He’s Found a Studying Influence

Andrew Lambo needed a jolt to awaken him from a path to oblivion.

Maybe it came last year, when his grades slipped so badly that he became academically ineligible in the middle of the high school baseball season. Maybe it came after he realized he was closer to playing in a men’s softball league than the major leagues.

Whatever jarred him from his complacency and forced him to confront the fact he was wasting his immense baseball talent, it couldn’t have happened at a more urgent time.

He moved last summer to Newbury Park seeking a fresh start. He had been an All-City outfielder and pitcher as a freshman before he endured suspensions and academic ineligibility as a sophomore at Reseda Cleveland.

At Newbury Park, Lambo’s future has been revived. He entered this weekend with six home runs in eight games, a .667 batting average and a 3-0 pitching record. More importantly, off the field, he appears to be taking care of business.

As he explained, “I was a kid doing immature things. I think I’ve grown up. I’m taking on responsibilities and seeing what I’m capable of doing.”

His new coach, Scott Drootin, made it clear he’d give Lambo a chance to start over but warned him he’d be held “accountable” for his actions.

“He’s matured 100%,” Drootin said. “He’s starting to understand what it’s all about.”

The consequences of being removed from Cleveland’s team last season seemed to get through to Lambo. His aspirations of playing baseball in college or as a professional were in jeopardy.

“Every game I sat out was a disappointment, but I did stupid things,” he said. “I needed to get a good wake-up call and realized you only get one shot.”

And so the 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior is making the most of his first season in the Marmonte League, tearing up pitchers with his bat and mowing down hitters with his arm.

He misses playing certain West Valley League rivals, though.

“Nothing is like the Chatsworth and El Camino Real games,” he said.

Standing out in baseball is no surprise for Lambo. The real test will come when he has to make decisions about what’s right and what’s wrong.

If he wants to keep playing a game he loves, it will be up to him to make the right calls.

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It was a heartbreaking week of West Valley League baseball for Cleveland. On Tuesday, Mike Moustakas hit a grand slam to give Chatsworth a 5-3 victory over the Cavaliers.

On Thursday, Cleveland was leading Chatsworth, 2-1, in the top of the seventh with two out and no one on base. Then the Chancellors loaded the bases with an infield single, a hit batsman and a walk. Up came Matt Dominguez, who hit a grand slam. Cleveland lost, 5-2.

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Santa Ana Mater Dei boys’ basketball Coach Gary McKnight isn’t fond of Arco Arena. His teams have stumbled badly the last two years in trips to Sacramento for the state championships. But he’d better figure out a way to improve on his yearly visit because the California Interscholastic Federation has reached agreement to hold the state finals in Sacramento through 2009.

Palo Alto, the team that upset Mater Dei in the Division II championship game, didn’t take a bus or fly to Sacramento. The team was transported in a stretch limo with a widescreen TV.

Mater Dei has been taking long bus rides to Sacramento. Perhaps the Monarchs should fly next season or rent their own limo.

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The most intriguing quote from last weekend in Sacramento was by Los Angeles Windward girls’ basketball Coach Steve Smith. Frustrated that his standout player had just received her fourth foul, Smith shouted to the official, “You’re traumatizing my kid.”

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High school basketball fans should spend June 27 through July 2 at Los Angeles Fairfax, which is hosting a summer tournament loaded with outstanding boys’ teams. Among the schools set to play are Mater Dei, Westchester, Woodland Hills Taft, North Hollywood Campbell Hall, North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, Los Angeles Loyola and the host Lions.

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When has one college football team ever offered eight scholarships to players from a single high school team?

Oregon has extended scholarship offers to eight players from Westlake Village Oaks Christian, according to Coach Bill Redell.

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Taft lost all six starters from its City Section runner-up boys’ volleyball team, but Coach Arman Mercado recruited top athletes from the football and basketball teams, taught them volleyball and look what’s happened: The Toreadors defeated four-time defending champion Chatsworth on Tuesday.

In the lineup are 6-2 Javael Boykins and 6-8 Garrett Green from basketball and 5-8 All-City defensive end Anthony Evans from football.

“We’re letting our athleticism do the magic,” Mercado said.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com