ALL THE WEEK BACK: LAMBO GETS REDEMPTION.

Byline: HEATHER GRIPP Staff Writer

NEWBURY PARK - Andrew Lambo celebrated with his Newbury Park High baseball teammates after the Panthers clinched the Marmonte League title Wednesday. The championship is the first of Lambo's high school career, but it marks so much more for the junior who spent most of last season on the sidelines for disciplinary reasons.

Since transferring from Cleveland of Reseda for a fresh start at Newbury Park, Lambo is getting the chance to show he's grown both as a person and a player. He's served as an ultimate team-first leader for a program that didn't make the playoffs last season, and has thrived as a pitcher and hitter in one of the area's toughest leagues.

"Andrew Lambo helped this team tremendously," Newbury Park coach Scott Drootin said. "And I think the team helped him. He fit in great, he's a nice kid. ...

"Since he's been here, he's really matured. The good news is, he realized he made mistakes and he's trying to change. He's still a kid, but he's 1000 percent better."

Lambo improved to 8-1 with Wednesday's win over Royal of Simi Valley. He has a 1.53 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 55 innings. Offensively, he leads the Marmonte with a school-record 12 home runs, and is batting a team-high .472 with 26 RBIs.

Scouts were already taking notice of Lambo when he was an All-City freshman, but most of his attention as a sophomore was for other reasons as he began the season suspended from the team and then became academically ineligible.

"Sitting out one year, it was pretty hard," Lambo said. "Every game now is a thrill with these guys. We all just play together, that's all we care about-the team.

"Winning league was huge. This is probably my biggest accomplishment in high school. Making All-City and things like that, that was all individual. I'm really focused on the team."

Lambo's parents tried to ensure baseball wouldn't be their son's only focus. They supported the disciplinary measures taken against him and remind him that catching up on classes in summer school will be just as important this summer as the variety of showcases he's expecting to attend.

"Last year, that was devastating for him," said father Drew Lambo.

"I think it was a wake up call for him. To take a God-given gift and abuse it, he saw what can happen. It was a learning lesson and we let it be a learning lesson."

The family had known for years that Andrew's baseball talent was special even though there was no athletic background in the family.

"We call him alien, that's his nickname" said Drew Lambo. "He just came from another planet. How else do you explain what he's able to do?

"Two years old, he was still in diapers, and he hit a wiffle ball over the house. We were in the back yard having a party. When he hit the ball over the house there was a silence over the yard."

Andrew Lambo is inspiring similar awe again this season. In the season opener he had two home runs and five RBIs. He's gone hitless only twice this season. He's twice recorded as many as 11 strikeouts, including in a two-hitter against Agoura, which was ranked No. 3 in the nation at the time.

"In my 20 years, he's the best player I've had," Drootin said.

"Any time you've got a player of Andrew Lambo's ability, you have a chance to contend for a title. He's brought everybody's level up big time. He's made everybody better by his aggressiveness and the way he approaches the game. And he's so unselfish, he doesn't even care about his stats. ... He's been great for our team."

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SIZZLING SLUGGER

Jeremy Camacho has given up trying to find an explanation for his current hitting streak. The tear the Eagle Rock enior is on is beyond explanation. After hitting for the cycle Wednesday against Lincoln of Los Angeles, Camacho had hits in 14 consecutive at-bats. He is 20 for 22 in the past six games.

``It's weird,'' Camacho said. ``I don't know what's going on.''

Some of his theories for the hot streak include switching to a lighter bat, and just finally settling into a groove and getting his timing back after taking the winter off to rest from football season.

``He is now hitting better than he ever has in his life,'' Eagle Rock coach Rick Zuber said. ``It's just an easy swing and he hits it everywhere.''

Camacho enters today's Northern League game against Los Angeles batting .689 with four home runs and 17 RBIs. He led the league with a .595 average as an All-City junior and hit better than .600 as a sophomore.

``This isn't a fluke thing,'' Zuber said. ``He's been doing it pretty consistently.''

Several colleges have expressed interest and some pro scouts have started to take notice, too. Hitting has been Camacho's passion for as long as he can remember, noting he and his dad would spend hours after school nearly every day working on hitting. Just as staggering as Camacho's prowess at the plate is opponents' willingness to pitch to him; he's walked just six times this season.

Camacho tries to keep pressure off himself by not thinking about the hitting streak, even if his teammates are doing their best to remind him about it with good-natured jokes.

``I know it's going to break sooner or later,'' Camacho said. ``I don't really worry about it. I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.''

UNBELIEVABLE INNING

Palmdale senior Tyreace House went 3 for 3 with a home run and four RBIs Wednesday - in the fourth inning. House's onslaught was part of an inning that saw the Falcons send 22 batters to the plate and score 17 runs against Quartz Hill. Teammate Sean Sweeney contributed two doubles and three RBIs in the inning.

Palmdale went on to win the Golden League game 20-7.

The Falcons, who entered the game with a .359 team batting average, have scored 35 runs in the past two games.

``We're hitting pretty good lately,'' Palmdale coach Craig Mesler said. ``I think (Wednesday) it was really windy. We hit it hard the first couple of innings, but we were hitting it right at them. I just told the guys some would drop in, and that inning they started to.''

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Newbury Park High starter Andrew Lambo is 8-1 and has a 1.53 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 55 innings.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

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