Dan Chergey

Minor league pitcher Dan Chergey didn't allow a run for more than a month. He averaged a strikeout per inning and fanned an average of five batters for each one that he walked. Opponents were batting a measly .185. There were rumors of a promotion to Portland, Me., home of the Florida Marlins' double-A baseball affiliate. Then he had a bad day. And the next thing he knew, the former Thousand Oaks High standout was in triple-A.

Minor league pitcher Dan Chergey didn't allow a run for more than a month. He averaged a strikeout per inning and fanned an average of five batters for each one that he walked. Opponents were batting a measly .185. There were rumors of a promotion to Portland, Me., home of the Florida Marlins' double-A baseball affiliate. Then he had a bad day. And the next thing he knew, the former Thousand Oaks High standout was in triple-A.

Jim Chergey, center fielder for the Newbury Oaks American Legion team, accepted a baseball scholarship Saturday to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Chergey will join his brother Dan, a Mustang pitcher who will be a senior in the fall. Jim Chergey, an All-Ventura County selection last spring, batted .394 with seven home runs for Thousand Oaks High. He is batting .338 for Newbury Oaks.

Thousand Oaks right-hander Dan Chergey lost a bid for a no-hitter in the sixth inning and his team lost a potential victory in the seventh as San Fernando rallied for 5 runs to tie the score in the nonleague game, 5-5, at Thousand Oaks before play was halted because of darkness. Thousand Oaks used three pitchers in the seventh. Jason Sanders started the inning in relief of Chergey, but gave up 2 hits and a walk before being replaced by Scott Barkman, who allowed 2 hits and 2 walks.

Miguel Rodriguez scored on Jermaine Swinton's eighth-inning groundout to give the Stockton Ports a 6-5 victory over the Lancaster JetHawks on Thursday night at Billy Herbert Field in Stockton. The JetHawks (30-31) tied the game in the top of the eighth on Chris Bean's two-out, two-run single. The JetHawks led, 2-1, in the third inning following Miguel Correa's two-run home run, his 13th of the season.

Bryan Corey grew up in Thousand Oaks a few blocks from the home of Sparky Anderson, but he has never met the longtime manager of the Detroit Tigers. After signing with the Tigers and reporting today to the team's facility in Lakeland, Fla., Corey hopes to get his chance sometime soon. Corey, a shortstop from Pierce College and Thousand Oaks High, was a 12th-round selection in last week's amateur draft.

In other 5-A first-round games: Culver City 7, Notre Dame 6--A four-run Notre Dame rally in the bottom of the seventh inning came up short. Trailing, 7-2, Notre Dame started its comeback with a walk and two singles to load the bases. Jeff Antoon's one-out single drove in two runs to cut the margin to 7-4. Bobby Hughes walked to reload the bases, forcing the exit of Culver City starter Mark Davies (7-4).

The Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team, which has won four of its first five California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games, will open a three-game series against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo tonight with a single game at 7. The teams will play a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Friday. San Luis Obispo (11-7, 1-2 in the CCAA) finished in a three-way tie for first in the conference last season and reached the NCAA Division II playoffs.

The Lancaster JetHawks walked a tight rope but managed to pick up a game in the California League's Valley Division standings with a 9-8 victory over the Bakersfield Blaze in front of 2,002 on Saturday night in Bakersfield. A single by Jason Regan scored Joe Mathis with what proved to be the winning run in the eighth inning. The JetHawks (38-24) scored twice in the inning to lead, 9-7, and held on. Lancaster is two games behind division-leading High Desert, which lost at San Bernardino, 5-4.

Troy Rauer led off the bottom of the 12th inning with a home run off Sean Spencer (2-2) to give the Visalia Oaks a 3-2 victory over the Lancaster JetHawks on Thursday night in Visalia. The JetHawks (27-20), who entered the game trailing the Modesto A's by one game in the Valley Division, took a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning but couldn't close it out. The Oaks (26-21) stayed in first place in the Freeway Division.