen’s stretch left her off-balance, however, and her throw sailed 10 to 15 feet over the head of first baseman Amy Thomas, who, as a lark, hurled her glove skyward.

Ball and glove met in mid-air, crashed into a fence along the first-base line and landed with the ball inside the glove.

“We gave her a big hurrah but we have no plans to try it in a game,” Humphreys said. “We’d have the umpires scratching their heads on that one.”

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Gun shy: Wayne Nix tried to ignore the large group of major league scouts who turned out Tuesday to watch the right-hander in Monroe’s City Section playoff opener.

“I was too nervous to look,” said Nix, who pitched two no-hitters and two one-hitters in his previous four starts.

He didn’t disappoint, pitching a one-hitter and striking out 11 in Monroe’s 4-0 victory over Granada Hills.

However, Nix couldn’t ignore the four radar guns positioned behind home plate that clocked the 6-foot-6, 200-pounder’s fastball at 89 m.p.h.

“I’ve seen them up there all year,” he said.

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Family affair: Like most others, Cal State Northridge-bound infielder Eric Cole found out that a El Camino College pitcher signed with the Matadors by reading it the newspaper.

Call it a breakdown in the family grapevine.

The pitcher is Jason Cole, Eric’s second cousin. Eric had no idea Jason was on Northridge’s recruiting list. Even Northridge assistant Mike Batesole, who helped signed both players to letters of intent, didn’t know they were related.

“I’ve hardly ever talked to [Jason],” said Eric, who played at Antelope Valley College. “I’ve been to Knott’s Berry Farm and some other family outings with him, but that’s about it.”

Can the guy pitch?

“Don’t know,” Eric said. “I’ve never seen him play.”

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Center of attention: Hart football Coach Mike Herrington reports that since the start of the evaluation period May 1, representatives from 18 Division I colleges have visited the school to inquire about Ted Iacenda, the Indians’ 6-foot-1, 225-pound running back.

The recruiting parade has included Penn State, UCLA, Washington, Arizona, California, Stanford and Brigham Young, said Herrington, who added that Iacenda’s running and blocking might take a back seat to his pass-catching skills.

“He has the best hands that have ever come through this school,” he said.

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Missing in action: Taft junior Dylan Mann, runner-up last season in boys City Section singles tennis, withdrew from this year’s individual tournament to attend the funeral of his grandfather in Bangkok, Thailand.

“I’m kind of disappointed,” said Mann, who was undefeated in 10 regular-season matches and eight team-playoff sets. “I was really looking forward to playing. But in this case, something else was more important.”

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Perseverance pays: He didn’t win his race. Nor did he qualify for today’s Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College. But Kevin Marsden of Thousand Oaks turned in an encouraging performance Saturday at the divisional track championships at Cerritos.

After being sidelined for much of the season with mononucleosis, Marsden ran a school-record 1:54.96 to place sixth in the Division I race Saturday.

“I thought that the only way he could help us would be in the 400 and [1,600] relay,” Coach Jack Farrell said. “But when he ran 2:02 in the [Marmonte League] prelims and out-kicked [Agoura’s Adam Eyre] in the final, it was obvious that he was in good shape.”

Quotebook

“I had it all figured out. I’d get my 200th win at Anaheim Stadium.”

--Ventura High 15-year baseball Coach Dan Smith, whose plans for winning the Southern Section Division II title were dashed when the Cougars lost, 2-1, to Glendora in a second-round playoff game Tuesday.

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Agony of defeat: “It was probably the most devastating loss of my coaching career, just because of the talent we had.”

--Buena High softball Coach Sharon Coggins, after last week’s 2-0 loss to at-large entry Thousand Oaks in the first round of the Division I playoffs.

Stats

Utilityman Kevin Milligan, a junior transfer from Pierce College who played first and third base for the Northridge baseball team, recorded 154 putouts and had 10 assists without being charged with an error.

Honors

Susanne Carey, a senior civil engineering major from Santa Paula and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, made the Academic All-American West Conference women’s basketball team with a 3.53 grade-point average. Ryan Nugent, a sophomore from Thousand Oaks and Cal State Sacramento, made the men’s cross country squad with a 3.33 GPA.

Things to Do

Coors Light stock cars will race at Ventura Raceway tonight at 7:30, and International Motor Contest Assn. sprint cars will be featured Saturday night at 7 on the quarter-mile clay oval.

* Compiled by Rob Fernas. Contributing: Steve Elling, Darin Esper, Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad, Mike Hiserman, John Ortega and Tris Wykes.