Kunes Is Selected 4-A Player of Year

Junior left-handed pitcher Mike Kunes of Chatsworth High was selected City Section 4-A baseball player of the year and was one of five Chatsworth players selected to the All-City team by a panel of sportswriters Thursday.

Kunes was 12-2 with a 1.77 earned-run average and batted .425 for the Chancellors, who won the West Valley League and lost to El Camino Real in the City final. Kunes was also selected the league’s most valuable player.

Infielders Matt Fisher and Matt Cassel and outfielders Tom Morefield and Bryan Gant were also selected to the 25-man squad from Chatsworth.

Outfielder Woody Cliffords and pitcher Kurt Birkins were selected from El Camino Real, which upset the Chancellors in the final. Cliffords was selected for the third consecutive season.

Infielder Tim Arroyo and utility player Jack Cassel, Matt’s brother, were chosen from Kennedy, the North Valley League champion.

East Valley League champion Sylmar is represented by pitcher Ivan Hernandez and catcher Mario Pacheco.

Infielders Jerrit Redlich and Ismael Rangsiyawong were selected from North Hollywood.

Pitcher John Ennis of Monroe, infielder Billy McGrath of Birmingham and utility player Max Santillan of Cleveland were also chosen.

BOWLING

Robert Smith, a graduate of Royal High, is in sixth place with 2,747 pins after two rounds of the $330,000 AC-Delco Classic at Cal Bowl in Lakewood.

The event boasts a $52,000 winner’s purse, second-largest offered on the Professional Bowlers Assn. tour.

Smith trails fifth-place Dave Wodka of South Setauket, N.Y., by two pins. Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Stockton (2,823 pins) leads the tournament.

BASKETBALL

Brady Mertes, who played at Chatsworth and Cal State Northridge, has been hired as an assistant coach at Sylmar.

Mertes, who will teach history at Sylmar, played for Northridge in 1996-97.

Latricia Fleming has transferred from Monroe High to Canyon.

The 6-foot junior forward was a two-year starter for Monroe.

GOLF

Dan Pouliot of Burbank shot a three-under-par 70 to win an 18-hole Southern California Amateur qualifier Tuesday at Crystalaire Country Club in Llano.

Jason Winter of Oxnard was second with a 71 and Desi Patao of Burbank finished in a tie for sixth at 74. Victor Keesey of Palmdale and Neil Robinson of Highland tied for ninth at 75.

All five players qualified for the Southern California Amateur Championship July 10-12 at the SCGA Members’ Club in Murrieta.

Players who will be alternates include Steve Dougherty of Burbank, who shot 75 and Rick Pratt of Valencia and Spike Silver of Woodland Hills, who each had a 76.

BOXING

Oxnard promoter Robert Valdez will stage the first of what might become a series of boxing shows Aug. 15 at the L.A. Fitness Center in Woodland Hills.

The center’s 2,000-seat Trillium Center Court, a lighted outdoor tennis arena, will be converted for prizefighting. Fighters have yet to be confirmed, but Valdez said he plans to assemble a card of unheralded young boxers, similar to his shows in Ventura County.

Valdez has promoted four fight programs in Ventura and Oxnard in the past two years.

Monthly boxing at the Warner Center Marriott ended in June 1996.

Rafael Ruelas of Sylmar, former International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight champion, will face Juan Baldwin in a 10-round semi-main event tonight at Trump Marina in Atlantic City, N.J.

Ruelas is 51-3 with 41 knockouts. The fight is on the undercard of a 12-round North American Boxing Federation light-heavyweight title bout between Kenny Bowman and Montell Griffin.

SOFTBALL

Krista Gomez has been chosen coach at Canyon High.

Gomez, a former All-Southern Section player at Alemany High, helped lead Arizona to NCAA titles in 1994, ’96 and ’97.

She replaces George Bustos, who was 4-17 in his only season as coach.

VOLLEYBALL

Nancy Poll has been hired as Van Nuys High girls’ coach, Van Nuys assistant principal Jack Molina said Thursday.

Molina said Poll, recently hired to teach at Van Nuys, formerly coached boys’ volleyball and golf at Verdugo Hills High.

Poll replaces Dave Bessler, who was fired Feb. 20 in a move upon which Van Nuys Principal Russ Thompson refused comment.

The San Fernando Valley Volleyball Officials Assn. is seeking officials for boys’ and girls’ volleyball.

Classes begin next month. Information: (805) 250-1084.

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FARRELL RESIGNS

After two decades of coaching Thousand Oaks High’s cross-country program, Jack Farrell has resigned. C19