El Camino Real to Appeal Forfeits

Woodland Hills El Camino Real, ranked No. 5 in the Southland by The Times, has been forced to forfeit two baseball games because some of its players allegedly left the bench during a scuffle involving a parent and opposing coaches Saturday.

Coach Matt LaCour said Monday the school would appeal the City Section’s decision.

On Saturday against Sun Valley Poly, the game was halted in the fourth inning after the parent of an El Camino Real player went into the Poly dugout to confront coaches after his son was hit by a pitch.

The umpires say that a majority of El Camino Real players left the bench, which is a violation of City Section rules.

LaCour said only two were not on the bench.

The Conquistadores have to forfeit Saturday’s game to Poly and Monday’s West Valley League game against Reseda Cleveland, dropping them to 14-4 overall and 4-1 in league.

Saturday’s incident, classified as an alleged battery, is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.

-- Eric Sondheimer

San Pedro, a City Section finalist last season, has been forced to play its home games elsewhere because of recurring damage to the apartment building and parked cars beyond the baseball field’s right-field fence, which stands only 270 feet from home plate, Coach Grady Sain said.

Several windows have been shattered by baseballs in recent weeks, including one that reportedly just missed injuring a father and infant inside their residence.

The Pirates learned April 1, about an hour before their Marine League game against visiting Carson, that the school had come to an agreement with the owner of the apartments to cease games and batting practice at the field until a solution could be found. The game was moved to Carson, where San Pedro lost, 8-7.

The Pirates played Gardena twice last week at the Henderson Sports Complex in San Pedro and won by combined scores of 23-1. Gardena’s field was not available because it’s undergoing renovations. Sain, in his second season at San Pedro, said last week there are plans to erect temporary netting, similar to that used at driving ranges, at a cost of about $11,000.

However, raising the money and completing the work before the season ends could be a challenge.

“If we get the money freed up today, the earliest we can get the material is two weeks,” Sain said last week. “We might not get it done until the end of April, and that may be the best-case scenario.”

-- Dan Arritt

Softball

Lake Forest El Toro Coach Jim Daugherty said his young team, following a week off for spring vacation, struggled to remain focused during a 7-1 loss to Aliso Viejo Aliso Niguel last Tuesday.

Focus was the subject of a team talk the next day.

The payoff: The Chargers beat Garden Grove Pacifica, 1-0, in eight innings Saturday in the second round of the Irvine Woodbridge Classic. The Mariners were ranked No. 1 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports.

El Toro, which starts only three seniors, compared with six last year when it won 20 of its first 25 games, grabbed attention at the Bullhead City (Ariz.) tournament with victories over state- and national-caliber teams Clovis and Oakley (Calif.) Freedom.

“We’ve got a good mix of seniors, a junior pitcher [Lindsey Correa] who’s coming into her own, and a good core of freshmen,” Daugherty said. Senior Sarah Ziegler is the leadoff batter and catcher Amanda Ford Feitz, also a senior, bats cleanup.

Shortstop Niki Williams, a freshman, bats third and leads the team with 13 runs and 11 runs batted in.

Starting a week in which they had five games scheduled, the Chargers were to meet Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula in a third-round game of the Woodbridge tournament on Monday.

-- Martin Henderson