HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK : Bunt Still Fashionable Under Stroh After 22 Seasons at Granada Hills

L.A. Times Archives

March 8, 1991 12 AM PT

Long bombs and aerial pyrotechnics--some call it the home-run play--long have been the hallmark of Darryl Stroh’s football teams at Granada Hills High. Strange as it might seem, the inverse is true of his baseball teams.

After two consecutive sub-.500 seasons, Stroh again has laid down the law and his players are laying down the ball. Break out the bunting, the bunt is back.

“When you’re down, 12-2, all the time, the bunting game tends to be put aside,” Stroh said, laughing.

In last week’s 3-2 defeat of highly regarded Poly, Derrick Cole bunted home Bryan Martin from third with a two-strike, none-out suicide squeeze. Chalk up another win via the bunt for Stroh, who has made a career of it. A 22-year career, in fact.

He said he became a believer in little ball in his first season as the Highlander baseball coach in 1970. One of Stroh’s more talented teams lost in the second round of the playoffs, 1-0.

“We had a great team--three pitchers signed off that team,” Stroh said. “They had some shortstop or somebody pitching, but we just didn’t hit. From that point on, I decided that I wasn’t going to sit back and wait for our Nos. 3, 4 and 5 guys to hit the ball. I was going to make something happen.”

Stroh’s greatest moment with the bunt, or moments, came in the 1975 City Section championship game against Westchester. The Highlanders bunted three times in the eighth inning to win, 4-3. It was the first of Stroh’s five baseball titles.

“I think every run in that game came as a result of the bunt,” Stroh recalled.

With an improved team that figures to be competitive with any in the City this season, look for more of the same.

Making her mark: Marion Jones of Rio Mesa, who won state titles in the 100 and 200 meters as a freshman last year, made Track & Field News’ 1990 top-50 national list in those events.

Of late, Jones has enjoyed success to back up the rankings. The sophomore tied the national high school indoor record in the 55-meter dash in the Sunkist Invitational at the Sports Arena in January and posted a nation-leading, 11.61-second clocking in the 100 in the Spartan Relays at Rio Mesa on Saturday.

Jones was 29th among U. S. women sprinters in the 100 last year with a best of 11.62. She was tied for 30th in the 200 at 23.70.

Both marks are national age-14 records.

Injury: Kennedy’s Danny Feldman has improved his pole-vault mark by 1 1/2 feet since last year but he will not compete the rest of the season after suffering a broken ankle during warm-ups Monday at Reseda.

Feldman, an 11-6 vaulter at the B level last year, has gone 13-0 in practice this season, Coach Pete Nelson said. Feldman, a senior, underwent surgery Thursday and two pins were placed in the bone.

“That will hurt our dual-meet team,” Nelson said.

Rainy-day story No. 1: Rain might have postponed Bell-Jeff’s opener, but it has not postponed practices.

Coach Sab Manente has had the team working out in the school’s gym using a foam-filled ball.

“It’s a newfangled thing that is the same size and weight of a baseball,” Manente said. “We practice at a park and they don’t appreciate it when we practice on (their field) when it rains and tear it all up. I just figured something had to be done to maintain ourselves.”

One player’s parents constructed a portable pitching mound out of plywood, enabling batting practice to take place indoors.

“We’re just hitting the ball all over the place inside there,” Manente said. “I don’t know if we have broken anything and if we did I wouldn’t tell you.”

Rainy-day story No. 2: St. Francis has not been as fortunate as Bell-Jeff. The St. Francis gym is being prepared for an annual fund-raiser and is unavailable for use.

“They hang backdrops and literally shut our gym down,” Coach John Yakel said. “Unfortunately, it’s happening at a bad time.”

Yakel has had the players running on the street and playing catch in the parking lot and giving extensive lectures in the classroom on game strategy.

“There’s not very much left to talk about,” Yakel said. “We’ve just about gone through everything.”

Rainy-day story No. 3: Burroughs defeated Artesia, 9-6, in the first round of the El Segundo tournament Monday, and Burroughs Coach Terry Scott was not afraid to give his players the green light to swing away.

He encouraged it.

Burroughs jumped to a 9-0 lead in the first two innings before it started to rain. Scott was concerned that the game would be called and would have to be replayed.

“We did real well in the beginning and then (the rain) started coming down,” Scott said. “I told the guys to widen the strike zone so we could get five innings in and make it an official game.”

Staff writers Steve Elling, Kirby Lee and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.