Victory Comes On the Field

Junior Garcia heard the decision on news radio during the drive from Woodland Hills to the game.

“That’s it,” he said dejectedly to no one in particular.

A Superior Court judge had declined to issue an order granting eligibility to him and teammate Garrett Feig. After several days of attorneys and administrators wrangling over appeals, the decision was final.

All the while, however, Woodland Hills had been winning elimination games in the Little League sectional tournament without Garcia, the team’s best hitter and pitcher, and Feig, another strong hitter.

On Thursday, the case was closed but the winning continued.

Woodland Hills defeated Thousand Oaks, 4-3, behind the pitching of Dusty Szabo to force a final game between the teams today at 5 p.m. The winner begins division play Saturday in La Puente.

Szabo, who got the loss against Thousand Oaks in the first round of the tournament, allowed seven hits and struck out nine. He retired the last seven batters after Chad Lundahl doubled to score Cody Cipriano and pull Thousand Oaks within one run with two out in the fourth.

A bit fuzzy on the details left to attorneys, Szabo clearly recognized the task at hand.

“Some kind of court order didn’t let Junior and Garrett play, and after a few minutes of a letdown it really fired me up,” Szabo said.

Garcia’s and Feig’s jerseys hung from the dugout fence, and Szabo said they gave him inspiration after Thousand Oaks scored one run and loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first.

“I looked over at the jerseys hanging there and got motivated,” he said.

Woodland Hills answered with three runs in the bottom of the first. Thousand Oaks right-hander Jake Brin walked four of the first six batters to force home Ryan Malleus, and with two out Jeremy Boyle doubled to right-center, scoring Amin Abusaleh and Josh Jones.

Brin smacked an opposite-field home run to lead off the third, but Jones scored in the bottom of the inning on a balk to give Woodland Hills a 4-2 lead.

Robby Kaufman, who had two hits, shut down a Woodland Hills rally in the fourth in relief of Brin, striking out two to strand two runners. However, Szabo kept getting stronger, striking out six of the last 12 batters he faced.

“Dusty was the man,” said Garcia, who spent the game sitting next to the dugout and munching sunflower seeds.

“It’s still hard watching, but I’ll just think about going back to school, I guess.”

In the rematch today, Cipriano, the winning pitcher the first time the teams met, will face either Jimmy Roberts or Boyle.

“As bad as we played, to lose by only one run makes me feel good about our chances (today),” Thousand Oaks Manager Ed Kitchen said.

Woodland Hills will be confident as well. The victory was the team’s fourth in as many days--all without Garcia and Feig.

“We spoke on the field,” Woodland Hills Manager Jim Hock said. “The other stuff is out of the kids’ control. Both teams hung in there.”

Hock was greeted after the game with a warm hug from Kevin Howard, a Westlake High star who returned two days ago from a tour of Taiwan with the Junior National Team.

Howard’s ties to both Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks underscore both the rivalry and common ground between the two leagues.

He played for Hock in Woodland Hills from age 10-12 before moving over to the Thousand Oaks league and leading teams coached by Kitchen to the 13-year-old Little League World Series championship and the 15-year-old World Series final.

“I’ve got great friends on both sides and I had to come out here and see everybody,” Howard said. “I remember how much fun I had in Little League.”

The current Woodland Hills players have taken Howard’s cue. Even while parents and administrators focused on the unpleasant task of trying to get Garcia and Feig reinstated, the kids concentrated simply on playing baseball and having fun.

After recording the last out, pumping his fist in the air and hugging his mom, Szabo turned to his father, Dave, an assistant coach, and said: “I don’t care what you say, I’m going swimming!”

* ELIGIBILITY FIGHT: A Superior Court judge rules against reinstating two Woodland Hills players ruled ineligible. B section