Crescenta Valley Plays Hardball Against Softies

If a softball team’s worth can be measured solely by its record, Crescenta Valley High (11-1) is definitely at the top of the list.

If outscoring opponents, 87-2, is an indication of a team’s ability, heck, call the Falcons world-beaters.

But trying to assess Crescenta Valley against other nationally and regionally ranked teams is next to impossible.

Why?

Because Crescenta Valley is flying high against low-level competition.

“Who do they play?” Hart Coach Cathy Giordano asked. “I don’t know, I really don’t. Are they any good?”

Giordano’s questions, reverberating throughout the coaching fraternity, are not meant to be sardonic, nor rhetorical.

While many observers wonder who the Falcons have played, here’s a look at who they haven’t played:

Foothill. Marina. Thousand Oaks. Valencia. Chaminade. That’s a sampling of Hart’s schedule. All are ranked in regional or Southern Section polls, and all but Marina are in first place in their leagues.

Crescenta Valley, a Division II team with an enrollment of about 2,400 students, has faced only one team of that caliber, Loara. And the Falcons lost, 2-1.

Crescenta Valley’s schedule is peppered with average to weak opponents, which does nothing to upgrade a feeble Pacific League lineup.

Today’s San Fernando Valley tournament semifinal against Notre Dame, followed by either Newbury Park or Saugus, will probably be as tough as it will get for the Falcons until the postseason. And that’s a cakewalk considering Newbury Park is the only one of those three to qualify for playoffs last year.

With a schedule so soft, it is as difficult to determine how good the Falcons are as it is to hit Meredith Cervenka’s rising screwball.

The Falcons, ranked No. 7 and No. 19 nationally on two Web sites dedicated to high school sports, are blessed with the most dominating pitcher in the region but are escaping comparable competition.

It’s as if Coach Dan Berry purposefully fashioned a weak schedule to ensure Cervenka & Co. a stellar record and top seeding for playoffs.

Of course, he is offended by such talk.

“Everybody is saying, a few people in particular, that we had a weak schedule, which in playing Loara, playing Hueneme, playing the tough games that we’ve played . . . it’s not an easy schedule,” said Berry after the Falcons’ 4-0 victory over Hueneme last week.

“We’re playing tough teams. We’re not dodging anybody.”

The Falcons’ schedule has become progressively weaker since pulling out of the Woodbridge tournament in 1998. Berry said the weekday tournament was during spring break for some schools, but not for Crescenta Valley, and he no longer wanted his players missing so much class time.

So he replaced Woodbridge with Arroyo Grande. A downgrade.

At the request of San Fernando Valley tournament organizers, Berry entered his team into the inaugural tournament and left the High Desert Classic tournament. A push, at best.

“How am I to know that going in?” Berry said.

Crescenta Valley played its most lopsided game last week, a league opener against Pasadena. The Falcons won, 40-0, in five innings.

“There was nothing we could do about the game,” Berry said. “There was 23 walks, 10 hit batters and how do you not score when every other pitch is a wild pitch?

“The games within league, Pasadena and Muir, we have no say as to what happens in league.”

To be sure, Crescenta Valley has one of the best pitchers in the state and might be a contender for a section title.

But how would we know?

Strength of schedule tells us Crescenta Valley has fattened up on foul.

Certainly Cervenka has played enough competitive travel ball to know that she isn’t pitching against players she will face in college.

“I wouldn’t [call the schedule] soft, but we’ve never played the good, good teams,” Cervenka said.

Why not find room on your schedule to accommodate a request for a nonleague game made at the end of last season by Coach Gary Walin of Thousand Oaks?

Why not ditch the Arroyo Grande tournament, which might host one other dominant team, for the Thousand Oaks tournament, which is an annual slugfest of the region’s best?

Or trade the so-so Downey tournament for the gritty Hart tournament?

Maybe it’s the same reason the Crescenta Valley junior varsity coach asked to play Hart’s freshmen-sophomore team this year, not once, but twice:

Victories. Stacking the deck so you always come out on top.

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FALCONS’ LOG

Crescenta Valley High is 11-1, losing only to Loara. Here’s a look at its season and the quality of its opponents:

*--*

Opponent Rec League, Standing *Paramount 10-7 San Gabriel Valley, Last Burbank 9-6-2 Foothill, Last *Peninsula 6-5 South Bay Athletic Assn., 4th *Loara 14-3 Empire, 1st Glendora 11-2-1 Baseline, 1st *Downey 9-3 San Gabriel Valley, 2nd Canyon 8-10 Foothill, 4th #Chatsworth 6-8 West Valley, 4th #Sylmar 9-6 Valley Mission, 2nd ^Pasadena 1-9 Pacific, Last Hueneme 9-4-1 Pacific View, 2nd ^Glendale 4-9 Pacific, Last

*--*

*Downey tournament

#San Fernando Valley tournament

^Pacific League