MIDWEEK REPORT : HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS UPDATE : Curve Straightens Out Sandoval

For a team that struggled with pitching and defense last year, 1996 might just be a bit different for San Fernando High.

Although Julio Sandoval’s control wasn’t perfect--walking six batters--the senior right-hander was the first pitcher in the region to throw a no-hitter this season, shutting down Golden League champion Palmdale, 6-0, Friday in a San Fernando tournament game.

“I felt like I was going to have a good game,” Sandoval said. “My curveball was breaking really well.”

Besides the curve, Sandoval used a changeup in his first ’96 start to keep the Falcons at bay.

The no-hitter might kick off a season of redemption for Sandoval, who struggled after suffering a sprained ankle in a pregame workout last season.

Sandoval said the ankle didn’t heal until the season ended. A strong American Legion season helped boost his confidence.

“We can do something this year,” Sandoval said. “This is a team I can be proud of.”

Sandoval effort isn’t the only encouraging sign for San Fernando, which allowed fewer than two runs in a game only once last season. Marcelino Rodriguez pitched well against Franklin last week, losing, 3-1.

But the best sign for Coach Dan Heim is the defense, which hasn’t committed an error.

“I think that maybe happened once all [last] season,” Heim said. “I don’t want to get too excited yet.”

Team in Waiting

The success of the Buena girls’ basketball team--seemingly an annual event--means the softball team again will have to wait for several of its players to finish their commitments on the hardwood before welcoming them back to the diamond.

This season, first-year softball Coach Peter Shedlosky is moving ahead without the services of starting pitcher Nicole Greathouse and starting third baseman Renae Hofmann, who are involved in the state basketball playoffs.

Greathouse (16-3, 0.11 earned-run average) was a first-team All-Channel League and All-Ventura County selection last softball season, and Hofmann was a second-team all-league pick.

Shedlosky, who expects the pair to rest for a week after basketball season ends, is using senior Kelly Carr and sophomore Erin Kelly as his pitchers.

“Nicole’s going to have a chance to earn her position back,” Shedlosky said. “I’m not just going to stick her back in there, but if she performs up to her past history I don’t see her not taking it back.”

Basketball Notes

City Section

Boys: Van Nuys again benefited from Canoga Park’s propensity to shoot three-point baskets in vain in the Wolves’ 70-65 double-overtime victory in the City 3-A championship game. Apparently, Canoga Park learned nothing from an earlier 79-77 loss to the Wolves after shooting a dismal 17.9% (five of 28) from beyond the arc. In Friday’s loss, Canoga Park was even worse, converting just four of 26 (15.4%). In three matchups between the two this year, Canoga Park made only 13 of 71 (18%) three-point shots, while Van Nuys was two of 15 (13.3%).

Girls: Grant made 109 three-pointers--a school single-season record--and converted 37% of the time. Bahaneh Maani set a school record with 51 three-pointers, breaking her mark of 35 set last season. Poma Stevenson had 47.

Soccer Notes

Midfielder Tasha Spangler of Westlake was the only freshman of 22 players to make the girls’ All-Marmonte League first team. No freshmen were named to the boys’ 20-member first team.

St. Francis, which won the Southern Section Division III title, allowed only two goals in the playoffs. Division IV champion La Canada gave up three. St. Francis senior midfielders Pete Vagenas and Eric Johnson each scored 21 goals. Golden Knight Coach Glen Appels said Vagenas and Johnson tied the program’s mark for goals in a season, set in 1988-89 by All-American Bobby Guerrero.

The Malibu girls’ team, a first-year Frontier League program consisting of 17 freshmen, did not win a league game and finished 1-12-1. The victory was over winless Carpinteria and the tie came against Oxnard.

“We should have been playing at the soph-frosh level,” said Shark Coach Cory King, who remains puzzled as to why no upperclassmen tried out for her team. “Six of our girls had never played soccer before and three of them started. But we gained a lot of experience and I can’t wait until they’re all seniors.”

Santa Paula Athletic Director Joe Riccio said he is unsure whether boys’ Coach Joe Magdaleno will return next season. Magdaleno guided the Cardinals to their eighth league title in his 16 years and to the Division IV semifinals but was troubled by heart problems and missed five games.

Baseball Notes

City Section

“You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t rank us,” Poly Coach Chuck Schwal told The Times before the season. It might only be a matter of time before the Parrots crack the Top 10. Last week, Poly nearly upset No. 1 Kennedy, 3-2, and tied No. 8 Calabasas, 7-7, on Tuesday.

Kennedy junior catcher David Lusk, a transfer from Monroe, played with the area’s top pitcher last season, Wayne Nix. The right-hander threw two no-hitters and three one-hitters, and signed a contract with the Oakland Athletics. But Lusk is excited about the one-two punch of Kennedy right-handers Derek Morse and Jon Garland.

“Wayne was dominating,” Lusk said. “Derek will pitch any pitch at any time. Jon is starting to throw the ball hard. He’s a lot further along than Wayne was his junior year.”

Kennedy may be the area’s dominant team but El Camino Real has started with overwhelming victories. The Conquistadores defeated Van Nuys and Thousand Oaks by a combined score of 32-0. El Camino Real didn’t even use one of its top two pitchers. Mike Conn rested as Junior Avina retired the first 16 batters against Van Nuys.

Southern Section

Less than 24 hours after scoring 14 points in the Southern Section V-AA basketball final, Montclair Prep’s Scott Stark had two hits for the Mounties on Saturday. . . . St. Bonaventure seniors Danny Harrison and Jeremy Scarlett each had two triples in an 8-0 victory over Nordhoff in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday.

Tanner Trosper, a Calabasas senior and the Coyotes’ No. 1 pitcher, said that facing powerful Kennedy last week was a tense situation. “It felt like a lot of pressure,” Trosper said after the Golden Cougars won the San Fernando tournament game, 7-3. “It was the No. 1 team [in The Times’ regional rankings] and I felt like I had to do it by myself. I have to remember I’ve got a great team behind me.”

Moorpark Coach Scott Fullerton has an early nomination for the Frontier League’s top rookie: freshman third baseman Wes Rasmussen. Rassmussen is listed at 5 feet 8 and 155 pounds, which Fullerton said is a generous estimate, but his skills have the coach drooling. “At the freshman team tryouts in early February all our coaches noticed him right away,” said Fullerton, whose team was 9-13 last season. “My freshman coach, Jeff Gilbert, said, ‘I’m not going to get to keep him, am I?’ I told him he was right.”

Oak Park, the Tri-Valley League champion the past two years, is in for a rebuilding season under third-year Coach Bill Springman. The Eagles lost 10 players to graduation and were further weakened when top pitcher Vaughn Corley decided not to play baseball his senior year. The two returning starters are junior center fielder Dan Wasserman, who batted .327 last season, and junior pitcher Scott Christensen, who had seven saves. Eugene Holdgrafer, a junior transfer from Crespi, will start at catcher.

L.A. Baptist third baseman Seth Barkley, who led the area in runs batted in last season with 45, is at it again. The 5-9, 195-pound senior drove in seven runs in his team’s first two games, including five during an 18-4 victory over Campbell Hall in the Knights’ opener.

New faces are flashing signals from the dugouts of four Marmonte League teams. Newbury Park (Curtis Scott), Simi Valley (Tom D’Errico), Thousand Oaks (Bill Sizemore) and Westlake (David Wilder) have new coaches. . . . Among Royal’s top newcomers are twins Mike and Matt Rainer, both 6-5 junior pitchers. Junior Ryan Nielsen, the league’s player of the year in basketball, will pitch and play outfield.

Freshman Kevin Howard, who was declared academically ineligible in January and left the Crespi basketball team, has transferred to Westlake, where he is playing outfield for the Warriors.

Nowhere to go but up for Harvard-Westlake and first-year Coach Norm Greenbaum. The Wolverines (4-20) were 0-12 in league play last season. Greenbaum, formerly head coach at Brentwood, has three league championships in the past nine years to his credit. The Wolverines currently are without third baseman Ryan Smiley, who is still playing basketball.

Bill Scott of Alemany (6 feet, 195 pounds), last season’s league player of the year and state sophomore player of the year, returns as one of the area’s top offensive threats. Scott batted .471 with six home runs and 34 runs batted in last year and should post similar numbers this season, “assuming someone throws him a strike,” Coach Tim Browne said.

Softball Notes

City Section

Kennedy pitcher Sandra Durazo has started strongly, opening the season with a no-hitter against Grant and one-hitters against Norwalk and Buena Park.

Verdugo Hills pitcher Melanie Wood struck out 11 batters in five innings in the Dons’ 2-0 victory over Garfield, the team that defeated Verdugo Hills in the City Section 3-A title game last May. Wood’s sister, Kim, struck out four in the final two innings.

Southern Section

First-year Buena Coach Peter Shedlosky comes to the job with four years of youth softball experience but years in other sports, including stints as a football assistant at Nordhoff. “Kids are kids and sports are sports,” Shedlosky said. “I consider myself a motivator and at the high school level work with people’s skills are minimal. Your job is to motivate and fine-tune their skills.”

La Canada, the defending Southern Section Division IV champion, will be looking to repeat with five new faces on the infield. Pitcher Lindsay Parker, the State Division III player of the year, graduated with the rest of last year’s infield. Parker’s replacement is Tara Howard, a senior who pitched on the junior varsity last season. Coach Tom Parker, Lindsay’s father, said that Howard relies on location and movement. His daughter was more of a power pitcher. “We’re going to rely on our defense a lot more this year,” he said.

Track and Field Notes

Boys: Ronney Jenkins’ outdoor sprint campaign got off to a flying start Saturday when the Hueneme senior ran a personal best of 10.82 seconds to win the 100 meters in the Spartan Relays at Rio Mesa. But he continues to struggle with his steps in the long jump. Jenkins set a personal best of 24 feet 1 inch to finish second in the long jump in last year’s Arcadia Invitational, but he placed 10th (20-9) in the L.A. Invitational at the Sports Arena on Feb. 24 and fouled on all three of his attempts Saturday.

Girls: A large contingent of Palmdale athletes will compete in the National Scholastic Indoor championships in Boston on Saturday and Sunday, but the Falcons’ 4 x 200-meter and sprint medley relay teams will not be at full strength if the school’s basketball team upsets Buena tonight in a Division I semifinal of the Southern California Regional.

Relay runners Edniesha Curry and Monique Nolan are starters on the basketball team. A victory tonight advances the Falcons into the Division I title game.

Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks, who ran a yearly national-leading time of 4 minutes 53.27 seconds to win the mile in the L.A. Invitational, is expected to race Courtney Adams (4:53.29) of Brebeuf Prep in Indianapolis in the NSIC. Adams placed fourth in last year’s meet. This is Mortensen’s first appearance in the event.

Swimming Notes

The Buena boys’ team suffered a recent setback when Coach John Siman learned senior Sean Askay will miss the season. Askay finished fifth in the 500 freestyle and sixth in the 200 freestyle at the Division I championships, helping Buena to a second-place team finish. He faces surgery for a torn rib muscle.

Buena’s Channel League showdown with Santa Barbara has been moved from Friday to April 9 because Bulldog swimmers Rebecca Gilman, Nicole Beck and Erin Schatz are at the Olympic trials that began yesterday.

Senior Erin Walsh, who helped Hart to a second-place finish in the Division II finals last year, has transferred to La Canada.

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Contributing: Dana Haddad, Steve Henson, Vince Kowalick, Michael Lazarus, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega, Tris Wykes, Peter Yoon.