Marmonte League Boasts a Bumper Crop of Talent

The Marmonte League, annually one of the area’s top producers of baseball talent, could be enjoying its strongest season yet.

At least that is the opinion of numerous coaches in the league, which has had two teams ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today since 1986. The combined records of the league’s eight teams is 51-27 (65%), and they have combined to win 69% of their 64 nonleague games.

Camarillo, for instance, entered league play with a 5-1 record, including a 7-2 win over Chatsworth, the defending City Section 4-A Division champion. But in Marmonte play, it has been a different story. The Scorpions gave up 30 runs in losses to Westlake and Simi Valley.

The city of Simi Valley could have more talent than any other burg in the area. Simi Valley (10-2) and Royal (9-0) have a combined record of 19-2 and will meet today at Simi Valley.

The wealth extends to Thousand Oaks (8-4), which could have the finest pitching staff in the region, and Channel Islands (7-1).

At least nine players in the league are NCAA Division I prospects and three already have made commitments to major colleges.

“Shoot, you just don’t get a break in this league,” said Channel Islands Coach Don Cardinal, who earned his 400th coaching victory Saturday. “You can have a pretty good team and still miss the playoffs.”

Batting: Three Poly players sport batting averages better than .400. Junior right fielder Jesus Perez is leading the talented Parrots (9-1, 6-0 in East Valley League play) with a .458 average, followed by Jonathan Campbell (.429) and Raul Torres (.419). . . . Junior shortstop Nick Oriti of Sylmar is batting .458. . . .

Keith Halcovich of Hart is four for seven (.571) when leading off an inning. . . .

Steals: James Yoder of Crescenta Valley is 16 for 16 in stolen-base attempts and had five against San Gabriel. . . . Burroughs’ David Cantella is nine for nine in stolen-base attempts. He has scored in six of nine games, including the first four, and has scored 11 runs overall.

Pitching: Junior right-hander Jose Villafana (3-1) of Sylmar has the lowest earned-run average (0.56) in the Valley Pac-8 Conference.

In 25 innings, he has walked six, struck out 24 and given up 16 hits. Just two of the five runs scored against him are earned.

REGIONAL BASEBALL TOP 10 Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Poly East Valley 10-1 2 3 Notre Dame Mission 10-1 3 4 Simi Valley Marmonte 10-2 4 5 Channel Islands Marmonte 7-1 5 8 Royal Marmonte 9-0 6 2 Rio Mesa Channel 9-2 7 6 Chatsworth West Valley 7-4 8 NR Thousand Oaks Marmonte 8-4 9 NR Sylmar East Valley 8-3 10 10 Fillmore Frontier 6-1

NR--Not ranked.