Ennis Shuts Down El Camino Real

Armed with radar guns, more than 15 professional baseball scouts lined up behind the backstop at El Camino Real High on Tuesday to evaluate Monroe pitcher John Ennis in his season debut.

The 6-foot-5 UCLA-bound right-hander insisted he didn’t notice all the stares in his direction.

“I tried not to throw for them,” he said. “I tried to throw for my team.”

Ennis, with his fastball clocked between 83 and 86 mph, limited the defending City 4-A Division champion Conquistadores to two hits and one run in five innings as Monroe scored a 7-2 victory in an opening game of the San Fernando Valley Invitational.

Ennis, the top returning City pitcher, struck out three and walked four. He has thrown harder and demonstrated better control, but even when he’s not in peak form, he’s difficult to beat.

Most encouraging for the Vikings was the play around Ennis. Shortstop Adam Kaplan had two hits and played flawlessly in the field. Center fielder Victor Hall scored three runs and ran the bases so fast that Ennis joked that he saw the scouts’ radar guns on him as he ran to first.

Hall, a member of the track and baseball teams simultaneously, runs the 100 meters in 10.9 seconds and is the kind of player who could provide a major boost for the Vikings in the Mid-Valley League. He led off the game by beating out a groundball to first baseman Woody Cliffords and soon scored on an error.

“Forty-five to 50 steals is my goal,” Hall said. “It sounds outrageous, but you have to set a goal.”

El Camino Real started seven underclassmen, and the inexperience showed. The Conquistadores made three errors and did little hitting against Ennis and reliever Victor Madrid.

“It was embarrassing defensively, and that’s my fault,” Conquistadore Coach Mike Maio said.

One player who did well at the plate was junior catcher Matt Schwartz, who walked three times and had a single. Mike Leduc, a sophomore, hit a double off the left-field fence against Ennis. Monroe was the No. 16 seed in last season’s playoffs and upset top-seeded Carson in the first round, then was eliminated because it didn’t have a No. 2 pitcher behind Ennis. Ryan Ennis, John’s brother, will get the first shot at becoming the No. 2 pitcher.

“My brother is capable of doing it,” John said.