Friday, When Hitters Were Strong-Armed

Must have been something in the air on Friday. Or maybe dead baseballs. Or umpires who called big strike zones. Whatever, there were a rash of excellent pitching performances in area games. The roll call:

* Jim Parque, Crescenta Valley. Parque gave up a bloop double to Glendale’s Loren Geller, the second batter of the game, prompting yells from the Dynamiter dugout of “There goes the no-hitter.”

The bench jockeys proved prophetic.

Parque finished with a 3-0 victory, 11 strikeouts, two walks and his third one-hitter of the season. In four varsity seasons, he has pitched more one-hitters than he can remember, but never a no-hitter.

“It will come sooner or later,” he said.

* David Glick, Palmdale. Coaches don’t like to hear that a pitcher is keeping count of his strikeouts during a game, but, as Glick said, “Sometimes you just can’t help it.” Friday, when Glick struck out 16 in an 8-2 victory over Quartz Hill, was one of those times.

“My fastball was going pretty good and a had pretty good tail to it,” said Glick, a senior left-hander. “I knew (about the strikeouts) all along.”

* Mike Vasquez, Moorpark. Vasquez struck out 15 and allowed four hits in the Musketeers’ 9-1 victory, surprising when you consider that Vasquez averaged 6.1 strikeouts in his nine previous games.

“It was kind of out of the blue,” Coach David Rhoades said.

* Brandon Mitchell and Rene Abeyta, Village Christian. Coach Mike Henzie planned before the game to give each pitcher some work. So, after Mitchell pitched four innings, enough to qualify for the victory, Henzie replaced him with Abeyta.

An inning later, a player approached Henzie and said, “Uh, Coach? I don’t think they have a hit yet.” Marshall Fundamental’s batters were indeed hitless, and Abeyta kept it that way through the final three innings of a 4-0 victory.

Among other notable performances Friday: Bill Scheffels of Simi Valley, an All-Southern Section pitcher last year who has been struggling recently, gave up only four hits in a 12-0 victory over Westlake; Notre Dame junior left-hander Andy Lutz pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out 11, in a 5-0 victory over rival Crespi; Calabasas’ Anthony Kaufman shut out Santa Clara for six innings and Josh Morton picked up the save in a 2-0 game by striking out the side in the seventh; Hart’s Luis Sanchez struck out 10 in a 10-3 victory over rival Saugus.

Somebody check the balls.

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Deja vu: The phone calls. The stopwatches. It all seems familiar to Keith Smith.

“It’s like recruiting all over again,” Smith said of the latest attention he’s getting, this time from baseball scouts intent on making him a professional outfielder instead of a college quarterback.

And Smith now admits it doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately,” said Smith, who has accepted a scholarship to play football at Arizona.

Smith was invited as a pitcher last summer to the Area Code Games, a showcase for high school baseball talent, but when his 60-yard dash readings were more impressive than those on the radar guns, interest began to change to Smith as an outfielder.

Problem is, Smith doesn’t play outfield for Newbury Park. When he’s not pitching, he plays shortstop. So Coach Gary Fabricius has sent Smith to the outfield during pregame warmups a few times, just for the scouts to see him.

They like what they have seen. Smith is above average in only two of the five “tools” scouts look for, but speed and arm strength just happen to be the only two that can’t be taught. Scouts figure if they can get Smith playing baseball every day, they can teach him to hit, hit with power and play defense.

Smith could be picked as high as the second round, scouts say, but it will probably take at least a $100,000 bonus to get him to sign. He could, however, play pro baseball in the spring and summer and college football in the fall, and now he wonders if he could swing the two-sport thing. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about,” Smith said.

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What jet lag?: Just back from a family vacation in Australia, Camarillo middle blocker Drew Richards popped in to the Scorpions’ gym--during a volleyball match against Simi Valley.

Coach Bob Cornelius immediately had the 6-foot-1 senior suit up. Richards proceeded to help Camarillo crush the Pioneers, 15-5, 15-3, 15-2, in the final three games. Richards finished with 11 killss and seven blocks.

“I guess he thought we had a practice at 3 o’clock,” Cornelius said. “But he had a uniform, so maybe he did know. Anyway, I’m surprised he played as well as he did, because he was coming straight from Australia. You know, with the time change.

“After he warmed up, he came on like gangbusters.”

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Staff writer Dana Haddad contributed to this story.