A No-Hitter Ends Valley’s Season, 2-0

Faces were long and so was the silence in front of the Valley College dugout Saturday after the Monarchs’ game at Oxnard in the second round of the junior college state tournament.

Some of the Valley players stared blankly into space. Others simply shook their heads and muttered, trying to figure out what had just hit them. Or rather, what it was that kept them from hitting Oxnard pitcher Don Schwarz.

Schwarz, a sophomore left-hander from Sylmar High, pitched the first no-hitter in Oxnard history as the Condors beat Valley, 2-0, to eliminate the Monarchs and advance to a Southern California regional next weekend at Rancho Santiago in Santa Ana.

“I was just trying to throw strikes so they could put the ball in play,” said Schwarz, who had a career-high 12 strikeouts. “I was just trying to get them out 1-2-3.”

Schwarz (5-2) looked like he might retire 27 batters in a row before he hit Jason Peterson with a fastball with two out in the sixth. Ray Sabado, who walked to lead off the seventh, was the only other Monarch to reach base.

Oxnard catcher Tim Laker provided the game’s only runs in the fourth inning when he blasted his ninth home run, a two-run shot over the left-field fence off Valley starter Tim DeGrasse (3-8) that drove in Sean Luft, who had walked.

“He threw me a curve with a 1-0 count and I was expecting it,” said Laker, a freshmen from Simi Valley High who has signed a letter of intent with Arizona State. “You’re not supposed to be guessing, but I was pretty positive it was going to be a curve.”

Before the game, Oxnard Coach Jerry White was anything but certain about who would pitch for the Condors (27-13). White, in his 10th season at Oxnard, was having a difficult time choosing between Schwarz and right-hander Glen Evans.

“Up until the time we started to take infield, we were still trying to figure out who we were going to throw,” White said. “As it turns out, Schwarz was obviously not a bad choice.”

Schwarz dominated Valley (19-17) by working ahead in the count, mixing his fastball and curve. He struck out the side in the first and sandwiched a ground-ball out between two more strikeouts in the second.

“I heard that this kid could be tough in this yard, but not this tough,” said Valley Coach Chris Johnson, whose team had won nine in a row. “But there’s not much you can say when a guy throws a no-hitter at you.”

“The kids should still be proud of what they accomplished to get here. It was a heckuva year.”