Crespi Has the Arms to Carry On

Ready, aim, fire!

Welcome to target practice at Crespi High, home of Scott Muckey, the Valley’s preeminent pitching guru.

This decade, former Crespi players who have pitched beyond high school include Jeff Suppan (Kansas City Royals), Keith Evans (Montreal Expos), Brian Felten (Loyola Marymount), Jon Cuccias (California), Pat Bennett (UC Santa Barbara) and Jorvic Salazar (Santa Barbara).

“We’ve had some good guys here,” said Muckey, in his 13th season as coach. “We try to give them a lot of practice time and give them an idea what they need to accomplish and let them go after it. We try to bear down on hitting locations.”

Not since 1993, the year Crespi advanced to the Southern Section Division I semifinals behind Suppan, Evans and Salazar, has Muckey had a more imposing pitching duo than his 1999 combination of right-hander Tim Leveque and left-hander Michael Jackson.

Leveque, the Mission League pitcher of the year with a 9-1 record and 2.40 earned-run average last season, has signed with Michigan. Jackson, who went 7-2 with a 2.57 ERA, has committed to Gonzaga.

“Both guys are very professional on how they go about their business,” Muckey said. “You don’t need to tell them to go throw, go run. They’re going to do that and more. I don’t have my crystal ball, but we’re expecting them to be tough.”

Leveque said Muckey’s background as a molder of top pitchers helped convince him to enroll at the Encino campus.

“We’ve produced so many good pitchers, it’s almost like carrying on the torch,” he said. “[Muckey] teaches people how to pitch. He’s ahead of his game for a high school pitching coach. He’s helped me mature and grow.”

Location, location, location--that’s the Muckey pitching doctrine. All last week, pitchers were ordered to practice throwing fastballs down and away. That’s all they did.

“We don’t do anything fancy,” Muckey said. “I look at myself more as a throwing coach than a pitching coach. I don’t deal with movement or sharpness of a curveball. It’s put the ball where it’s supposed to be and you don’t have to worry about [the rest].”

Besides Leveque and Jackson, Muckey has two promising junior pitchers in Marshall Plouffe and Clint Kofmehl, a pair of 6-foot-2 right-handers.

Pitching alone doesn’t guarantee a championship. Last season, Notre Dame was the preseason Mission League favorite because of its pitching depth but slumped to a 14-12 record.

Crescenta Valley, however, won the Division I championship because it had the best pitching duo in junior Jordan Olson and senior Josh Herman.

Muckey must combine his team’s strong pitching with solid defense and an effective hitting attack for the Celts to live up to their preseason No. 1 ranking.

One of the key players is junior Brian Horwitz, who played center field last season but will start the year at shortstop. During the summer, Horwitz batted .481 for the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the World Youth Championships in Illinois.

Leveque and Jackson were so overpowering in winter ball that it was difficult to determine whether Horwitz can handle shortstop. The Celts also will be counting on sophomore Jonathan Oller at third base and junior Matt Wilson at catcher.

Uncertainty in the field could cause erratic play for the Celts, but with Leveque and Jackson on the mound, Muckey is convinced “this team might win some games it isn’t supposed to win.”

One big change in Southern Section baseball is the end of regionalization in the playoffs. Last season, Crescenta Valley didn’t have to face a top team from Long Beach or Orange County until the Division I final. This season, Valley teams could be tested much earlier in the tournament.

In the City Section, the top 16 teams will be chosen for the City Championship tournament, with the next 16 making the Division tournament.

Valley teams have won 25 of the last 26 City championships, but Carson and Banning figure to offer strong competition to two-time defending champion El Camino Real, Chatsworth, Sylmar, Poly and Granada Hills.

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Baseball Top 10

Pre-season rankings of regional high schools by The Times’ sportswriters

Rk Team (League) ’98 record

1. Crespi (Mission) 22-6

2. Chatsworth (West Valley) 29-4

3. Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 25-3

4. Hart (Foothill) 24-4

5. El Camino Real (West Valley) 19-9

6. Rio Mesa (Pacific View) 21-8

7. Royal (Marmonte) 18-8

8. Sylmar (East Valley) 22-7

9. Camarillo (Pacific View) 19-8

10. Notre Dame (Mission) 14-12