BASEBALL : Cerritos Left-Hander No Slouch Himself

If College of the Canyons pitcher Fred Riscen is considered the best left-handed JC pitcher in the state, what does that make Cerritos’ Tim Lockhart?

Lockhart beat Riscen and Canyons, 5-4, on Saturday in the season-opener for both teams. Lockhart, a left-hander, pitched a strong game despite giving up seven hits. Both went the distance.

“You still have to think Riscen is the best in the state,” Cerritos Coach George Horton said. “Don’t count him out. Not this early. He had a few mental breakdowns, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t throwing well.

“Lockhart? He’s a battler. He got stronger as the game went on. I was going to take him out, but he wanted to stay in. Canyons swings the bats pretty well but Lockhart got the outs when we needed them.”

In three appearances last season, Lockhart was 1-0 with a 4.73 earned-run average.

Add Riscen: Two errant pickoff attempts by Riscen led to Canyons’ demise Saturday. “I hadn’t thrown away a pick all fall and then I throw two in the first game,” Riscen said. “If I do all the simple things right, we win. If I don’t, we lose.”

Frank Halcovich, who was 15-0 as a pitcher at Canyons last season and already has made two starts at Arizona, hit his first home run of the season Monday--a three-run blast in the Wildcats’ 13-3 win over Cal State Dominguez Hills. Halcovich, a two-time state JC player of the year who played at Granada Hills High, is a designated hitter when he isn’t pitching.