Woodland Hills West Succeeds in Its Affairs of State : American Legion: Defending World Series champions beat Escondido, 13-9, in California final, winning a title that eluded them last year.

YOUNTVILLE, Calif. —  State American Legion Director Harold Hall was a mite confused. Perhaps the sun’s reflection off all that chrome boggled his mind.

Standing at home plate with microphone in hand as he prepared to fork over the state championship trophy to Woodland Hills West, Hall gushed that “this is nothing new for this team.”

While it’s true that West is the defending World Series champion, and that awards have begun to stack up about three deep on each player’s mantel, the team finished second in the state tournament last summer, a fact that provided some motivation this time around.

West scored six times in the first inning and three times in the second to back right-hander Pat Treend, who allowed four hits in 7 2/3 innings as West defeated Escondido, 13-9, to win the state title on Tuesday at Cleve Borman Field.

West (35-6) advances to the Southwest Regional from Aug. 15-20 in Union City, Calif. West, which has won nine games in a row, will play Utah in the first round. Had the team again placed second in the state tournament, it would have played in the Northwest Regional in Eugene, Ore.

“I think a lot of us wanted to go to Oregon, to take another trip,” Treend said. “But once we started winning here, there was no way. We just said, ‘Why not win this thing since we didn’t do it last year?’ ”

If West had lost to Escondido, a second game would have been played Tuesday afternoon. But the prospects of a doubleheader seemed all but gone after the first inning.

West scored six times off 6-foot-6 right-hander Scott Coleman (6-4) and the die was cast--although Escondido didn’t die easily.

“There was a lot of intensity at first,” said West outfielder Greg Lederman, who recorded his third consecutive two-hit game. “We wanted to win the first game so we could get home early.”

Coleman yielded a single to Paul Geller and issued walks to Jeff Marks and Del Marine to load the bases in the bottom of the first. Jason Cohen, who drove in seven runs in four tournament games, then doubled to left-center to drive in Geller and Marks.

Marine scored from third on Bobby Kim’s sacrifice fly and Lederman followed with a single to right to drive in Cohen. Lederman, who appeared in only three state tournament games, had six hits in 14 at-bats and drove in nine runs.

Sean Boldt followed with a bloop double into shallow left-center and Treend drove in two runs with a chopper off the glove of Coleman that skipped past Escondido third baseman Jim McCarthy and into left field.

A run-scoring double by Kim and a throwing error by McCarthy keyed a three-run second to give West a 9-0 lead.

Yet, a mere heartbeat after the stadium public-address announcer informed the crowd that the 10-run rule “mercy rule” had been rescinded for the championship game, Escondido (21-7) rallied in the third.

Treend (8-3) walked Eric Marsh to open the inning and, with one out, surrendered a run-scoring double to Brian Kooiman, who was selected the tournament’s most valuable player. An out later, shortstop Gregg Sheren was given an error on a do-or-die chopper behind the mound, allowing Kooiman to score.

Third baseman Del Marine then threw away a ground ball, allowing another unearned run to score as Escondido closed to 9-3.

After Treend issued back-to-back walks to load the bases, No. 9 hitter Brian Moss singled home two runs to make it 9-5.

But Treend--who struck out 10, walked 10 and allowed three earned runs despite pitching on two days’ rest--shook off the damage. Although Escondido scored again in the fourth to cut the lead to 9-6, Treend said something told him West would not be derailed.

“It was just a feeling,” Treend said. “There was no way they were going to beat us. We’ve been heading down the tracks at full speed, killin’ everybody.

“We may make a few errors, but we eventually make the plays.”

And eventually, West regained the momentum. Lederman tripled in a run to give West a 10-6 lead in the fourth and a run-scoring single by Kim and a sacrifice fly by Jason Cohen in the fifth boosted the West advantage to 12-6.

Kim, who had 12 RBIs in leading West to the championship of the 6th Area tournament, knocked in four more runs Tuesday for a total of nine in Yountville and 21 in his past 10 games.

With the way West has been scoring--it averaged 11 runs in its four tournament wins--a road trip to Oregon isn’t out of the picture, however. The World Series will be held in Corvallis from Aug. 22-26.

There, more trophies await.