Newbury Park Gets Bruised, Hart Cruises

It was the Blue Division final of the Westside baseball tournament Saturday, but Hart High beat Newbury Park black and blue, 16-0.

The Indians (4-1) pounded out 17 hits and led, 7-0, after one inning at Jackie Robinson Stadium in West L.A.

Hart right-hander Brian Hernandez (2-0) pitched a two-hitter, facing one batter over the minimum and striking out seven.

“That’s about as good as I’ve seen [Hernandez] pitch,” Hart Coach Bud Murray said. “He was ahead in the count most of the day and he was able to throw the curveball well even when he got behind.”

Hernandez, a 6-foot-1, 204-pound senior who was 8-1 with a 2.76 earned run average last season, credited the Indians’ offense for relaxing him.

“It makes it a lot easier to get the job done,” Hernandez said. “I started everyone out with fastballs to see if they could hit it and then mixed in curves later on.”

Newbury Park’s Jarred Edroslan (2-1) faced 11 batters in the first and was pulled after three innings.

Edroslan surrendered eight hits and 11 runs, seven earned, while striking out one and walking six. He threw two wild pitches and hit a batter.

Cody Biggerstaff did not fare much better with an array of off-speed pitches, allowing five runs.

The Panthers (4-1) committed five errors.

Hart’s Eric Horvat, Toby Coe, Bob Potruch, Jeff Gaeta, Eric Ballew and Nicke Mercado each had two hits. Horvat led off the third inning with a towering home run over the left-field fence.

“We’ve got a real good hitting team,” Murray said. “In batting practice it looks like a college team.

“The teachers are worried about the safety of their cars [in the parking lot] at school. Balls hitting them was the big topic of discussion [at Hart] this week.”

Across the diamond, Newbury Park Coach Curtis Scott blamed the loss on the Panthers’ youth and the Indians’ prowess.

“They just flat-out hit the ball,” said Scott, who started a freshman and three sophomores. “This is a building block for us and I’m not going home with my life in ruins because we lost the Westside tournament.”

Asked if he could think of any Panther positives from the game, Scott paused before answering.

“No, not really,” he said.

Newbury Park, 11-12 and sixth in the Marmonte League last season, advanced by defeating Beverly Hills, Venice, Crossroads and Hawthorne by a combined 43-13.

Hart, 21-7 and Foothill League champion last season, defeated Montclair Prep, Hueneme and Camarillo and lost to Notre Dame prior to Saturday’s game.