Baseball: Beware of Newbury Park shortstop Zander Clarke

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Newbury Park won the Southern Section Division 1 championship in baseball last season behind the exploits of pitcher Luke Eubank, who’s now pitching for a junior college in Nevada.

But don’t think the Panthers are going to suddenly fall off the radar, and one reason for optimism is that Newbury Park is going to turn loose 6-foot-4 junior shortstop Zander Clarke. He showed his potential late last season. He got a two-run double against Santa Ana Mater Dei as the designated hitter in the semifinals.

The word is that Clarke has big-time ability. And so does his brother, Chris, who will be a 6-2 freshman pitcher on varsity. Somebody has tall genes in the family.

They’’ll be in good hands, because the returning catcher is Colton Waltner, a San Diego signee who was so good handling Eubank.

-- Eric Sondheimer