MIDWEEK REPORT / HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS UPDATE : Trash Talk Now Becoming a Formality

Ah, the splendor of a high school prom night.

Girls in beautiful dresses and boys in tuxedos. . . . talking trash.

When Cleveland High catcher Casey Roth attended the Reseda prom Saturday, he made sure Reseda pitcher Brian Menkin didn’t forget about the upcoming first-round playoff game between the cross-town rivals.

“Casey said he was gonna hit one out off me--and he did,” Menkin said.

Roth homered off Menkin in the third inning to win the battle, but Menkin--who along with his teammates pulled out a 4-3 victory--ended up winning the war.

“The most-important thing is that we won,” Menkin said.

Repeat Performers

Although the El Camino Real softball team won’t have senior pitcher Tami Jones next year, don’t be surprised if the next City Section 4-A Division final is a rematch between the Conquistadores and Kennedy.

Besides Jones, El Camino Real has four other senior starters--catcher Kristin Gutekunst, first baseman Lisa Brende, third baseman Ciana Baca and second baseman Jennifer Ramirez--from the team that defeated Kennedy, 6-0, Tuesday at UCLA’s Easton Field.

But with 10 City titles in the past 14 seasons, Coach Neils Ludlow seems to always be in a position to reload.

“It’s not so much any one player or individual, but there is an expectation in our program that we expect to win. When we lose, its a big deal,” Ludlow said. “I always have to think about the future. I have to think ahead.”

El Camino Real this season had a blend of freshmen and sophomores to complement the seniors. Freshman Ashley Redlin, a starting outfielder, was effective spelling Jones as a pitcher. Freshman Kristi Nicklaus is a good hitter.

“It’s really a delightful combination,” Jones said. “[The seniors] wanted to show the freshmen and sophomores what it’s like to play at UCLA.”

Kennedy is in even better shape. The Golden Cougars lose only shortstop Kelli Moorman to graduation.

Besides returning Sandra Durazo, who pitched every inning this season, Kennedy will have catcher Jennifer Del Real and outfielder Monica Espita. All three players batted better than .300 this season.

Noticeable Finish

Santa Clara golfer Tim Wren went virtually unnoticed during the regular season. Playing for a team that won only one match helped him maintain a low profile.

But the senior was center stage on Monday when he shot a one-under-par 71 to finish third in the Southern Section individual championship at Sandpiper Golf Course in Santa Barbara.

“I did not expect to play that well,” said Wren, whose finish qualified him for the Southern California Golf Assn. championships on June 6. “I was just hoping to make the cut for [the SCGA] tournament.”

Wren’s performance in the Southern Section tournament may seem surprising, but it wasn’t. He has consistently shot in the mid-70s and in the Saints’ final three matches he fired two rounds of 73 and one of 72. He was also selected co-most valuable player of the Frontier League.

Wren, who had been a high-70s and low-80s golfer for most of his high school career, attributes his turnaround to an improved mental attitude.

“If I go out there trying to win, I’m going to hurt myself,” he said. “I go out there with no expectations and try to have fun with the game instead of taking it so serious.”

Baseball Notes

City Section

4-A DIVISION

Granada Hills and El Camino Real are in better shape than either imagined for their quarterfinal matchup today at 3 p.m. at El Camino Real. Highlander Coach Darryl Stroh used his ace, Jessie Carranza, for just two innings in a 16-6 victory over Palisades. Carranza, Granada Hills’ only consistent pitcher this season, is available against the Conquistadores. For El Camino Real, junior Shaun Fishman pitched just three innings. He is available if Mike Conn or Junior Avina falters. . . . Kennedy also saved its ace, senior Derek Morse, for a quarterfinal today against Banning. But truth be told, Jon Garland, who shut out Westchester Tuesday, is hardly a second-stringer. The 6-foot-4 junior has four consecutive shutouts. . . . Reseda junior Alfredo Saenz may be a one-dimensional player, but Coach Mike Stone isn’t about to complain about his hard-hitting designated hitter. “A lot of times he doesn’t even bring his glove to practice,” Stone said. “He just likes to hit.” Considering that Saenz is batting .578 with 10 home runs and 41 runs batted in, Stone couldn’t care less if Saenz even owns a glove. Against Cleveland Tuesday, Saenz had two of Reseda’s four hits, went two for two, homered and scored three runs in the Regents’ 4-3 victory.

Southern Section

DIVISION I

Crespi lost a coin flip Wednesday and will play Friday at Fountain Valley in a quarterfinal. The Celts (21-7), who finished third in the Mission League, will attempt to defeat a third consecutive league champion in the playoffs. The Celts knocked off Moore League champion Lakewood and Marmonte League champion Royal, both by 1-0 margins. Fountain Valley is champion of the Sunset League. Crespi last reached the semifinals in 1993, losing that season to eventual champion Esperanza. Christian Dempsey, son of former Dodger catcher Rick Dempsey, not only drove in the only run against Royal with a seventh-inning single to score Barry Matthews, his quick throw from left field helped to deny the Highlanders on their only scoring threat in the third inning. Rick Dempsey was in attendance. Junior right-hander Brian Felten (9-1), who pitched a two-hitter against Lakewood and earned the victory over Royal in relief, will start against Fountain Valley.

DIVISION III

With hard throwers in Mark Madsen and Bryan Garcia plus a reliable performer in freshman Travis Allen, Quartz Hill Coach Dave Stradling thought he had enough pitching to go deep into the playoffs. Surprise. The Golden League champions lost Friday in the first round when Charter Oak tagged Madsen for three runs in the sixth inning to win, 7-6. . . . Nobody felt more remorse over a 6-4 loss by Burroughs to visiting Antelope Valley in the opening round of the playoffs than Indian pitcher Wes Hutchison. Hutchison was brilliant, striking out 12 batters and allowing no runs in 5 1/3 innings of relief. Had he started, Burroughs might still be playing. But a bad outing against last-place Valencia in the Foothill League finale the previous week forced Coach Jose Valle into a guessing game. Valle decided to start Brian Nichols, who had thrown a no-hitter against Saugus at midseason. Nichols allowed six runs in 1 2/3 innings. “I don’t blame him,” Hutchison said of Valle’s decision.

DIVISION IV

Moorpark dropped a wild-card game to Atascadero last week after a 3 1/2-hour bus ride north. “It was the first time in the playoffs for a lot of our guys and they didn’t look uptight but they had to be,” Moorpark Coach Scott Fullerton said. On the bright side, the Musketeers’ infield of third baseman Wes Rasmussen, shortstop Zach Greene, second baseman Ryan Yoshiwara and the first-base tandem of Justin Ames and Nick Liffers will be back next season. Richie Cartier and Joseph Malagon will also be back.

DIVISION V

L.A. Baptist, the division’s top-seeded team, has a shot at setting a state record for runs scored in a season. The Knights have scored 360 runs in 27 games, an average of more than 13 a game. The record, set by San Diego High in 1949, is 388. The Knights, who face Paraclete in a quarterfinal game Friday, will play three more games if they reach the division final. They are currently third on the all-time Southern Section list, two runs behind the 1990 El Segundo team.

Softball Notes

Southern Section

DIVISION I

Newbury Park and Camarillo, the top finishers in the Marmonte League, had a couple of close calls in second-round games Tuesday. Both scratched out 2-1 victories over teams that finished second in less-competitive leagues. Although Newbury Park Coach Mike Morgan said it wasn’t as close as it looked, the Panthers managed only two hits against Walnut. But Morgan was quick to defer that attention after the game Tuesday night: “I can’t feel bad after finding out what happened with Camarillo,” Morgan said. . . . Camarillo and Rio Mesa were scoreless for 11 innings until the Spartans scored in the top of the 12th, sending the fear of elimination through the Scorpion lineup. But the Scorpions prevailed with two runs in the bottom of the 12th to advance to a game at home against Pacifica today at 3:15 p.m. . . . Thousand Oaks Coach Gary Walin isn’t trying to hoodwink anyone about the Lancers’ chances against second-seeded Mater Dei Friday in a quarterfinal game. Or is he? He is portraying the Lancers as the little engine that could. “If I show “Rocky” [Wednesday] and “Hoosiers” [today] we should be ready by Friday,” Walin said. While all other quarterfinal games are being played today, Thousand Oaks will play at Mater Dei Friday because the Monarchs are having their prom tonight. . . . Although her first season at Westlake didn’t go as planned, Coach Beth Calcante was still able to find a positive: “Hey, I didn’t get thrown out of any games [this season], so I guess that’s a plus,” she said. . . . Buena Coach Peter Shedlosky, hired on an interim basis shortly before the season began, said Monday he had not decided whether he wants to return next season. Shedlosky, a former youth softball coach and Nordhoff football assistant, weathered criticism and player defections in his first season. “There’s been give and take on both my part and the girls’; that’s part of growing as a team,” said Shedlosky, whose team was eliminated from the Southern Section Division I playoffs Tuesday by Foothill.

DIVISION II

When it comes to the playoffs, Saugus is certainly no stranger to disappointment. As the top-seeded team, the Centurions were ousted in the semifinals and the second round the past two seasons. On Tuesday, they appeared headed for an early exit at La Habra, when pitcher Jamie Gillies allowed two hits in the first inning. But third-seeded Saugus (24-4) got out of the jam, winning, 1-0, after Gillies tripled and scored on Shannon McRoy’s single. . . . Crescenta Valley, by winning a coin flip, will play host to defending Division II champion Woodbridge in a quarterfinal today at Montrose Park. The Falcons (22-6), Pacific League champions and winners of nine in a row, are vying for their first semifinal appearance in the program’s history. Amy Chapman, who ranks eighth among team leaders with a .264 batting average, clubbed a three-run home run Tuesday in a 7-0 victory over Peninsula.

Golf Notes

Jason Semelsberger of Hart fired a three-over par 75 during the Southern Section individual championship on Monday and will join third-place finisher Tim Wren of Santa Clara in the Southern California Golf Assn. championship on June 6 at the SCGA players club in Temecula. Justin Rockey of Quartz Hill and Russell Surber of Flintridge Prep also qualified by shooting 76. . . . Westlake golfers automatically advanced by virtue of the team qualifying last week. . . . The top three Grant golfers--Tyler Foster, Sean Oriti and Jordan DiNapoli--outshot Granada Hills’ top three, 223-242, during the second round of the City Section golf championships Tuesday at Ranch Park. But the Lancers’ No. 4 and No. 5 golfers shot 89 and 96 while Granada Hills--which led by 17 strokes after the first round--got two 87s and held on for a nine-stroke victory. Both teams advance to the SCGA tournament. . . . Three Chatsworth players--Todd Golditch, Pat Stewart and Marco Evans--also advanced to the SCGA tournament as individuals out of the City Section. Other local players who qualified as individuals were Tim Holguin and Michael Briano of Sylmar, Greg Goodfried of Birmingham and Cory Reisner of Verdugo Hills.

Track and Field Notes

Boys: Sal Martinez of Ventura was not regarded as one of the top local 1,600-meter runners at the start of the year. Yet he has posted four of the eight fastest times in the region this season, capped by a personal best of 4 minutes 21.62 seconds to place second in the Division II race of the Southern Section divisional championships at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach on Saturday. . . . When Will Bernaldo of Nordhoff ran a personal best of 9:19.87 to win the Division III 3,200 in the Southern Section championships, it marked the second year in a row that the Rangers won the event. Javier Ramirez, now a freshman at Cal State Northridge, ran 9:13.45 last year.

Girls: Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks will only run in the 3,200 on Friday when the Southern Section Masters Meet is held at Cerritos College. The Lancer senior clocked 4:46.28 in the 1,600 and 10:03.11 in the 3,200 to win the Division I titles in the Southern Section championships last week, and with the 1,600 out of the way, a sub-10-minute clocking in the 3,200 appears possible. No U.S. high school runner has ever broken 10 minutes outdoors and only two have accomplished the feat indoors. Melody Fairchild of Boulder, Colo., ran 9:55.92 for two miles--which converts to a 3,200 in 9:52.46--in 1991. Erin Keogh of Langley High in McLean, Va., ran 9:57.84 in the 3,200 in 1987. . . . Buena senior Stacy Hebert and Nordhoff junior Bridie Hatch will be making their third consecutive appearance in the 300 low hurdles in the Masters Meet. Hebert placed third in 1994 and sixth last year. Hatch finished sixth as a freshman and seventh as a sophomore. The top five finishers in each event in the Masters Meet will advance to the State championships at Cerritos College on May 31 and June 1. . . . Junior Kenya Corley of Antelope Valley moved to seventh on the all-time region list in the long jump when she leaped 19 feet 2 3/4 inches to win the Division I title in the Southern Section championships. . . . Louisville junior sprinter Peggy Johnson and Thousand Oaks senior shotputter Crystal Crawford continued their school-record tears in the Southern Section championships. Johnson notched her fifth school record of the season in the 400 when she clocked 56.85 to place second in the Division III race. Crawford set her fourth school record in the shotput with a seventh-place effort of 37-9 3/4 in the Division I meet. . . . Junior Liz Giltner of Chaminade is three for three in the Southern Section championship when it comes to the Division III high jump. Giltner won her third consecutive title on Saturday when she cleared a personal best of 5-8 for the fifth time this season.

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