Slow-Starting Reseda Closes With Flourish

On a hot, lazy summer evening, it takes some teams a while to get into a ballgame.

Sometimes it takes almost the whole night--even for a confident team such as the Reseda American Legion baseball club.

But Reseda did wake up in the seventh inning Wednesday, scoring three runs in its final at-bat to beat host San Fernando, 4-2, for its sixth consecutive victory and 10th in its past 12 District 20 games.

But after mustering only an unearned run through six innings--San Fernando junior-to-be John Najar (2-1) retired 11 of 12 batters between the third and sixth innings--the Reseda streak appeared to be in jeopardy.

Nevertheless, the team had no doubts about its ability to come back, coach Frank DesEnfants said.

“No, we didn’t think we were out of it,” DesEnfants said. A group of players surrounding him joined in a chorus of agreement.

“We stayed close enough to take advantage of some key hits by Donnie Grant and Andy Rangel,” Reseda Manager Howie Shwartzer added.

Grant and Rangel, the winning pitcher, each doubled to spark the decisive rally for Reseda (13-8).

San Fernando (9-11), which is led by the core of the team that was the City Section 4-A Division runner-up during the high school season, had but one extra-base hit, Richard Ortiz’s leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh. Rangel (5-1) then retired three in a row to clinch the victory.

“In the seventh, you’re kinda nervous,” Rangel said. “But I’m just thinking to go as far as I can, 12, 50 innings.”

Rangel, whose only loss was to second-place Chatsworth, scattered seven hits, struck out nine and walked one. But he needed help from his offense in the seventh.

With his team trailing, 2-1, Reseda center fielder Damon Lantz walked to lead off the seventh. San Fernando catcher J. R. Trujillo’s errant snap throw to first allowed Lantz to go to third.

Grant followed with double to left-center that one-hopped the fence 360 feet away, scoring Lantz. Left fielder Terry Jenkins then laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt, moving Grant to third.

Rangel, who has rarely batted this season, promptly scored Grant with a double to left, chasing Najar.

Mike Aranzullo hit reliever Richard Avalos’ first pitch to left to drive home courtesy runner Darin McGrath from second. Avalos was thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit into a double.

In the bottom of the inning, after Ortiz’s double down the left-field line, Rangel got Trujillo to pop out and Bobby Corrales and Jimmy Najar to ground to shortstop Aranzullo to end the game.

“It didn’t matter what part of the lineup came up in the seventh, we would get the hits,” Shwartzer said.

Reseda, after beginning the season 3-6, is in third place behind red-hot Woodland Hills (West) and Chatsworth in the Western Division with two weeks left to play. The top two teams from each division, along with two wild-card teams, advance to postseason play.

“We are in the situation where we’re going to be third,” DesEnfants said. “We have to get one of those wild-card spots. So we have to keep playing with that pressure.”