High School Baseball : Simi Valley’s Sharts Strikes Out 16 in 11-1 Win

When he took the mound Friday afternoon against Long Beach Poly in the ninth-place semifinal game of the El Segundo tournament, Simi Valley pitcher Scott Sharts had to turn over a new page.

The way he pitched, he might as well have written a book--on the subject of strikeouts.

Sharts fanned a career-high 16 and allowed just 3 hits in his team’s 11-1 romp at Poly. And while Poly looked like a bunch of timid librarians swinging at Sharts’ fastballs, the Pioneers seemed like they had the definitive word on how to handle Poly pitching, racking up 12 hits, including 4 extra-base blows that would have been long gone in a park where the fences in the power alleys weren’t 390 feet from home plate.

“I felt a little bit shaky when I threw yesterday in practice,” Sharts said. “Once I started warming up, I could feel my mechanics were on. I just gave everything I had to them today. I’m real proud of my performance.”

The victory moves Simi Valley (4-1) into the ninth-place final today at 11 a.m. at Westlake, which defeated Artesia, 9-5.

Catcher Marcus Lockwood drove in 3 runs and shortstop Greg Gerber hit a triple and a double and had 2 runs batted in to lead Simi Valley’s barrage. Sharts had 2 hits and 2 RBIs.

The Pioneers exploded in the sixth inning for 6 runs on 4 hits, the big blow being Gerber’s 2-run triple.

“We hit some balls a ton today that would have been out at our place,” Pioneer Coach Mike Scyphers said.