Hoover Home Run Clears a Milestone

Hoover High has played home games on campus for seven seasons and no one ever hit a home run over the fence--until Friday.

Junior outfielder Evelyn Crowder slugged a solo shot over the wall in right-center field during the Tornadoes’ 8-0 victory over Burbank in the championship game of the Hoover tournament.

“The girls didn’t even know how to react to a home run like that,” Coach Kirt Kohlmeier said. “I gave her the game ball and told her that it was my opinion that that ball is more important than any ball Mark McGwire ever hit.

“There have been some pretty good players play on this field.”

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The day after pitching a no-hitter and striking out 15 against Hueneme last week, Kathryn Nevard of Camarillo threw a three-hitter to beat Thousand Oaks.

Yet she was almost apologetic after her performance against Thousand Oaks, which she considered far from noteworthy.

“After playing a team like Hueneme, it’s hard to come back against a good team like [Thousand Oaks],” Nevard said.

So how did she recover from her three-hitter?

Two days later, she pitched a second no-hitter against Hueneme, striking out 10.

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Three years after guiding Camarillo to a 24-3 record and the Southern Section Division I final in 1996, former coach Nichole Victoria met up with her old team last week.

But it wasn’t the kind of homecoming she had hoped for.

Victoria, in her first year as coach at Hueneme, watched Nevard pitch both no-hitters against her team.

“We’re no competition for Camarillo,” Victoria said. “Camarillo is such a powerhouse, it’s very intimidating for [our players].”

Despite the results, Victoria said she was pleased by her players’ positive attitudes.

“I was more proud of them getting beat 12-0 on Friday than 5-0 on Tuesday because they stayed positive and up the whole game,” she said. “My team didn’t give up.”

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Crescenta Valley (3-3) certainly isn’t ducking the competition this season.

On the contrary, Coach Dan Berry made an effort to schedule strong opponents in an effort to prepare his team for the Division I playoffs.

With one-run losses to Thousand Oaks, Peninsula and Chaminade, the Falcons are keeping pace with the best of the bunch.

“To be .500 with this club right now is a plus, not a minus,” Berry said. “If we were getting hammered by these teams, then it would have been a bad decision. But we aren’t.”

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Hart is 4-1-1 under first-year Coach Cathy Giordano, and reinforcements have arrived.

Catcher Sara Dean and shortstop Kristin Lueke, both sophomores, joined the team last week after missing the Indians’ first few games.

Dean, who was playing on Hart’s Southern Section championship soccer team, missed the first five softball games. Lueke, who had mononucleosis, missed four games.

They were expected to begin the season in the starting lineup.

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The similarities between twins Brandi and Lacey Cope of Thousand Oaks don’t end with their looks. The 5-foot-10 seniors are each batting seven for 23 with two runs scored.

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Left fielder Alma Ibarra of Grant, who had 10 hits in her first 16 at-bats, will be out approximately six weeks after tearing a ligament in her right knee playing basketball last weekend.