Victoria Brucker

The 13-year-old all-star team from Eastview Little League in San Pedro will have a familiar look to it when it begins playoff action Tuesday in Lomita. Eleven of the 14 players on the Eastview Senior League Minor Division team were on last year's 12-year-old team that advanced to the Little League World Series. That includes Victoria Brucker, the first girl to start in, get a hit in and pitch in a World Series game.

Thursday was a long, tedious and tiresome day for the San Fernando High softball team. Consider the Tigers' plight: A two-hour bus ride to San Pedro with a driver that got lost in Pacoima for half an hour, a demoralizing 14-1 loss to San Pedro in a City Section 4-A Division quarterfinal-round playoff game and, of course, the ride back to San Fernando in rush-hour traffic on a bus that showed up nearly an hour late to pick up the worn-out Tigers.

The future and the past of sports came together this week when the San Pedro Sportswalk inducted four new members and created a new "Circle of Excellence" for Little League players. The four inductees were the Dodgers' Roy Campanella and the late Jackie Robinson, Jerry West, the general manager and former scoring star of the Lakers, and Mando Ramos, two-time world lightweight boxing champion.

Grant High became the second school in girls' soccer's six-year history to win the City Section title as it beat San Pedro, 1-0, Saturday at Birmingham High. The Lancers (12-3-2) celebrated their school's first title in three final appearances with bursting bottles of apple cider and a ceremonial drenching of Coach John Robb. The previous times Grant made it to the finals, including last season, the Lancers lost to five-time City Section champion Chatsworth.

Victoria Brucker is a Little League slugger with pierced ears and shoulder-length hair. She is the leading home run hitter for San Pedro, Calif., one of eight teams competing in the Little League World Series, which begins Tuesday. And she's also the first girl from the United States to play in the series. "She's just one of the guys," teammate James Santos said. Not exactly.

Juniors Petrina Martinez and Victoria Brucker, the leaders of San Pedro High's City Section 4-A Division championship softball team, have been named 4-A co-most valuable players by a coaches' panel. Martinez and Brucker lead a list of nine South Bay players, including five from San Pedro, who were selected to the 4-A first team. Brucker was also named to the all-state team by Cal-Hi Sports. Martinez, a pitcher, had a 14-1 record with an 0.35 earned-run average and 119 strikeouts in 99 innings.

The third time was the charm for Coach Tony Dobra of San Pedro, which defeated Banning, 2-1, in 13 innings to win the City Section 4-A Division girls' softball championship at Cal State Northridge on Thursday. San Pedro (20-5) was 0-2 in previous City finals under Dobra in his six years as coach. Diane Marshall began the winning rally with a single and took third on errors by pitcher Susann McKenna and third baseman Jenny Vargas. Melissa Elgin singled home Marshall.

Members of the East View Little League have donated $1,400 to the family of first baseman Victoria Brucker, which lost most of its possessions in an early-morning San Pedro house fire last week. Brucker, 13, was the big story at last year's Little League World Series, where she was the first girl to start, pitch and get a hit in a World Series game. She is currently playing in Eastview's Senior League. Jan Trussell, 26, of Gardena will represent the Los Angeles Judo Club at the U.S.

A childhood dream ended in a game of giveaway Thursday afternoon when a few young players from San Pedro learned about old momentum. It also took good off-speed pitches from Trumbull, Conn., pitcher Andy Paul and five errors by Eastview Little League of San Pedro to knock the Californians out of championship contention, 6-3, in the Little League World Series.

Mike Shimizu has been named the first men's soccer coach at Marymount College, starting this fall. Shimizu played soccer at Rolling Hills High and for Claremont-Mudd in college. He has been boys' soccer coach at Rolling Hills the past three years, compiling a 37-26-11 record. Marymount recently instituted a men's soccer program after dropping basketball. Karolyn Kirby and Angela Rock continued to dominate the Women's Professional Volleyball Assn.