Harbor Season Proves Pleasant Surprise for Coach

Jim O’Brien thought he had seen it all. He figured he had been around Harbor College so long that nothing could surprise him.

Most of O’Brien’s experience is positive: His baseball teams had won 346 times in his 13 years as head coach and brought home state championships (1978 and 1984) and second-place finishes (1976, 1981 and 1983).

But 1988 started off on a sour note. Not only did O’Brien have a seemingly ragtag collection of 35 individuals, but 22 were freshman and three of his starting pitchers began the season on the disabled list.

The thinking was Harbor would rebuild in 1988. Well, think again.

The Seahawks have been virtually unstoppable, running out to a 28-14 record and a first-place finish in the City Division of the Southern California Athletic Conference. Harbor has been seeded fourth in Southern California and will play fifth-seeded Palomar College (27-11) of San Marcos in the state regionals May 20 at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana.

“It’s a strange team; a good team that’s getting better,” said O’Brien, whose teams have won nine conference championships since 1976.

“We have a lot of guys out here, more than most teams carry, but we do have depth. And they’ve finally learned to play together. I like our chances because a lot of our guys have learned to become team players.”

Harbor started the season with pitchers Lance Larson, Kimo Horn and Charlie German on the mend, leaving Eddie Lopez, a 5-foot-10, 150-pound right-hander out of Banning High, as the No. 1 starter.

Lopez responded with a 7-2 record, a 3.20 earned-run average and a handful of no decisions. He has done more than keep the Seahawks in the hunt--he’s become one of their most reliable pitchers.

“Steady Eddie is what we call him,” said O’Brien. “He’s done it all for us. He kind of epitomizes what we want in our program as far as hard work. You couldn’t ask more from him.”

Lopez pitched nine innings in the Seahawks’ 6-5, 11-inning win over Chaffey College of Alta Loma on Tuesday in the first game of the conference championships, but Horn got the win when Harbor scored in the 11th. With German pitching the first five innings Thursday, the Seahawks won the second game handily, 23-8, at Chaffey to clinch the title and receive a bye in the first two rounds of the state playoffs.

“I’ve had a lot of no-decisions this year,” said Lopez, who relies mainly on the curve. “I’m just happy to be able to pitch. I felt the pressure with the three guys out but I don’t want to take full credit. It’s a team win and all the guys helped each other.”

Larson (finger), German (shoulder) and Horn (elbow) have overcome their injuries to the point where each is able to contribute.

Larson, a 6-0, 160-pound lefty from South Torrance, is 3-0 and has not lost a game in his two years at Harbor, going 5-0 in 1987. His overall ERA is 2.49, but in conference play it’s a sterling 0.52.

Horn is 2-1, while German is 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA. Danny Parente has filled in as a starter with a 2-1 record and Jeffrey Hunter is 3-3.

“Now we can take some of the pressure off Eddie,” said Horn, who played at Carson High. “Now I feel confident coming into the game. Now I’m eager. I feel ready to help the team.”

Getting off on the right foot is essential to any project and the Seahawks couldn’t ask any more from lead-off man Willie Parsons, who has broken three Harbor records and is closing in on four others.

Parsons, out of El Segundo High, is the season (42) and career (83) leader in walks, eclipsing Tony Bloomfield’s marks of 41 and 62 set in 1982-83. He is Harbor’s single-season stolen base leader with 50, just two shy of Waymon Brown’s career mark set in 1981. Twice this season he has stolen five bases in a game.

Parsons has 53 hits in 1988 and 107 in his career. Kevin Higgins, now at Arizona State University, is Harbor’s career leader with 111. Parsons has scored 100 career runs, just behind Higgins’ 108, and has 22 doubles, three behind leader Derek Sholl.

He is hitting .333 and has been hit by a pitch 10 times, meaning he’s been on base well over 100 times this season.

“I didn’t think I’d walk as much as I have this year,” Parsons said. “But once it started, it never stopped and I started taking a lot more pitches. My job is to just get on and score runs. Now I don’t mind getting hit or taking a pitch. It’s become an art.”

Parsons is backed by heavy lumber.

Right fielder Billy Keep is the team home run (7) and runs batted in (40) leader while hitting .396, and Parente, who plays first when not pitching, has homered six times, driven in 38 runs and hit .389.

Catcher Jon Berger totes a hefty .396 average while Dave Kushan is hitting .435 and has driven in 11 runs in just 47 at-bats.

“Every time up is a different situation,” Kushan said. “I’ve just been trying to adjust to the game situation. Sometimes it’s just as important to move a runner over as it is to get a base hit.”

Berger, a sophomore from Palos Verdes High, said he has worked hard to become a better hitter.

“I’ve taken a lot of cuts and a lot of extra (batting practices),” he said. “I’ve worked hard and it’s paid off. It helps the team, too. The way we’ve coming on as a team is great. If we keep going the way we have, we’ll be there in the end.”

Those words sing sweetly to O’Brien, who has had to pinch himself to make sure the 1988 season is real.

And, if there’s one thing the Harbor skipper likes, it’s teamwork.

“We’re doing the things we needed to do to win,” O’Brien said. “We have 35 players and that’s a lot more than most teams can handle, but we match up the players to certain situations.

“That means some of these guys who have been stars in high school have to sit sometimes. But I think we’ve finally convinced them to do what they have to do to win.”