Sanchez Is the Soul of Hart’s Remarkable Recovery From 0-6

Pop quiz for baseball players. Read the following paragraph and give your reaction. Answer truthfully now.

You are a pitcher with a 22-2 career record beginning your fourth year on the varsity. Your team begins the season 0-6 and the coach asks you to give up pitching and move to shortstop, a position you haven’t played since Little League.

Do you:

A) Transfer to another school the next morning;

B) Round up a posse to lynch the coach;

C) Whine and sulk the rest of the season;

D) Gladly learn shortstop, become a leader and spark the team to a 15-game winning streak and a certain league championship?

Luis Sanchez of Hart High chose D, a decision that has elevated him in the eyes of teammates and elevated Hart to one of the top teams in the Valley.

“Everybody wants their team to win,” Sanchez said. “I’ll do whatever it takes. I haven’t played short in a long, long time but I know the position. Wherever the coach needs me I’ll play.”

Sanchez’s selfless approach has been infectious.

“Luis is a team guy and everyone recognizes it and listens to him,” Coach Bud Murray said. “He speaks his piece if he thinks things aren’t right.”

Murray still summons Sanchez to the mound on occasion--the right-hander is 1-0 with three saves--but an improved middle infield is responsible for the team’s turnaround from a horrendous start.

Chad Ott moved from shortstop to second base when Sanchez became the shortstop, creating a combination that has turned eight double plays in the past six games.

The improved defense has benefited starting pitchers Chris Baker and Ron Jones, without whom Sanchez could not have relinquished his mound duty. Baker is 6-2 with an earned-run average of 1.33, having allowed only 35 hits in 57 innings. Jones, a transfer from Crespi, is 5-2.

With the return of sophomore left-hander Bobby Graves from an arm injury--Graves notched a victory and a save against Crespi in a doubleheader last weekend--Hart’s staff is well-armed sans Sanchez.

Sanchez began the season playing first base and designated hitter because of tendinitis in his right elbow. When his arm healed, rather than take the mound, he simply took over.

“We need to play as a team and give it everything we have because the season will end very soon,” said Sanchez, who is batting .352 with a team-leading four home runs and 28 runs batted in. “There have got to be some guys who are leaders. I try to be a leader whenever possible.”

A four-year starter who willingly puts the team ahead of himself is a commodity Murray fully appreciates.

“He’s kind of been the franchise, a solid rock,” Murray said. “He’s a swell kid.”

*

Chris Paxton, already known as double trouble, became the 14th player in Southern Section history to drive in more than 100 in a career when he knocked in six Friday against Palmdale.

The outburst gave the Palmdale catcher 103 runs batted in, and they came on his former specialty--a double--and on his more-recent specialty, the home run.

He hit enough two-baggers the past three years to enter the season No. 1 among large-school players. Paxton, a left-handed hitting senior, racked up double figures in doubles each of the past three seasons to give him 37, snapping the Southern Section record shared by Dmitri Young of Rio Mesa and Antone Williamson of Torrance.

“I go with the pitch and hit a lot to left-center,” Paxton said. “I try to hit the ball where it’s pitched.”

This year, however, Paxton has hit only three doubles, leaving him two short of the overall record, set by Jacob Jensen of Highland Hall from 1988-91.

“That’s because the ball is leaving the park now,” Palmdale Coach Randy Lintemoot said.

Paxton has five home runs this season, 11 in his career, and has batted well over .400 three years in a row. He batted .366 as a freshman.

Paxton also shines behind the plate, calling the pitches and guiding soft-throwing sophomore left-hander Mike Preski to a 5-1 record. Preski allows more than one hit an inning but has walked only five in 42 innings.

“We just try to hit different spots,” Paxton said. “People try to pull the ball against him and end up hitting ground balls.”

Paxton, who frequently traveled to the Valley to play in scout-league games the past couple of years, signed with Cal State Northridge a few weeks ago. He is Matador Coach Bill Kernen’s type of player--a baseball fanatic.

“He is on the field until 7 every night and on weekends is always at a Northridge game or is watching the (Class A) High Desert Mavericks,” Lintemoot said. “As he goes, we go.”

And Palmdale has gone to the top, leading the Golden League with a 6-1 record.

*

Golden handshakes are due several players besides Paxton who toil in the high-desert obscurity of the Golden League.

Everyone knows of Darrell Hussman, Quartz Hill’s senior right-hander who might be a high draft choice in June. But Rebel sophomore right-hander Mark Madsen is another prospect.

Madsen has an ERA of 1.47 in 38 innings. His fastball breaks 80 m.p.h. and scouts say he will approach 90 m.p.h. by his senior year.

Quartz Hill senior catcher J.D. Smith has put his compact-but-powerful swing to fine use. He is batting .446 with six doubles and three home runs.

Bob Roberts and Robbie Spradlin of Littlerock are little known except to Golden League pitchers. Roberts is batting a robust .407 with eight doubles and Spradlin is batting .371 with six doubles.

Littlerock center fielder James Jefferson leads the league with 18 stolen bases.

Senior shortstop Shad Martin of Palmdale is making his third varsity season productive. Martin is batting .323 with seven doubles and four triples.

WHO’S HOT . . .

Doug Segraves of Alemany High was seven for 14, including two doubles and three runs batted in, in the San Luis Obispo tournament.

Derek Lemkin of Harvard-Westlake was five for eight with four RBIs the past week.

Mike Guinta of Oak Park has hit safely in 12 consecutive games.

Though only two for 26 in nonleague games, Westlake freshman third baseman Michelle Notaro is hitting .387 (12 for 31) in Marmonte League games.

Granada Hills pitcher Jessica Creith had two home runs Monday against Cleveland and shut out Kennedy Wednesday.

James Jefferson of Littlerock is fourth in the area with 18 stolen bases despite missing the first eight games of the season with an injury.

Kennedy catcher Kevin Serr homered on consecutive days against San Fernando and Granada Hills.

Cleveland sophomore pitcher Jared Mills had a streak of 16 scoreless innings snapped Thursday against San Fernando.

In his last nine games, Jared Sandler of Calabasas is 15 for 24 (.625), has scored 14 runs and driven in 12.

In his last eight games, Billy Hoover of Calabasas is 16 for 29 (.552) with four doubles and two home runs. He has scored 17 runs and driven in nine.

Sophomore left-hander Bobby Graves of Hart, out with a broken arm since the season started, picked up a victory and two saves in his first three appearances last week.