PREPS / ROB FERNAS : Mary Star Bounces Back From Big Loss, Wins 8 in Row

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the baseball team at Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro. Or did you forget that the Stars graduated 16 seniors from last season’s Santa Fe League champion team?

Coach Frank Ponce De Leon was reminded of his personnel losses March 23 when league favorite Miraleste hammered Mary Star, 26-2.

Since then, though, the Stars have been perfect. They extended a winning streak to eight games Tuesday with a 4-3 victory over Cantwell. Included in the streak is a 4-1 pay-back over Miraleste last week, a victory that pushed Mary Star (12-4-1 overall) into a first-place tie with the Marauders.

“For a team that wasn’t supposed to do anything this year, I’m very pleased,” Ponce De Leon said. “We have a lot of talent on the younger levels.”

With only two returning seniors, the Stars had to rely on underclassmen. They have 13 non-seniors on the varsity roster, six of whom start.

Because of the team’s youth, Ponce De Leon said he had to bring the squad along slowly. He concedes he might have expected too much early in the season.

“We sat down (after the loss to Miraleste) and told the kids they are a better ball club than this,” he said. “I think as coaches we realized we can’t expect every team to be like the team last year. We had 16 new faces.”

One of the new faces was already familiar to Ponce De Leon. His youngest brother, Mark, a junior, plays third base and pitches, and has been a thorn in the side of third-place Cantwell.

Mark Ponce De Leon hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning Tuesday at Cantwell to give the Stars a 4-2 lead. Last month, his two-run, pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the seventh tied the score and sparked Mary Star to a 4-3 win over Cantwell at Fromhold Field in San Pedro. They are his only home runs of the season.

“He sort of owns them right now,” said his older brother.

Others who have figured prominently in Mary Star’s surprising season are junior shortstop Stephen Nitta (team-leading .480 batting average) and three seniors: second baseman Nick Rugnetta (.438), center fielder Steve Papadakis (.423) and pitcher-third baseman Miguel Galaz (.404).

Galaz, who played catcher last year, was moved to pitcher out of necessity after two of the team’s projected starters were sidelined with injuries. He’s come through with flying colors, posting a 5-0-1 record with a 1.87 ERA. His most impressive win came last week when he struck out eight and allowed only one run against a potent Miraleste lineup.

Mary Star (7-1) and Miraleste (8-1) are tied in the loss column and would finish as Santa Fe co-champions if they finish the regular season unbeaten, a distinct possibility in the unbalanced league.

Mary Star’s athletic teams have struggled with declining enrollment for several years, but Ponce De Leon said the situation is improving because of increasingly larger incoming classes.

“We’ve got a good crop of freshmen,” he said. “There are 16 (freshmen) in the baseball program. People are starting to take notice of our school.”

Ponce De Leon expects to have another strong incoming group next fall, led by Gary Sloan, a catcher-third baseman who was one of the stars on the San Pedro Eastview team that reached the Little League World Series last summer.

Few baseball teams, if any, could survive the loss of their top two pitchers. Bishop Montgomery Coach Bob Anderson knows that only too well.

Touted by some as a contender for the Angelus League title, the Knights instead have struggled to a 2-15-2 overall record and a 1-8 league mark after losing their top two starters.

As a result, the season has been a bitter disappointment for Anderson, a fourth-year coach who had high expectations for Bishop Montgomery after the team took third place in the competitive Angelus League in 1989 and qualified for the playoffs from that league for the first time.

“If you told me (before the season) this is how things would turn out, I probably would have thought you were crazy,” Anderson said. “But baseball is a funny game.”

Or, in Anderson’s case, not so funny.

Junior right-handers Armando Cervantes and Walter Knutzen both went down with injuries early in the schedule. Cervantes, who was 7-1 and team MVP as a sophomore, is suffering from shoulder and elbow injuries that could jeopardize his prep career, Anderson said. Knutzen has tendinitis of the elbow.

“Once the pitchers’ injuries started, it just snowballed down the hill,” Anderson said. “It wasn’t the same team after the two kids got injured.”

Cervantes, expected to be the ace of the staff, was never the same after he developed a sore shoulder pitching in the off-season, Anderson said. He rested his arm for a month before the season, but it was too little, too late.

Cervantes pitched in just two games for the Knights before the pain became unbearable. He struck out 12 in six innings against Riverside Poly and threw three innings of shutout ball in a league game March 24 against Servite.

“Losing a player like that, it brought a lot of players down,” Anderson said. “It’s like the Dodgers and Orel Hershiser. He meant a lot to us.”

Anderson said his only concern is for Cervantes to make a full recovery, regardless if he is able to pitch for Bishop Montgomery next season.

“Basically our plan is to continue him on physical therapy and start him throwing in December or January, with doctor approval,” the coach said. “We just have to take it one day at a time. We can’t sit and panic and worry about what could be. He has a long career ahead of him. Even if he has to sit out next year and not play for us, that’s what he has to do. I’m not going to jeopardize his career for my personal goals as a coach. I don’t want him to pick up a baseball until he is ready to throw.”

Rumors have circulated that Anderson will be fired, but Bishop Montgomery Athletic Director Steve Carroll says that’s all they are--rumors.

“It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Carroll said. “Nothing like that has been said or commented on by the administration. I haven’t sat down with the principal and Coach Anderson to even assess the pluses and minuses of the season.

“I’ll tell you what, though. Team records are nice, but there’s a lot of other things that go into building a successful program.”

Said Anderson: “If the administration decides to make a change for any reason they see fit, it’s going to be their decision to make. Regardless if I’m at Bishop Montgomery or not, I’ll be wearing a baseball uniform at some school. I have enough friends in the baseball community that I can hook on somewhere else.”

Before the season, El Segundo baseball Coach John Stevenson said of Eagle senior Mark Lewis: “If there’s a better shortstop around, I haven’t seen him.”

Stevenson is still looking.

Through 24 games, the consistent Lewis has committed only three errors, anchoring an infield that has been air-tight in virtually every inning. Third baseman Brett Newell and second baseman Eric Stevenson, the coach’s son, have each committed only four errors in 23 games.

“That’s the area of our team that I’m very, very happy about,” Coach Stevenson said. “I’d put our infield, defensively, against anybody, anywhere. They can really play.”

El Segundo committed only one error in two games Saturday. The Eagles beat Bosco Tech, 9-0, in a Camino Real League game and edged Millikan, 7-6, in the finals of the Palos Verdes/Redondo Tournament to improve to 20-3.

The infield is on a pace to break the school record for double plays in a season. With 22, it is one behind the number of double plays turned by the 1971 and ’79 teams.

Both of those clubs also featured outstanding shortstops--George Brett in ’71 and Dave Combs, an All-CIF selection in ’79.

On most baseball teams, Brian Wise would be a productive member of the pitching staff. Playing for El Segundo, though, the promising left-hander is relegated to a supporting role as the team’s No. 4 pitcher.

But Wise has made the most of his limited opportunities. In 17 innings pitched, the junior is 2-0 with 24 strikeouts and an 0.45 ERA.

“I’m sure on most teams in the South Bay he would be a star,” Stevenson said. “But it’s tough to get him innings with three established guys.”

Wise, who figures to be the Eagles’ ace next season, plays behind seniors Rob Croxall (8-1), Tate Seefried (6-1) and Jason Wayt (5-1), the area’s most balanced starting rotation.

“We just don’t have the innings for (Wise) to throw,” Stevenson said. “We get him in JV games when we can.”

Seefried hit two home runs Saturday to raise his total to 11, tying El Segundo’s single-season record.

Former Eagle catcher Jose Sanchez set the mark in 1988.

Seefried, who also leads the team in hits (42) and RBIs (39), is closing in on the South Bay and Southern Section season home run records held, respectively, by Tim Williams of St. Bernard (15 in 1987) and Arnold Garcia of Channel Islands (16 in 1981).

San Pedro’s softball and baseball teams played spoiler roles Tuesday, each posting upsets over Carson to knock the Colts out of undisputed first place in Southern-Pacific Conference races.

The Pirate softball team routed previously unbeaten Carson, 11-1, at Scott Park in Carson, while the baseball team snapped the Colts’ 12-game unbeaten streak with a 6-5 victory at Carson.

Senior pitcher Lisa Gardea allowed one hit and retired 17 of the last 19 batters to lead San Pedro to its biggest softball win of the season. Gardea assumed pitching duties midway through the season after senior Debbie Elgin was declared academically ineligible.

Lori Noceti, Kathy Eldridge, Lusha Brown and Michelle Luce each had two hits for the Pirates (12-7 overall, 6-3 in league), who close out the season today at Narbonne.

Carson and Banning (each 8-1 in league) meet at 2:30 today at Dolphin Park in Carson to decide the championship.

San Pedro’s baseball victory dropped Carson into a first-place tie with Banning. The Colts are 10-2-2 in conference play, while Banning is 11-3. The co-leaders meet twice next week.

For the record: It was incorrectly reported last week that El Segundo’s pitching staff has the lowest team ERA in the South Bay. As it turns out, Banning boasts the lowest mark with a 1.63 ERA.

Ace right-hander Mike Busby (8-3) has a 1.20 ERA in 76 innings pitched, while Mark Chavez (3-2) and Anthony Lozano (3-2) have ERAs of 1.13 and 2.94, respectively, in 31 innings each.

Busby’s most impressive statistic is a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly eight to one. The junior has 106 strikeouts and only 14 walks.

PREP NOTES--The Ocean League softball showdown Monday between South Torrance and West Torrance (both 10-0) was rained out and rescheduled for Monday at South. The co-leaders meet at 3 p.m. Friday at West. . . . The Southern-Pacific Conference track finals will be contested at 2 p.m. today at Carson High. The Bay League finals are set for 3 p.m. Friday at Santa Monica, while the Ocean League finals are Friday at West Torrance. . . . Mira Costa volleyball setter Canyon Ceman is one of 10 boy finalists for the CIF Scholar Athlete of the Year Award. Ceman, a 4.0 student throughout high school, has committed to Stanford. Mira Costa (17-0 overall, 13-0 in league) clinched the Ocean League title Tuesday with a 15-0, 15-4, 16-14 victory over West. . . . El Segundo moved back into the No. 1 spot in the Southern Section 2-A Division baseball poll after previous No. 1 Gladstone of Covina lost to Montview League rival Sierra Vista, 7-0, last week. . . . Encino Crespi freshman Jeff Suppan pitched a no-hitter Saturday in a 3-0 victory over Torrance in the consolation finals of the Palos Verdes/Redondo Tournament.

South Bay’s

Baseball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters Through Tuesday’s Games Rank, School, League:Record

1 El Segundo (Camino Real): 20-3

2 Torrance (Bay): 17-6

3 St. Bernard (Camino Real): 14-5

4 Banning (Pacific): 15-7

5 Carson (Pacific): 13-4-2

6 Mary Star (Santa Fe): 12-4-1

7 Miraleste (Santa Fe): 16-5

8 Mira Costa (Ocean): 11-11

9 Palos Verdes (Bay): 13-10

10 Rolling Hills (Bay): 10-10