Shortstop Shores Up Pitching for Nogales

Thin on pitching, La Puente Nogales lost the opener of a three-game series, 13-1, to West Covina South Hills last Tuesday.

On Thursday, shortstop Dan Garcia took the mound for the first time since he was 12 and gave up only one run in five innings of a 6-3 victory.

“He put us on his back again,” Coach John Romano said of Garcia, ranked as one of the top juniors in the country.

The Nobles sent Dominic France to the mound Friday and he worked into the seventh inning before tiring. Jeff Allen, who had been rehabilitating an elbow injury, skipped his 25-pitch bullpen session and entered the game in relief.

Throwing only fastballs and changeups, Allen, a right-hander who has signed with UC Irvine, pitched two shutout innings. A 7-6 victory in eight innings moved Nogales into first place in the San Antonio League.

-- Dan Arritt

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has rejected filing misdemeanor charges against a Woodland Hills El Camino Real player’s father who went into the Sun Valley Poly dugout and got into a scuffle with coaches during an April 9 game.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Softball

Amanda Klimczak, one of the Southland’s top pitchers, has quit the team at Pomona Diamond Ranch, which has a 13-game winning streak and plays today at Mt. Baldy League rival Chino Don Lugo.

Klimczak, who has a 4.33 grade-point average and has already signed with Boston College, had batted .525 with 14 runs batted in.

She was 10-1 on the mound with a 0.37 earned-run average and 126 strikeouts in 72 2/3 innings.

“It was a bad environment, and it has been that way for four years, and I didn’t want to deal with it anymore,” Klimczak said. “It’s really negative. Girls fight with each other, we fight with the coach, and there is very little constructive criticism and positive reinforcement.”

Coach Don Fennell declined to comment.

-- Martin Henderson