Despite Loss, El Segundo Is in a League of Its Own

Few people outside of El Segundo’s baseball team noticed when the Eagles beat South Torrance, 4-1, in a Pioneer League game April 21. Media coverage was virtually nonexistent.

However, a lack of publicity failed to detract from El Segundo’s accomplishment that day. The Eagles set a Southern Section record with their 36th consecutive league victory, a streak that spanned four seasons and three leagues and surpassed the previous record of 35 victories set by St. Bernard from 1986 to 1989 in the Camino Real League. Coincidentally, it was El Segundo that ended the Vikings’ streak during its first season in the Camino Real.

But all good things must come to an end. One game after setting the record, El Segundo was upset by South, 10-5, on April 23.

“I jinxed it,” Coach John Stevenson said. “I told the kids about (the record) after the game, and we promptly went out and lost. I’m sorry I told them.”

Superstitions aside, Stevenson has plenty to be thankful for in his 34th season at El Segundo. The Eagles have overcome inexperience and a 1-3 start to win 17 of their past 19 games, moving closer to a sixth consecutive league title and the 22nd league title of the Stevenson era.

El Segundo improved to 18-5 and 11-1 in league play Tuesday with a 21-2 victory over host Centennial, a game in which the Eagles sent 23 batters to the plate and scored 17 runs in the first inning. Junior third baseman Marco Estrada had three hits, including a two-run homer, and drove in five runs in the first inning on his way to a five-for-six game.

Tuesday’s rout was in sharp contrast to two tense, extra-inning games that El Segundo pulled out last week. The Eagles beat West Torrance, 6-5, in eight innings in a crucial league game, and rallied from a 10-7 deficit in the 10th to beat South Gate, 11-10, in 14 innings Saturday in a nonleague game.

Combining the South Gate and Centennial victories, El Segundo has 45 hits in its past two games.

Not bad for a team considered a year away from reaching its potential.

Considering that only five of El Segundo’s 16 varsity players are seniors, it’s not surprising that Stevenson had questions before the season.

“I thought we’d be competitive, but I wasn’t predicting any kind of league championship,” he said. “When you talk about going from the freshman team to the varsity team in one year, it can be a pretty big jump.”

But the sophomores and juniors who make up a significant part of El Segundo’s roster have made smooth transitions from the underclass levels to the varsity.

Junior left-hander David Reed is the ace of the pitching staff with a 9-1 record, an area-leading 1.19 earned-run average and 75 strikeouts in 56 innings. Another left-hander, sophomore Derek Fowler, was called up from the junior varsity team last week and did not allow a run in 8 2/3 innings of relief, earning the victory against South Gate with five game-closing innings.

Other varsity newcomers who have contributed to the team’s success include sophomore starters Paul Bartolucci at shortstop and Pat Cappasola in right field, junior starters Mike Poor at first base and Estrada at third, junior pitchers Danny Croxall and Bill Brown, and sophomore reserve catcher Jake Coulter, who had the tying and game-winning hits against South Gate.

Senior leadership has come from second baseman Jim Zambarelli, center fielder David Scanlan and pitcher Jamin Kear. Junior catcher Ryan McCloskey, another returning starter who played in the outfield last season, is the leading batter among the team’s regular players.

“I’m very pleased,” Stevenson said. “The team has, in general, done very well. It’s a young team that had some rough spots, especially early in the season. We went through a period where we literally couldn’t do anything right.”

Weeks later, El Segundo has become a team that can’t do anything wrong.

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El Segundo started its 36-game league winning streak in 1990 during its second season in the Camino Real. The Eagles ended the league season with an eight-game winning streak, followed it with back-to-back 10-0 records in the San Fernando Valley League in 1991 and ‘92, and won their first eight Pioneer League games this season.

“I’m not much for records, but that one I was pretty happy with,” said Stevenson, who pointed out that several players on this year’s team are the younger brothers of players who helped extend the streak in recent seasons.

“It’s sort of a family record,” he said.

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Stevenson is one of four coaches who have been selected to participate in the 24th annual South Bay All-Star Baseball Classic on June 11 at Recreation Park in El Segundo.

The other coaches are Greg Goode of Hawthorne, Mike Kline of Carson and Jim Beaumont of Mira Costa. The game features the area’s top senior players, who will be selected by the coaches later this month.

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Abe Rivera, a Torrance assistant the past three seasons, has been named boys’ basketball coach at the school, Athletic Director Jeff Phillips said.

Rivera replaces George Tachibana, a walk-on coach who resigned after one season. The Tartars were 13-14 and reached the second round of the Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs last season.

Phillips said Rivera, who teaches at Torrance, will bring stability to a program that has had three coaches in three years.

“I think having Abe on campus is going to be a big benefit to the program,” Phillips said. “He’s fired up and we’re excited to have him in there.”

Rivera coached the Torrance junior varsity team last season. Before that, he was the freshman coach in 1991 and a varsity assistant in 1992.

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Representatives of the 16 schools in the Bay, Ocean and Pioneer leagues voted Monday to eliminate the Pioneer League and maintain larger Bay and Ocean leagues for the 1994-98 cycle.

The Bay League will be composed of four holdovers--Peninsula, Hawthorne, Inglewood and Leuzinger--and the four Torrance schools currently in the Pioneer League--South, North, West and Torrance.

The Ocean League will be composed of all five current members--Redondo, Mira Costa, Beverly Hills, Culver City and Morningside--along with Centennial and El Segundo from the Pioneer and Santa Monica from the Bay.

The new alignment will reduce the total number of teams from the area that can qualify for the Southern Section playoffs. Only the top three league finishers are guaranteed playoff berths.

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Carson’s Jason Cole and Mira Costa’s Brian Zinda each pitched complete-game victories Tuesday to help their teams move closer to possible league titles.

Cole, a senior right-hander, improved to 10-1 by giving up five hits in a 7-1 victory over visiting Banning. Carson, seeking its first league title in 16 years, improved to 11-2 in league play and moved two games ahead of Banning (9-4) with three to play. The Colts can clinch the title today with a victory in their 3 p.m. game at Banning.

Zinda, a senior right-hander, also improved to 10-1 by giving up five hits and striking out 10 in a 2-1 victory over visiting Redondo. Zinda leads the area with 87 strikeouts in 75 innings. Mira Costa leads the Ocean League with an 8-1 record and will try to put more distance between itself and the rest of the league when it visits Redondo (7-4) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Notes

Stanford setter Canyon Ceman, a Mira Costa graduate, has been named national collegiate volleyball player of the year by a panel of coaches. The 6-foot-5 junior helped Mira Costa to a 22-0 record and the mythical national championship in 1990. . . . West Torrance and El Segundo advanced to Monday’s championship game of the El Segundo softball tournament with semifinal victories Monday. West’s Jennifer Ramos pitched a three-hitter and had 13 strikeouts in a 1-0 victory over Torrance, and El Segundo’s Leslie Reed hit a two-run double in the fourth inning in a 3-2 victory over Bishop Montgomery.

Victoria Brucker batted three for four, including a home run and a double, to help San Pedro clinch a tie for the Pacific League softball title Tuesday with an 8-0 victory over Banning. Petrina Martinez pitched a two-hitter for the defending City Section 4-A Division champions, who improved to 21-3 and 8-0 in league. . . . Anna Collier, who guided the Santa Monica College women’s track team to three state titles in the 1980s, has helped the Mira Costa girls’ track team to its first Ocean League dual meet championship in her second season coaching the team. Her first season was in 1979, the year she started the girls’ program at Mira Costa.

Jan van Breda Kolff, a former Palos Verdes High basketball standout, has been named men’s basketball coach at Vanderbilt, where he played in college. Van Breda Kolff, 41, was the coach at Cornell the past two seasons. . . . Gahr won the championship of the Redondo baseball tournament Saturday night with a 2-1 victory over Lakewood. Pitcher Joe Abell, who scattered seven hits, and Robert Zimmerman, who won the game with a two-run double in the seventh inning, were named co-most valuable players.

South Bay Baseball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters, Through Tuesday’s games Rank, School, League: Record 1 Peninsula (Bay): 16-5 2 El Segundo (Pioneer): 18-5 3 Westchester (Western): 18-7 4 Carson (Pacific): 16-10 5 Mira Costa (Ocean): 16-6 6 West Torrance (Pioneer): 13-8-1 7 Redondo (Ocean): 14-9 8 Mary Star (Santa Fe): 13-7 9 Banning (Pacific): 11-7 10 San Pedro (Pacific): 10-9