Bastion Going Out on Top With Third Title for South Hills

South Hills Coach Jim Bastion, who played at Oxnard High and Ventura College, closed out a 23-year career with the Huskies on Saturday.

The Huskies, who defeated Westlake, 9-3, to win the Southern Section Division III title, won the Division IV championship last season and the 1992 4-A crown, but Bastion said the 1998 group was his best.

“We’ve only had one other team that won 25 games and they didn’t win a [section] championship,” said Bastion, a 1961 graduate of Oxnard High and the Ventura College baseball team’s most valuable player in 1963. “It was a storybook ending.”

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Westlake Coach Chuck Berrington was less than pleased an hour and a half before the Warriors’ game when he tried to retrieve a bag he left on the team bus and found the driver had driven off in search of lunch.

“What’s he need lunch for?” asked Berrington, who was left without various paperwork, including his lineup cards. “They have food here. I’m going to have it out with him--even if he is 10 feet taller than me.”

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South Hills pitcher Bo Wilfong, who allowed six hits with six strikeouts and three walks, is the son of former major league infielder Rob Wilfong, a member of the Angels’ 1986 Western Division championship team.

Rob led Covina Northview High to the 2-A title in 1972.

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Joey Cuppari, Westlake’s senior center fielder, who entered the game batting .486, added a single, a double and a triple and collected his 27th stolen base.

Cuppari’s father, Tony, said his son, who began treating baseball seriously only this year, approached him this week with a question.

“He said, ‘Dad, how good do you think I could do in baseball if I played it year-round?’ ” Tony Cuppari said.

Cuppari, who played in the Valley All-Star football game after leaving Dodger Stadium, has signed to play football at Colorado State, which does not have a baseball team.

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Zack Torres, 7-year-old son of Coach Phil Torres and bat boy for Crescenta Valley, was wide-eyed in the Dodger Stadium dugout.

“I’ve never been here before but I watch the Dodgers on TV,” Zack said.

Zack, who was hit by a thrown ball before Crescenta Valley’s semifinal game, was concerned about his duties of retrieving bats from near home plate.

“It looks like it’s going to be a long run,” Zack said.

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Phil Torres decided to use Jordan Olson as his starting pitcher because Olson has a sore back.

Huh?

Torres said that was a factor in his decision to start Olson (10-1), who had just 4 2/3 innings of eligibility left instead of Josh Herman (9-1), who could pitch 10 innings.

“If Josh starts and gets hurt, we bring in Jordan and he gets hurt then we’re down to our No. 3 guy,” Torres said. “I’d rather have it the the other way around where Josh could finish it if we need him to.”