ARMED 'N' DANGEROUS CANYON'S SEDDON HAS NO FEAR ON THE MOUND.

Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer

Chris Seddon goes to the mound with a scowl, a serious purposefulness he puts into every pitch that says, yeah, it might be a game, but it won't be fun unless he gets the out. His Canyon High teammates call it his game face. Coach Adam Schulhofer refers to it as his presence on the mound.

``When he goes out on the mound, you know he is going to be really tough on the other team,'' Schulhofer said. ''He just kicks it in gear and competes. He isn't scared of anybody. He challenged the top hitters even as a sophomore.''

That mentality will serve Seddon well as he faces the area's best in the 25th annual Daily News Bernie Milligan All-Star Game on June 9 at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

``This is a great opportunity to play against the better guys out there,'' Seddon said. ``You get to show your stuff one more time.''

Seddon was selected despite a 3-6 record, which was mostly the result of shoddy defense and poor run support. He struck out 71 batters with 15 walks in 54 1/3 innings, posting a 2.43 ERA.

Loyola Marymount offered the 6-foot-4 left-hander a full baseball scholarship, which he plans to accept unless offered an attractive contract by a major-league team. He is expected to go in the first 10 rounds of the amateur draft June 5. Ten to 15 major-league scouts watched him pitch in every game this year.

``I try not to get wrapped up in his statistics,'' said Fred Repke, a scout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. ``I look more at how good his arm looks and what this guy is going to look like five years down the road. If he grows into his body, he could be a good one.''

Seddon went into his senior year with the intention of throwing more strikes, limiting his walks and cutting down on his pitch count. He succeeded with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly five to one. However, challenging the hitters with a fastball that reaches 91 mph also made for more balls hit in play.

``A lot of the time, I didn't throw as hard as I could and tried to throw it over the plate,'' Seddon said. ``I figured walking a guy is at least four extra pitches. Let him swing at it and just try to keep it on the ground.

But limiting the opposition to ground balls didn't always help as the Canyon defense struggled. Seddon said he thought some of the defensive problems could have been because of the attention from scouts standing behind the screen clocking pitches with radar guns and taking notes.

``I was pretty used to it,'' he said. ``It didn't bother me much, but I think it made our guys a little nervous. They wanted to play well with so many scouts watching. They maybe got too self-conscious and let it get into their heads.''

Then the offense failed to score more than a run or two in most of his starts.

``The lack of run support was really frustrating at first,'' Seddon said. ``I had to just focus on the things I could impact.''

Combined with the pitching of junior left-hander Jake Coash, Seddon did get Canyon into the playoffs, where it lost in a wild-card game to Palmdale 4-3. Coash, who was starting because Seddon had pitched the previous Friday, allowed a three-run home run to Palmdale catcher Gino Murrietta, who will also play in the Milligan Game.

Seddon is joined in the All-Star game by battery mate Josh LaGrotta. The two first played together the summer before their freshman year.

``I'm excited about having Chris on the same team as me once again,'' LaGrotta said. ``It's going to be kind of special. He makes it easy on me because he is so good and has such control over all his pitches. I've been spoiled with him.''

For a change, Seddon will be on the same side as Canyon's arch-rivals from Hart of Newhall. Canyon handed Hart its only loss of the regular season, with Coash getting the win. Seddon beat Hart in both his sophomore and junior years.

There is no love lost between the schools. Nothing gets Seddon's game face on quicker than the mention of his Foothill League nemesis.

``I don't know if I will hang out with them or not,'' Seddon said of Hart's game-high five participants. ``I'm not sure how that will go over.''

Seddon said he is looking forward to next week's amateur draft. He said money will be the deciding factor on whether he decides to sign with a team and go to the minor leagues or attend Loyola Marymount. If he does decide to go pro, he intends to take advantage of the clause given to draft picks allowing them to go back for college at the team's expense.

``There's really no downside,'' Seddon said of the decision to go to college or the minor leagues. ``It's a win-win situation.''

His size and being left-handed already give Seddon a better-than- average chance to make it professionally in the future. Tall lefties are in high demand by major-league teams.

``The first thing that catches your eye is that he's left-handed,'' said Repke, who is a supervising scout for the area. ``He's tall and thin, and his arm nice and loose. And he is only 17. He can go out and play the whole summer at 17. That's an attractive package.''

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Chris Seddon has struck out 71 batters with 15 walks in 54 1/3 innings for Canyon, posting a 2.43 ERA.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News