Contingency Plan in Place for Rainouts

Is Hal Harkness wily, or what?

Either that, or a little lucky.

When the City Section athletics commissioner mapped out the baseball schedule over the winter, he left the week of April 5-9 open for makeup games because of rainouts. Rain washed out the Northwest Valley and Valley Pac-8 conference schedule Thursday, and seven of the eight games have been set for makeup week.

When Harkness was drawing up the schedule, the Los Angeles school board was kicking around ideas to extricate itself from a mammoth budget shortfall.

A consideration at the time was a seven-day spring break that would give teachers time off to soften the blow of a projected 12% pay cut. The seven days, during which school would not be in session, were dubbed “furlough days.” City schools, which are on a year-round academic calendar, were not initially scheduled to take a spring break.

However, the furlough plan was scrapped, but the baseball schedule already had been completed--leaving a hole in the season. In addition, next Thursday and Friday also were part of the seven-day furlough proposal. Consequently, City games next week will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday, rather than Tuesday and Thursday as usual.

Harkness, forced to devise a schedule before the academic calendar had been ironed out, put the best spin on a bad situation and makeup week was born. Which probably makes Harkness one of the few folks who welcomed this week’s rain clouds.

As a result of the void created in the schedule by makeup week, San Fernando Coach Steve Marden was authorized by Harkness to hold an informal, two-game “mini-tournament” during that week.

Monroe, Birmingham, Granada Hills, Poly, Grant, Cleveland, El Camino Real and San Fernando agreed to each play two informal games during the week, Marden said.

Marden said the games might be played as scrimmages because no entry fee will be charged and there may not be any umpires. Dates have not been formalized because of the rainout makeup games already set for April 5 and 6.

“At least we’ll be able to play and take a look at some kids,” Marden said. “Otherwise, that’s a long time off (without games).”

*ALPHA LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Pitching seems to be the strength of the league’s two area teams. L.A. Baptist’s earned-run average was 4.08 at the start of the week, but if the numbers posted by two irregular pitchers who worked in a 22-0 loss to St. Joseph are eliminated, the ERA drops to 1.69. L.A. Baptist has six complete games in eight starts. Village Christian is led by Ryan Orefice (0.70), Jeff Deal (2.92) and Jason Robitaille (1.50).

TRACK & FIELD

Jim Romero of L.A. Baptist is off to a good start in the high jump this season, having cleared 6-foot-8 or higher in four meets, including a school record 6-10 3/4 in a small schools invitational at Pomona Pitzer on March 13.

The real test will come in the championship meets at the end of the season. Previously, the Knight junior has stumbled in championship meets. As a freshman, Romero had a best of 6-4 but failed to clear the opening height of 6-0 in the Southern Section 1-A Division championships.

He raised his personal best to 6-8 1/4 last year, but cleared only 6-4 in the 1-A meet and finished sixth.

Advantage Athletics Coach Charlie DiMarco, who coached Campbell Hall’s Crissy Mills to consecutive state titles in the girls’ high jump in 1988 and ‘89, expects Romero’s fortunes to change this year.

“I think he is capable of challenging (Jeremy Fischer),” DiMarco said. “He is a very talented athlete.”

Fischer, a junior at Camarillo, tied for fourth in the high jump in last year’s state championships and has cleared 7-0 this season.

*CAMINO REAL LEAGUE

BASEBALL

St. Genevieve Coach Mike Wagner, who had been an assistant at Poly before taking the Valiant job five weeks before the first game, watched his team lose its first five games before notching a 6-5, nine-inning victory over Buckley on Tuesday. But Wagner has been happy with one aspect of his new job: “At least I know all the kids’ names now,” he said.

Bell-Jeff had 37 stolen bases in 39 attempts to start the season. Two of the leaders are cousins Dave (six steals) and Jose Quintero (five). Dave Matekel and John Pawlik each have six steals. . . . Freshman catcher Mark Dodd drove in the winning run on a pinch-hit single in the seventh inning against Calvary Chapel on Saturday. . . . Pawlik, a sophomore expected to be the Guards’ No. 1 pitcher, pitched his first five innings of the season against Calvary Chapel. Pawlik, who did not get a decision, had been sidelined because of arm problems.

*PACIFIC LEAGUE

BASEBALL

Hoover’s strength was supposed to be hitting, but the pitching has been better than expected. The Tornadoes (5-1, 2-0) have used five starters and all have pitched well. The team’s ERA is 1.54 and the staff has allowed 18 hits in 36 1/3 innings. . . . The hitting? Hoover scored 16 runs and had 16 hits in a league win over Pasadena on Tuesday. . . .

Hoover turned a 6-2-3-5 triple play on a bases-loaded ground ball in an intrasquad game earlier this month. “It was probably the first time the kids have ever seen a triple play,” Coach Bob Cooper said. “They were clapping and everything.”

*VALLEY PAC-8 CONFERENCE

BASEBALL

Grant (2-6) is off to its worst start of the 1990s, but it hasn’t had much effect on senior Rusty Howard. Before this week’s games, the pitcher-first baseman was batting .458 and led the team in doubles (six), home runs (two) and runs batted in (10) and on-base percentage (.500). Grant averages 7.4 runs a game . . . and 5.7 errors.

Canoga Park senior David Kreider is pacing the school’s best start (3-4) since Coach Jim Smith took over in 1989. Kreider, also the school’s quarterback, was batting .438 (seven of 16) with three doubles and six stolen bases at the start of the week.

Monroe’s pitching staff, one of the most respected among City Section teams in the Valley, had allowed 23 earned runs in seven games (3.29) at the start of the week.

Poly first-year Coach Chuck Schwal is sleeping much better. After the Parrots opened the season with five straight losses, Schwal’s only consolation was the belief that “it couldn’t get much worse.”

The Parrots were outscored, 55-8, in those games. Last week, however, Poly swept Canoga Park, 7-3 and 13-1, and now has a three-game winning streak.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Paige A. Leech and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.