THE HIGH SCHOOLS : With Nothing Really to Lose, Birmingham Just Wins

Birmingham High baseball Coach Dave Contreras told his team to look at the term “underdog” in an optimistic fashion Friday.

Sure, it’s not exactly a flattering word. In fact, in the City Section 4-A Division playoff pecking order, no team ranked below Birmingham. Even in a literal sense the only thing under a last-place pooch is infield dirt . . . worms . . . China.

When the playoff seedings were formulated last week, Birmingham (6-17) was the lone team that was automatically placed in the wild-card bracket. Five others drew names out of a cap to determine which teams were placed in first-round games and which would be saddled with a wild-card qualifier.

In other words, Birmingham was the hats-off, unanimous choice as worst team in the 18-team field.

“I didn’t even know we made (the playoffs) until I saw it in the paper,” Contreras said.

So Contreras dusted off the nothing-to-lose speech and found that his players actually absorbed it. Unseeded Birmingham pulled the upset of the afternoon by knocking off Taft, 9-3, in a wild-card game.

Right-hander Corey Litwin (4-8) threw a four-hitter, struck out three and walked two for the Braves, who finished third in the Mid-Valley League.

Litwin entered the game with an earned-run average of 2.98 in 70 1/3 innings, but he experienced a few ups (about helmet high) and downs (in the ankle) while trying to establish consistency.

“He must have beaned 20 guys this year,” Contreras said with a laugh. “And he’s not even a headhunter. He hit a (batter) in about nine games in a row.”

Litwin didn’t nick a single Taft hitter, however, and his defense didn’t bruise him in return, committing no errors. Despite fielding a lineup that includes three sophomores in the infield and three juniors elsewhere, Birmingham was watertight. This, mind you, from a team that came from ahead to lose four games in the final inning this season.

With the score tied, 3-3, in the seventh, Birmingham’s Lester Echeverria contributed a two-out, two-run single to start a six-run rally. The biggest hit, however, came one batter and one passed ball later. With two out and runners at second and third, Taft issued an intentional walk to load the bases for Irvin Castaneda.

“I don’t see making that move,” Contreras said. “Taft didn’t need the double play. Maybe it was because (Castaneda) hadn’t hit the ball hard all day.”

That changed soon enough. Left-hander Justin Siegel, who had just entered the game in relief of Stacy Kleiner, surrendered a two-run single to Castaneda.

Birmingham will face San Pedro (18-4) in the first round Tuesday.

“If we win another game, great,” Contreras said. “If we lose, well, everybody expects us to, right?”

Roller coaster: Way back when, Taft was as hot as salsa in the summertime.

Entering an April 15 game against Granada Hills, Taft had won nine games in a row and had jumped to a 7-0 start in Northwest Valley Conference play. The Toreadors also had moved to the top of The Times’ City Section rankings, which had been published that very day.

Coach Rich McKeon clipped the rankings, posted them in the dugout and attached a note: “We worked hard to get where we are. Let’s prove that we deserve to be here.”

Said McKeon before the game: “I hope it’s not the kiss of death.”

Hello, Grim Reaper. Taft lost to the Highlanders, 4-0, and started on a long tailspin that ended with the loss to Birmingham. The Toreadors lost eight of their final 11 games to finish 12-10-1. Included in the victory total was a forfeit win over Kennedy for a game that was not played. Taft also lost to Reseda, which finished 1-16 in the West Valley League standings.

Taft was not alone. In Friday’s Southern Section playoff games, four other teams (Crespi, Notre Dame, Alemany and Saugus) that had been ranked in the regional Top 10 at one point this spring were eliminated.

Fits like a glove: Sure, it seemed more than a little apropos. It didn’t take any witty dugout banter to coin the name. It was a natural.

Rio Mesa right-hander Jeff Howatt has been dubbed “Howitzer” by coaches and teammates. You guessed it: Howatt’s last name is pronounced the same as the first five letters of the cannon.

“It fits him,” Coach Rich Duran said.

Howatt (9-1) gives fits to those he blows away. The towering 6-foot-6 senior has an earned-run average of 1.57 and has struck out 79 in 80 1/3 innings while allowing 25 walks. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is better than three to one.

Howatt (215 pounds) was a power forward on the basketball team and pitches with the same sort of finesse--none. Sure, Howatt throws a changeup and a hard-breaking, hand-stinging curve. But his best pitch, Duran said, is a fastball that reaches the mid-80 m.p.h. range.

“He’s a power pitcher, no doubt about that,” Duran said.

Howatt has thrown three shutouts, and his lone loss came in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Dos Pueblos. In Rio Mesa’s 7-2 victory over South Torrance in the first round of the Southern Section 4-A Division playoffs Friday, Howatt allowed two runs on eight hits, struck out eight and walked two.

Add Rio Mesa: The Spartans (18-5-2) are the top-seeded team in the 4-A Division, and with the offensive numbers the team is posting it was no stretch.

Rio Mesa, a program long known for its fence-banging prowess, is batting .342. Senior third baseman Jon McMullen (6-5, 230) leads the team in batting average (.523), doubles (eight), home runs (seven) and runs batted in (34). He is tied for the team lead in triples with, uh, one.

“He’s not exactly known for foot speed,” Duran said.

McMullen might be the first area high school player selected in the professional baseball draft, which runs June 1-3. In fact, McMullen is planning on a career in the pro ranks.

Despite a few half-hearted promises to do so, McMullen has not taken the Scholastic Aptitude Test, which is required to gain admittance to a four-year college.

Duran, in fact, teaches a course in how to master the SAT, but McMullen has shown little interest in pursuing an academic track. The warning track, on the other hand. . . .

“He has no aspirations of going to college at all,” Duran said. “He loves the game and wants to see what he can do. He wants to get paid for it--and not have to go to class.”

Stick man: Moorpark’s Fredrik Appel is a double threat with a crooked stick in his hand. This guy would be a godsend in the garden with a hoe or a weed-whacker.

Appel, the Tri-Valley League individual golf medalist, will play in the Southern Section individual championship Tuesday at Hacienda Country Club in La Habra.

Appel is a foreign-exchange student from Nykoping, Sweden, located a few miles from Stockholm. Though he long ago traded a hockey stick for a five-iron, he has proven that this switch was not a foreign exchange.

The 6-foot, 190-pound senior might have the build to dish out a wicked cross-check at the blue line, but he’s icy cool on the golf course too. Appel, who played hockey for 10 years in Sweden, averaged 73.5 strokes in Tri-Valley golf matches.

Appel would like to play golf at a U.S. college, then return home, turn pro and perhaps play on the European tour.

Motor City overdrive: It sounded too good to be true to Don Reyes, the boys’ track and field coach at Royal High.

Sophomore Andre Desaussure recently had moved back to the Royal attendance district after having lived in Detroit for several years. On his return, he told Reyes that he had run 48 seconds for 400 meters as a ninth-grader in the Motor City.

“I heard him and I didn’t believe him,” Reyes said. “Forty-eight in the quarter is awfully fast, especially for a freshman. But it turns out he might have been telling the truth.”

Desaussure ran 21.90 in the 200 and 48.58 in the 400 in winning those events Saturday in the Southern Section 3-A Division championships at Cerritos College.

Desaussure, who has also run 10.7 in the 100 meters, plans to play defensive back for the Royal football team in the fall.