AMERICAN LEGION NOTEBOOK : Simi Valley, Westlake Prepare for Showdown

For Westlake, it will be a day for defensive atonement.

For Simi Valley, it will be a day to look around and make sure they still have a team.

Simi Valley and Westlake, along with Camarillo, have emerged as the top teams in American Legion District 16 baseball play this spring and draw each other in a key doubleheader, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Sunday at Moorpark College. Should Westlake, as expected, beat Ventura on Saturday, the stage for a first-place showdown with Simi Valley will be set.

Simi Valley (9-1) and Camarillo (10-2) lead by one game over Westlake (9-3), which has played well outside of a shabby performance in last weekend’s doubleheader loss to Camarillo. Westlake dropped the first game, 5-0, and then dropped the ball in the second game, committing seven errors in a 16-8 defeat. Three of the errors came after the fifth inning, helping to turn an 8-7 lead into a four-run deficit, 12-8.

Westlake Coach Chuck Thompson summed up the situation succinctly.

“Not good,” he said. “We will correct that,”

Thompson respects Simi Valley but said the team has a critical weakness, despite its offensive prowess.

“They’re a tough team, but they’re short in pitching. They’re coming into a lot of doubleheaders on Saturdays and Sundays. That’s going to be tough on them. I don’t think they have four pitchers. I know they have two,” he said.

Meanwhile, Simi Valley continues to lose players, particularly pitchers. Scott Radinsky was lost to the professional ranks, and Derek Briggs went to Utah to work and isn’t expected back until the playoffs at the end of July.

Shortstop David Milstien also went to the professional ranks, playing for the Boston Red Sox farm club in Elmira, N.Y. And Shaun Murphy, who is headed to Arizona on a scholarship, has been asked by the Wildcats to limit his pitching.

Nevertheless, that isn’t the sound of tears and sniffles you hear coming from Coach Jim Murphy, Shaun’s father.

“I have a nucleus of Simi High players,” Murphy said. “They’re pretty good defensively. If we can get our pitchers to keep the ball in the ballpark, we’ve got seven righteous, good hitters.

“I haven’t seen a pitcher that is dominating. It doesn’t matter. We’ve hit good pitching, too. Westlake may be the only team who can keep up with us.”

The Simi Valley offense, which averages about 10 runs a game, is led by Corey Aurand, who is hitting .643 (18-for-28), Von Herron (12-for-23, .522) and Darren Lloyd (13-for-27, .481)

The Westlake offense counters with hitters Matt Franco (20-for-41, .488), Ed Hall (10-for-24, .417) and Sean Thompson, who is hitting .415 with 6 homers and 18 runs batted in.

Simi Valley will go with Scott Sharts and Tony King on the mound Sunday.

“Sharts is doing well,” Murphy said. “He’s 3-0. He doesn’t have the repertoire of some of the other pitchers. He throws in the high 70s and low 80s.

“Tony King (2-0) started off as a two- or three-inning reliever and worked himself into a six- or seven-inning pitcher.”

Murphy’s squad lost its only game earlier in the year in a 10-5 defeat against Westlake. It was the only time this season that his team had been held under double figures in runs.

His team had a plausible excuse: Simi Valley had only nine players available in that game because five others were trying out for two different all-star games.

Pitcher Pablo Suarez of Woodland Hills confesses that he used more than his right arm to throw a five-inning no-hitter last Sunday. He used his mind.

“To tell you the truth, my arm was sore,” he said about his condition during a 14-1 rout of San Fernando. “I pitched three innings in the Bernie Milligan game Saturday so my arm was sore Sunday. My mind did most of the work. I didn’t have my best stuff. I threw one curve the whole day. I was mixing up my pitches real well. Fortunately, I was able to get away with a no-hitter.”

San Fernando’s lone run came in the second inning on two Woodland Hills errors. Suarez struck out one and walked four.

Coach Dan Anderson’s Camarillo club had to postpone this weekend’s doubleheader with Simi Valley until the end of July, in order to play in the National Cherry Creek American Legion tournament in Denver.

The last two innings of a suspended game between Mission Hills and visiting Newhall-Saugus will be scheduled in the next two weeks, according to Newhall-Saugus Coach Tom Pederson.

Mission Hills leads 11-10 after five innings. The two teams agreed ahead of time that, because Mission Hills had to report to the L.A. Games, the game would be suspended if not completed.

Coach Craig Sherwood of Encino South saw his team lose two of three over the weekend. His team was without pitchers Chris Spears and Tim Knowd, and shortstop Chris Greenamyer.

“I’m not crying, but it hurts when your two best pitchers and shortstop are gone. Greenamyer was first-team Del Rey League,” he said.