7/11/03 There/s good pitching and there/s very good pitching.

Put Lompoc Babe Ruth baseball/s 13-year-old All-Star pitchers in the latter category.

Chris Mallory, Ryan McGinty, Jake Farley and Russ Anderberg tossed a total of 28 innings in four victories on the way to Lompoc/s District 6 championship in Arroyo Grande.

Over those 28 stanzas, they gave up just 11 runs and walked an eye-poppingly low number of seven batters.

"That/s good control anywhere," said manager Tom Harmon, who was a catcher at the University of Arizona after a stellar prep and Babe Ruth baseball career in Lompoc in the late 1960s and early /70s.

"But it is especially good for 13-year-olds," added the man who coached the pitchers at Lompoc High for three decades.

"This is a big transition year," Harmon pointed out, meaning that this year/s 13-year-olds were 12-year-old Little Leaguers last year.

The difference from 12 to 13 for baseball players is quantifiable. Babe Ruth baseball uses a regulation-size diamond while Little League uses, well, a little diamond.

Little League/s pitching mound is 46 feet away from home plate. The regulation mound is 60 feet away. That is a big change.

"We collected more than a walk an inning (from the opposing pitchers)," said Harmon of the district tourney. "That/s closer to normal for 13s."

Very good Lompoc pitching has been backed up by good defense, also remarkable in the transition year because of the size of the diamond. Everywhere the distances are longer.

For example, catcher Max Boscutti threw the ball about 97 feet from home plate to second base last year as a Little Leaguer. This year he has to toss the ball 127 feet to get it to second.

So when you see scores like the 4-3 that Lompoc recorded in beating Santa Maria in the District 6 championship game Sunday at Arroyo Grande, you realize that there was an extraordinary amount of accuracy in the throws and a good bit of go-get-em in the catches.

The /Good D/ label thus also hangs comfortably on Farley and Shawn Jones at first, Kevin Harmon and T.J. Maiden at second, Mallory and McGinty at shortstop, Justin Chard and Michael Kabrel at third, Anderberg, Kabrel and Casey Owen in left field, Kevin Erickson and Ryan Lynch in center plus Daryl Aguilar, Roberto Corral and Alex Lujano in right.

More good pitching and good defense is expected this weekend at Elks Field in Santa Maria. There Lompoc launches its Central State tourney quest Saturday at 1 against the Stockton-area champions.

District 5 and District 7 champs begin the tourney this evening at 7. Other Saturday first-round games start at 10 a.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. The 7 p.m. tilt features the hosts from Santa Maria 77 the same guys who finished a close second to Lompoc in District 6 77 against the District 2 winners.

The tourney works its way through next Friday/s championship round.

Alan Hunt can be reached at 736-2313, ext. 107 or alhunt@pulitzer.net