Woodland Hills May Have to Battle on Road to Yountville for Playoffs

A rocky chapter for the Woodland Hills American Legion baseball team, in which lawyers and other adults have intervened in a kid’s game, may end today.

Then again, it may not. It may get worse. The team may have to fight to get on its 8:05 a.m. flight to Oakland.

But Woodland Hills players aren’t worrying about that. Woodland Hills is supposed to play Fullerton in the state playoffs at 4 p.m. today at Bowman Field in Yountville.

That’s what Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner David R. Nisall allowed after issuing a temporary restraining order on Thursday. But Camarillo, beaten by Woodland Hills last Sunday in the Sixth Area championship game that qualified Woodland Hills for the state playoffs, insists that it will be playing in the tournament.

Camarillo Manager Dan Anderson said Friday that his team would be at Los Angeles International Airport this morning. The American Legion made all travel provisions for the tournament, including airline tickets for one Sixth Area team. Woodland Hills will be at the airport to claim the same tickets.

Anderson said that his copy of the restraining order doesn’t mention that Woodland Hills has the right to use the tickets.

“Maybe we’ll have to buy our own tickets,” he said. “Maybe Woodland Hills will have to buy theirs.”

Anderson said he was pursuing legal action, but declined to be specific.

“I’m waiting to hear from my attorney,” he said. “At this time, I have nothing to say.”

A tussle for the tickets would be par for the week. The past six days have been a series of highs and lows for the two teams. One day, Woodland Hills was in the state playoffs. The next day, Woodland Hills was out and Camarillo was in. Now, Woodland Hills is back in.

“It’s been like a roller coaster, up and down,” Woodland Hills second baseman Ray Sabado said. “We knew we had won the championship and were going to Oakland and then all of a sudden this thing hits and it tore me apart. But I had faith. I knew we would go there somehow, some way. I didn’t make any other plans.”

But for some Woodland Hills players, it has been business as usual, even when things looked bad for the team.

“We knew we were going to go,” pitcher Denny Vigo said. “This week was exactly like all the others. We practiced four days out of the five, just like always. Now we’re going to go up there to play ball and kick some butt. We’re not worrying about all the crap that people are saying or trying to do to us.”

Shortstop Scott Strickland expressed similar feelings.

“This week, the team was a little upset,” he said. “But we practiced right through and waited for the decision from the court. Now, we’re going to go up there and play ball.”

The initial fear that some players had felt has been replaced by elation.

“It was real scary at the beginning,” pitcher Mike Kerber said. “When we found out we were going, it was the greatest thing that had ever happened. To take it away from us would’ve really hurt the team.”

“Because we has worked so hard, it would’ve brought us down,” center fielder Rob Bumgarner said. “But we knew if nothing came of it, that we’d go out and win a few more ballgames. That’s our goal and it’s been our goal all year long, to go as far as we can.”

Right now, that means Yountville and the six-team, double-elimination state playoffs.

In today’s other games, Sacramento meets Lodi at 10 a.m. and El Segundo, which on Monday filed the protest that disqualified Woodland Hills, plays San Mateo at 1 p.m.

El Segundo claimed that Woodland Hills violated a Legion rule that states that a team can draw players from any number of high schools as long as the combined enrollment of sophomores, juniors and seniors at the schools represented does not exceed 3,600 students.

Woodland Hills appealed in court, claiming El Segundo filed after the Legion’s Aug. 1 deadline for protests. The court agreed.

The top two teams from this tournament advance to regional playoffs. The winner advances to the Western Regional playoffs Aug. 20-24 in Palo Alto. The runner-up goes to the Northwest Regional playoffs Aug. 20-24 in Corvallis, Ore.

The regional winners qualify for the American Legion World Series, which begins Aug. 28 in Rapid City, S.D.