AREA HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK / SOFTBALL

No other first-year coach in the region inherited a better team than Lynn Baum of Newbury Park.

Now comes the curveball.

Baum heads into her first season as coach without her top two returning starters.

Newbury Park, ranked No. 4 by The Times, will play without sluggers Oli Keohohou and Nancy Pabon, who batted Nos. 1 and 2 last season, in the first two games of the Downey tournament Saturday.

“The first week I’m not too worried about,� said Baum, whose team faces Norwalk and either Culver City or Mayfair on Saturday.

Keohohou, The Times’ Ventura County player of the year last season who batted .484, is taking a required reading test at Newbury Park in order to graduate.

Keohohou joined the softball team Thursday after taking a few days rest at the conclusion of basketball season.

Pabon, who suffered a torn calf muscle two weeks ago in a Panther basketball game, isn’t expected to join the softball team for at least a couple weeks.

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If opponents of Thousand Oaks thought the Lancers were fast as jackrabbits last season, wait until you play them this year.

Team speed is listed by Coach Gary Walin as the Lancers’ No. 1 strength on a preseason questionnaire.

A record six Lancers are left-handed hitters, which means there will be a lot of testing (and rushing) defenses with slap hitting.

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At the rate junior Nancy Lopez was stealing bases in Van Nuys’ opener Thursday, Lopez is poised to run away with a couple of school records.

The center fielder stole six bases in the Wolves’ 18-14 victory over Taft.

With an average like that, Lopez is looking at about 100 steals this season.

After only one game, Lopez is 27 steals away from breaking Regina Perez’s single-season record of 32, set in 1996.

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San Fernando (7-1) is off to its best start in recent memory after defeating defending Division champion Huntington Park, 6-0, in a nonleague game Thursday.

The Tigers, who finished 17-9 and second behind Kennedy in the North Valley League last year, won the Venice tournament last week.