Area Roundup : Pickler, Cypress Baseball Take the Field

Scott Pickler will make his debut as the Cypress College baseball coach today when the Chargers play host to El Camino in the 1985 season opener for both at 2 p.m.

Pickler led Loara High School to a 105-36 record, one Southern Section 3-A championship and two Empire League titles in five seasons before resigning to succeed Gene Lambdin last June. Pickler faces a major rebuilding job at Cypress, which was 6-21-1 in the tough South Coast Conference last year.

In other community college baseball action today, Fullerton plays Long Beach City in a first-round game of the San Diego State Tournament at 10:30, and Santa Ana hosts Taft at 2:30.

Steve Scanlon, Mike Schwabe and Gary Pifer are scheduled to pitch for the Dons, who were 19-9 in the SCC last season and finished in third place for the third consecutive season.

The Santa Ana College Softball Tournament, featuring some of the best community college teams in the state, begins this morning at 9:30 at three sites.

In first-round games, Riverside City plays Santa Ana at Santa Ana College, Pasadena City plays San Diego Mesa at Centennial Park, and at Hart Park, Palomar plays El Camino and Orange Coast plays Southwestern.

The second round of the double-elimination tournament will be held Saturday.

Doug Mansolino, an assistant to Fred Hoover on the Golden West College baseball staff, is resigning from the position to accept a coaching job with the San Francisco Giants’ AAA affiliate in Phoenix.

Mansolino, a former Huntington Beach High School and Golden West second baseman who concluded his playing career at Oral Roberts University, will serve as third base coach and will work with infielders under Jim Lefebvre, first-year manager of the Phoenix Giants. Mansolino was in his fifth year as Hoover’s assistant.

Former Dodger pitcher Don Sutton will be the guest speaker at the Corona del Mar High School Baseball Booster Club Preseason Baseball Lunch Saturday, Feb. 23 at the South Coast Community Church in Irvine, beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are $3 for adults and $2 for students. For further information, call 644-7491 or 644-0828.