Camarillo High baseball Coach Jack Willard knew...

Camarillo High baseball Coach Jack Willard knew there was no one on his inexperienced pitching staff who threw with much velocity, but Willard did not realize how lacking his staff was until he saw the statistics of hard-throwing Westlake pitcher John Snyder.

Snyder, who has signed a letter to attend Cal State Long Beach and whose fastball has been clocked as high as 87 m.p.h., has 70 strikeouts in 40 innings; Camarillo’s pitching staff has 60 strikeouts in 117 innings.

“We’re forced to make a lot of plays every game and that makes a difference,” Willard said. “If Snyder is striking out 10 a game, then Westlake has to make only 11 plays (in a seven-inning game). If we’re striking out two, then we have to make 19 plays.”

Chris Gregg leads Camarillo with 27 strikeouts in 38 innings and has a team high of six strikeouts in a game.

Pitching: Senior-laden Crespi (13-5) has not performed as well as expected, but generosity cannot be blamed. Crespi pitchers Jorvic Salazar, Keith Evans, Phil Aghajanian and Jeff Suppan have walked only 29 batters in 125 innings and struck out 119, but the Celts still have had more than a few rough spots. “We give up unearned runs, too many free bases, let too many guys steal, things like that,” Coach Scott Muckey said. “We’re not bad, but for what we have out there it should be better.”

Suppan, a highly regarded junior who is 4-2, seems to inherit the majority of the bad luck. Suppan was the loser in a 1-0 loss to Loyola. “He pitches in the games where we seem to struggle,” Muckey said. “We don’t do much when he’s out there.”. . .

Verdugo Hills’ Steve Hernandez, a senior right-hander, has struck out 53 and has walked only seven in 42 innings. Hernandez (4-1), who went 2-8 last season, has allowed only six hits in the past 21 innings and has 32 strikeouts in that stretch. . . .

Opponents are hitting only .200 (39 for 195) against Royal right-hander Paul Taylor, who is 5-2 and has completed five of seven starts.

Batting: The top two hitters in L.A. Baptist’s lineup--Brad Imbler and Jason Baumsteiger--are a collective 48 for 96 and each is batting .500. Imbler (28-56) has 25 stolen bases, including six in the past three games. Baumsteiger (20-40) leads the team with 17 runs batted in, thanks in part to Dana Berg, the ninth-place hitter who is batting .342 and has a .438 on-base percentage. Imbler’s on-base percentage is .563. Baumsteiger’s is .610. . . .

Royal catcher Shane Slayton is batting .510 but is not the top hitter on the team. That honor belongs to shortstop Dave Landaker, who is batting .519 (27 for 52). Landaker has scored 27 runs in 18 games and Slayton has a region-best 30 RBIs. The tough Marmonte League has not slowed either player. In eight league games, Landaker is batting .577 (15 of 26) and Slayton is batting .542 (13 for 24). Slayton has driven in 22 runs in league play, an average of 2.75 a game. . . .

Antelope Valley teammates Jason Kresser and Freddie Edwards have hit safely in five consecutive games. Kresser is batting .396. Edwards is batting .226. . . . Verdugo Hills’ Matt Ward has 14 hits, 11 for extra bases. Ward (.400) leads the region’s City Section players with six home runs. He also has three doubles and two triples. . . . Verdugo Hills has hit 14 home runs in 13 games.

Josh Morton, a sophomore in his first varsity season, has hit safely in each of Calabasas’ 14 games.

Miscellaneous: Oak Park has a school-record 68 stolen bases in 81 attempts. Conversely, Oak Park catcher Damin Sterling has thrown out 31 of 43 runners attempting to steal. . . .

Landaker and Slayton also know a strike when they see one. Slayton has walked 14 times and has struck out only twice, and Landaker has walked 13 times and struck out five times. . . .

Palmdale has won seven of its past eight games. . . . Crescenta Valley does not have a triple in 17 games.

Chaminade’s Justin Giovannettone has been hit by a pitch eight times. . . . Grant has outscored opponents, 135-49, in 15 games. . . Royal has 41 stolen bases in 45 attempts.

Calabasas (5-9) has been outscored by only two runs (62-60). The Coyotes have lost five one-run games.

Track and field: Craig Harzmann of Glendale has the region’s fastest times in the boys’ 100 (10.83 seconds), 200 (21.62) and the 400 meters (48.65) this season. The last sprinter to lead the area list in all three events was Quincy Watts of Taft, who turned the trick from 1986-88. . . .

Jesse Stern of Harvard-Westlake improved his personal best to 15 feet 2 inches in the pole vault in a meet against Oak Park last week. The mark is the highest by an area vaulter since the 1988 season when Tom Parker cleared 17-0 as a Notre Dame senior.

Boys’ volleyball: Calabasas setter Jason Savitz set a school record with 70 assists in a five-game victory over Westlake on Thursday. Savitz had 62 assists in a three-game sweep of Montclair Prep last Tuesday. . . . Dan Nash led Chatsworth to a three-game win over Kennedy with 31 kills. Jeff Fischer added 72 assists for the Chancellors.

Statistics complete through Sunday.

Regional Baseball

Top 10 Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Lst. Rk Wk Team League Record 1 2 Simi Valley Marmonte 14-5 2 3 Hart Foothill 17-2 3 10 Royal Marmonte 13-4 4 1 Channel Islands Marmonte 16-4 5 4 Kennedy North Valley 14-6 6 5 El Camino Real West Valley 11-5 7 7 Alemany Mission 13-6-1 8 8 Notre Dame Mission 12-5-1 9 9 Crespi Mission 13-5 10 NR Saugus Golden 13-3-1

NR--Not ranked