Sea Hawks Are Out at Home--Road Trip to Lompoc Angers Coach

Redondo baseball Coach Harry Jenkins had a terse reaction to his team’s seeding for the CIF Southern Section 4-A playoffs:

“Who needs it?”

Certainly not Jenkins. Not when Redondo, which has a 27-2 record and was ranked No. 1 in the division until the last game of the regular season, must travel to Lompoc for its first-round game Friday.

Under those circumstances, Jenkins can’t understand the advantage to being seeded fourth in the 32-team 4-A tournament.

“Sending us 200 miles north after we’ve been the No. 1 team all year is kind of a joke,” he said. “I’m not upset about the team we’re playing. But the inconvenience of traveling should have been given to (Lompoc).”

Redondo’s fall from grace began Friday night. El Segundo forced a tie for the Pioneer League title with a 10-1 win over the Sea Hawks and then won a coin flip to gain the league’s No. 1 entry into the playoffs. That left Redondo as the league’s No. 2 playoff team, which forced the Sea Hawks into another coin flip Monday with Lompoc, the No. 2 team from the Northern League.

“When two second-place teams meet in the first round of the playoffs, a coin flip determines who’s home and who’s away,” explained Bill Clark, the CIF administrator in charge of baseball. “That’s the policy we’ve had.”

Jenkins said he’s never heard of a seeded baseball team opening playoffs on the road, but it’s happened. Last year, fourth-seeded Charter Oak, the No. 2 team from the Montview League, opened 1-A playoffs at Beaumont.

Regardless, Jenkins feels Redondo has been slighted.

“Until the last hour of the season, we were No. 1 in CIF,” he said. “Because of a coin flip, we wind up No. 4 and on the road. I think it’s incompetence on Bill Clark’s and the CIF’s part. For the year we’ve had, we deserve a home game.

“What is the seed worth? If they’re going to treat us just like another second-place team, then don’t seed us.”

Clark says the primary objective of seeding for the playoffs is to separate the division’s best teams. Top-seeded Hart (25-0) and Redondo are at opposite ends of the 4-A upper bracket while second-seeded El Segundo and third-seeded Upland are at opposite ends of the lower bracket.

“I understand (Jenkins’) frustration,” Clark said. “But as the playoffs move along, we determine home teams by the fewest amount of home games they’ve played. To be a strong team on the road in the first round might be to their advantage.”

Right now, Jenkins doesn’t agree with that kind of logic. All he sees is a long trip awaiting his team.

The way St. Bernard’s baseball team has hit the long ball this season, the Vikings seem better suited for another nickname. How about Sultans of Swat ?

St. Bernard completed the regular season with 43 home runs, the second-best team total in Southern Section history. Glendora holds the record with 51 in 1985.

Why all the homers? Some say it’s because St. Bernard plays in one of the smallest parks in the Southland. The dimensions are 250 feet to left, 350 to center and 280 to right.

However, Vikings Coach Bob Yarnall claims that’s a bad rap. He says most of the homers have been legitimate.

“I can honestly say that half of our home runs have been hit away,” he said. “Most of the home runs we hit are out of almost anybody’s park. It’s 250 to left, but you have to hit it over a 20-foot fence. If it lands on the other side of the street, that’s 320 feet.”

Pitcher-first baseman Dan Melendez leads with 13 home runs, followed by shortstop Royce Clayton with 10. Both also lead the team in batting average. Melendez is hitting .569 (37 for 65) and Clayton carries a .529 average (36 for 68).

As a team, the Vikings are hitting a lofty .375.

“That’s unbelievable,” Yarnall said. “My concern at the start of the season was the bottom of the lineup. They weren’t producing. Now we’re getting most of our runs from the bottom of the lineup. Now teams can’t pitch around Royce and Danny.”

St. Bernard, top seed in 2-A playoffs, has a bye for the first round Friday. The Vikings will play the winner of Friday’s game between Chaminade and Cabrillo in the second round on Tuesday.

In its first two years under Yarnall, St. Bernard reached the semifinals in 1986 and lost in the finals in Dodger Stadium last season. Now, with his most balanced team, Yarnall again has high hopes for the playoffs.

“The key is to keep playing as consistently as we have in the last couple of games,” he said. “If we keep getting production out of the lower part of the lineup, we’re really going to be tough because I don’t see our pitching faltering at all.”

St. Bernard’s pitchers had gone seven consecutive games without allowing a walk before Friday’s 17-2 win over Cantwell in a Camino Real League finale.

Leuzinger’s softball team is putting a large portion of its CIF playoff hopes on the right arm of pitcher Candy Carrico.

The senior, named the most valuable player of the Pioneer League for the second straight season, will be on the mound at 3 p.m. today when Leuzinger opens the 1-A playoffs at home against Fillmore.

Carrico brings impressive credentials into the game. She has a 15-6 record with 183 strikeouts and only 25 walks in 133 innings. Included are two no-hitters, five two-hitters, four three-hitters and seven shutouts.

One of her no-hitters came last Thursday in a 3-0 win over El Segundo that gave Leuzinger the Pioneer League title outright.

The Olympians are one of six South Bay teams opening the playoffs today.

In 4-A, Bay League champion South Torrance plays Ocean View of Huntington Beach at Walteria Park in Torrance, North Torrance travels to meet third-seeded Fountain Valley and Torrance plays at St. Paul.

In 1-A, El Segundo plays at Santa Paula and Miraleste visits Notre Dame Academy of West Los Angeles.

Carla Gladden, point guard for Morningside’s Southern Section 4-A champion girls basketball team, has signed a letter of intent with San Diego State.

The 5-6 senior averaged 14.5 points last season and ended her career as the all-time and single-season assist leader in the Southern Section.

PREP NOTES--The Redondo High Booster Club is putting on a carnival starting today in hope of raising money to remodel the school field house. The carnival will be on the grounds of defunct Aviation High and lasts through Monday. Hours are 3 to 11 p.m. except Saturday and Sunday, when it will be open from 11 a.m. to midnight. . . . The last South Bay teams in the Southern Section volleyball playoffs were eliminated Tuesday. In 3-A quarterfinal matches, Miraleste fell to top-seeded Arcadia and Bishop Montgomery was beaten by third-seeded Glendale. . . . Three South Bay tennis teams head into the quarterfinals of the Southern Section 5-A playoffs Friday. Miraleste plays at top-seeded Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes is at home against fourth-seeded Corona del Mar and Rolling Hills plays host to third-seeded Newport Harbor.

South Bay Top 10 Boys’ Baseball

Selected by Times sportswriters

(Records through Tuesday’s games)

Rank, School, League Record 1 Redondo (Pioneer) 27-2 2 St. Bernard (Camino Real) 20-3 3 El Segundo (Pioneer) 21-8 4 San Pedro (Marine) 18-5 5 North Torrance (Bay) 18-9 6 West Torrance (Bay) 18-7 7 Banning (Marine) 15-8 8 Carson (Marine) 13-8-1 9 Rolling Hills (Bay) 10-13 10 Leuzinger (Pioneer) 12-16