At Notre Dame, Future Is Now for Puccinelli

From the moment he stepped onto the diamond two years ago as a tall, slender freshman infielder, John Puccinelli of Notre Dame High has been promoted as a future star.

His time has finally arrived.

Puccinelli is batting better than .450 with four home runs. The 6-foot-4 1/2 shortstop could be one of the region’s best professional prospects for 1999.

This season has been a breakthrough of sorts. In his first two seasons, he was inconsistent at the plate.

“I have a different kind of attitude,” Puccinelli said. “I’m a smarter, more mature hitter. I guess I was pressing a little bit the last couple of years, but I’m settling down.”

*

Web wars: E-mails have been flying back and forth across Glendale in advance of the Pacific League softball opener between rivals Hoover and Glendale on Tuesday.

Kris Kohlmeier, Glendale assistant and brother of Hoover Coach Kirt Kohlmeier, has faced a barrage of e-mails from his nieces, Hoover infielders Guinevere and Nicole Platt, Kirt’s step-daughters.

Many of the computerized taunts arrive in purple and gray type, Hoover’s colors.

“I send them back corrected and highlighted,” Kris said. “When I correct a misspelled word, I add, ‘You must go to Hoover.’ ”

The standard response from Guinevere and Nicole?

“Yeah, but you went to Hoover, too,” they write.

Kris: “True. But I finally saw the light.”