High School Notebook : Burroughs' Long Playoff Drought Over, but Losing Streak Continues

By JOHN LYNCH

May 15, 1988 12 AM PT

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<i> Times Staff Writer </i>

Supporters of Burroughs baseball are rejoicing this season because the Indians have qualified for the Southern Section playoffs for the first time in 12 years. But rookie Coach Ed Knaggs is having trouble joining in the celebration.

The Indians backed into the playoffs, losing to Burbank in nine innings Friday night, 7-6. The defeat was the fourth in a row for Burroughs, which ended the regular season with a losing record overall (11-12) and in Foothill League play (7-8). Still, the Indians had clinched third place earlier in the day when Alhambra lost to San Gabriel, 4-1.

“A lot of people who have been around for a while and have been hungry for the playoffs are happy,” Knaggs said. “But I wanted to enter the playoffs on a positive note, not on four straight losses.”

Knaggs did his best to keep the news of Alhambra’s loss from his players. “I thought we needed to win to deserve to go to playoffs,” he said. But that plan was foiled by the Burbank public-address announcer, who broadcast the Alhambra final in the middle of the game.

“When we weren’t hitting early, my assistant coach, Pat Eggelston, suggested I tell the kids, but I said, ‘Nah, I don’t want to give them any breaks. We need to play.’ The kids didn’t seem to react at the time, but after the game they were down. They thought they had let an opportunity slip by.”

Burroughs nearly pulled out Friday’s game anyway, scoring three times in the top of the seventh to take a 6-5 lead. But Burbank scored in the bottom of the seventh and won the game on Wayne Schull’s run-scoring single in the ninth.

“Well, we’re in the playoffs and we’ll take it,” Knaggs said. “I’m not gonna call the CIF office and tell them to get someone else.”

Add back door: Hoover also backed into the playoffs, losing to Glendale on Friday afternoon, 12-3. But the Tornadoes salvaged a tie for third place in the Pacific League when Arcadia lost to Crescenta Valley Friday night, 9-7. Hoover goes to the 5-A playoffs based on its 2-1 advantage in three games with Arcadia.

Like Knaggs, Hoover Coach Bob Cooper was not overjoyed with Friday’s result. The Tornadoes are accustomed to more success. Before last season’s fourth-place finish, Hoover had made 10 consecutive playoff appearances and had won six league titles.

“This is a completely different situation this year,” Cooper said. “It’s hard to get too excited given our recent history. We didn’t help ourselves and you can’t ask people to help you out too often. But at least we’re in the playoffs.”

Still striving: Russell White has missed a chance to match last year’s second-place finish in the state triple jump, but the Crespi junior still may compete in the state meet at Cerritos College on June 3-4. He ran personal bests of 10.79 in the 100 meters and 21.65 in the 200 meters at the Southern Section 2-A Division track preliminaries at Gahr High on Friday to advance to next week’s finals. But a bruised left heel will keep him from competing in the triple jump.

White injured the heel in the first meet of the season but did not decide until this week that he would concentrate on the running events.

“It kept hurting when I jumped so I decided to give it up for this year,” White said. “I miss it, but maybe I can still make it to the state meet.”

The injury also forced White from the long jump competition. His best this season of 23 feet, 4 inches made him the favorite in 2-A Division. In fact, White might have won four division championships at next week’s finals had he not been forced from the jumping events.

“It’s disappointing from our standpoint, because we thought we had a real good shot at winning the 2-A title,” Crespi Coach Jim Benkert said. “But the heel was really bothering Russell. He was favoring it so much he was beginning to make his hamstring sore. Obviously, his health is the most important consideration.”

Renewed tradition: Walt Steele was supposed to be on the hot seat this season. Steele had the dubious honor of replacing Jeff Pressman as Montclair Prep’s baseball coach. All Pressman had done was win four Southern Section championships in 12 years of coaching.

Only three players returned from last year’s team and no player had pitched in a varsity game.

“I guess Jeff picked a good time to scoot,” Steele said before the season.

Now Pressman probably wants his old job back: Montclair Prep overcame its inexperience to win the Alpha League title. The Mounties have won at least a share of every Alpha title since the 1-A league was formed in 1983.

Montclair Prep struggled at the start of the season, posting a 3-7-1 nonleague record. But the rough times were worth it, Steele said.

“It did everything we had hoped it would,” Steele said. “We wanted our young kids to get all the experience they can. It’s all paid off.”

The Mounties’ offense--eight players are batting .300 or better--carried the team until pitchers Kevin Grant (6-4) and Chris Anderson (3-1) got on track.

Montclair Prep may not release its hold on the league title in the near future. Of the nine starters, including the designated hitter, only two are seniors. Among the starters are two juniors, one sophomore and four freshmen.

“This kind of team should be awesome in the future,” assistant Mike DeMartini said. “But baseball’s a funny game. I kid Coach Steele that if he wins it this year then what does he do next year? It’s back to when Jeff was here and everybody expected him to win every year.”

Banner year: This school year has been good to Thousand Oaks High Coach Chuck Brown, who has been hit by a title wave.

In the fall, his freshman football team won the Marmonte League title. Then, in the winter, the Thousand Oaks varsity girls’ basketball team did the same. Thursday, Brown’s varsity softball team also clinched a league title with an 8-0 win over Channel Islands.

Brown, however, takes little credit for the three championships.

“I think we just had a lot of good players,” he said.

The softball title is the first for the Lancers since 1976 and came despite a slow start. Thousand Oaks (22-7 overall) won the league championship with a Marmonte mark of 10-2, but both losses came in the first three league games.

Clear picture: Thousand Oaks’ win over Channel Islands prevented a three-way tie for first. Simi Valley and Newbury Park finished a game behind in a tie for second with 9-3 league records.

Simi Valley and Newbury Park split two games but Simi Valley enters the Southern Section 4-A Division playoffs as the league’s second-place entry because the Pioneers scored more runs in head-to-head competition.

Steven Fleischman and staff writer Lauren Peterson contributed to this notebook.

PLAYOFF QUALIFIERS

Southern Section Baseball

5-A DIVISION

Del Rey League: Notre Dame, Crespi

Marmonte League: Simi Valley, Thousand

Oaks, Westlake

Pacific League: Glendale, Hoover

4-A DIVISION

Channel League: Rio Mesa

Foothill League: Hart, Burroughs

3-A DIVISION