College Baseball : Anteaters Add to Oklahoma City’s Woes

The Oklahoma City University baseball coach and his starting shortstop were ejected in a disagreement over a first-inning call at home plate at UC Irvine--and that wasn’t even the worst thing to befall the Chiefs Wednesday afternoon.

The score was the crowning blow.

Irvine (11-9-1), which hadn’t been able to play for a week after three rainouts at the University of Pacific, ventilated all its stored up energies with a 13-3 victory.

An argument could be made that six errors were really at the root of the Chiefs’ misery. But that would underestimate the significant role played by the Chief pitching staff--which the Anteaters brutalized with 16 hits.

Oklahoma City (6-14), last year’s Midwestern Cities Conference champion and an NCAA regional finalist, had been weakened by injuries to two starters during games at San Diego State and Cal State Fullerton earlier on this trip.

They lost two more of their key personnel when shortstop Kevin Burdick and Coach Charlie Lodes were ejected for arguing that Burdick had beaten the tag of Anteater catcher Steve Morgan at home, after baserunner Greg Ward had drawn a throw by stealing second.

Irvine held a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the fifth. A single by Anteater Adam Ging, a double by Tom Baine, an RBI-grounder by Don Davis, and an error by third baseman Rich Worley added up to a 5-2 Irvine advantage.

The Chief infield was especially porous, accounting for five of the six errors. Worley took matters into his own hands, as it were, committing three of the errors himself.

The Anteaters scored four in the sixth on a walk to Ging, singles by Paul Hammond, Baine, and Davis, followed by a two-run double by Morgan. Three more runs scored in the seventh and the last came in the eighth.

Irvine’s Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters--Hammond, Ging and Baine--had three hits apiece. Davis contributed four RBIs and Baine had three.

Irvine starter David Trussell (2-0), who gave up one hit in his two innings, got the victory, but the third Anteater pitcher, Kevin Kandalaft, actually deserved the lion’s share of the credit. Kandalaft threw the last four innings, allowing one hit, walking two and striking out five.

In other nonconference action:

New Mexico 10, Cal State Fullerton 7--The Lobos improved their record to 17-2 with their win over the Titans at Fullerton. Shane Turner had two doubles and scored twice, while John Fishel had two hits and two RBIs for the Titans (12-14-1).

Southern California College 12, UC San Diego 4--Ron Nelson hit a home run and had three RBIs, Dave Turney went 2 for 5 with 2 RBIs, and Barry Henderson had three hits and scored twice to lead the Vanguards to a win over the Tritons at UC San Diego. SCC improves to 14-8-2.