AMERICAN LEGION : Pitching Pulls Woodland Hills Into Playoffs

Take it from Newhall-Saugus Coach Tom Pedersen. Teams stocked with good pitchers go places, especially around American Legion tournament time. Teams without go home.

Pedersen should know, after Woodland Hills and North Hollywood raked his pitching staff in the District 20 playoffs last Saturday, keeping his team from advancing to the Sixth Area double-elimination tournament, which begins Thursday at UCLA.

“If you’re going to win this tournament, you’re going to need three more pitchers than you need for the season,” he said, while cleaning his dugout for the final time this season.

At 32-5 overall and 21-3 in its district, Woodland Hills is going places. So are Camarillo (27-5, 21-3) and Westlake (24-6, 18-6), the top two teams from District 16.

Those three teams, along with District 18’s Arcadia (28-9, 15-3), and District 24’s two teams, Los Angeles (11-3 overall) and University (12-8, 11-5), will compete through Sunday for the two berths available to the state championships. That tournament, which will feature 12 teams, will be held Aug. 9-12 in Yountville.

Westlake, which has three left-handed starters, opens the tournament at 9:30 a.m. against University. Camarillo meets Arcadia at 12:30 p.m. and Woodland Hills plays Los Angeles at 4 p.m.

Woodland Hills was undefeated in the district playoffs, winning the title impressively Sunday with a 19-6 drubbing of North Hollywood at Birmingham High.

“This is an all-star caliber team. It’s incredible,” Woodland Hills pitcher Pablo Suarez said after an earlier tournament win over North Hollywood.

Westlake Coach Chuck Thompson, who scouted Woodland Hills at the tournament, was also impressed.

“They’ve got an excellent team,” said Thompson, whose team is in its second year and makes its first appearance in the area playoffs. “They’ve got depth, which is definitely an asset. They’ve got four good starters. I think Pablo Suarez is definitely going to be one of the best pitchers in the tournament.

“We’re going into this tournament at full strength with four good pitchers.”

Camarillo Coach Dan Anderson agreed that starting pitching will be the key.

“Anytime you’re in a double-elimination tournament, you have to have pitching,” Anderson said. “A lot of coaches save their best pitcher, which I think is totally wrong. My feeling is that you have to go with your best every day. Our starters generally go the distance.”

But Los Angeles Coach Otha Evans isn’t stressing pitching above anything else. His team beat University, 6-3, for the District 24 title last Friday.

“We’re just going to play basic baseball,” he said. “When we get on defense, we’re going to have to play defense. When we get on offense, we’ve got to hit the ball. Playing a team like Woodland Hills you’ve definitely got to force the action.”

Coach Ronald Rosenfel’s University team, which takes 17 of its 18 players from the University High team that finished second in the City Section’s Western League, lost one of its non-district games to Woodland Hills earlier in the season.