Canyons Enters State Playoffs as an Underdog

Mike Gillespie, College of the Canyons baseball coach, is well aware that his team is not among the favorites to win the State championship tournament that begins here today.

That’s just the way he likes it.

Twice during Gillepsie’s 15-year tenure at the Valencia school, in 1981 and 1983, the Cougars have won the state title. And both times, Canyons went into the tournament as underdogs, as they are this year.

“When we won it, nobody, not even us, predicted or thought we would do it,” Gillespie said. “We just had the right combination of getting hot, getting lucky and getting some good draws in a short series.

“You can win the state by catching fire and going on a roll for just a few games,” he said. “And I think we are capable of doing it again this year.”

The Cougars (28-13) open the double-elimination, four-day tournament today at 2 p.m. with a game against Mission College of Santa Clara (21-10-1) on Fresno State’s Beiden Field.

Canyons won the Mountain Valley Conference title for the third consecutive year. The Cougars won the Western State Conference in 1981 and 1982 to make it five straight years and the 10th time in the last 15 years that it has won its conference.

To advance to Fresno, the Cougars rallied from a one-game deficit to defeat Long Beach City in a regional playoff series at Long Beach.

The Cougars lost the opening game to the Vikings, 5-3, but then won the second game of last Sunday’s doubleheader, 5-3. In the third and deciding game, Canyons won, 8-4, behind the pitching of Mark Titchener.

As is the case with most community college teams, Canyons’ strength is its offense. This team hits with power, for average, and steals bases.

“I like our offense,” Gillespie said. “It’s a real threat, and we’ve only been shut out once. We have three or four guys who can hit the ball out, and three or four guys who can really run.”

When it comes to power hitters, Canyons has the state leader in home runs, sophomore third baseman Bill Bluhm. Bluhm has 16 home runs (the old school record was 10) with 37 runs batted in.

Then there’s sophomore right fielder Bill Carlson, who had 10 home runs, including a shot that traveled more than 410 feet against Long Beach, with 33 RBIs.

Interestingly though, the Cougars’ best hitter is also their best pitcher. Frank Halcovich, a co-player of the year in the Mountain Valley Conference, batted a team-high .435 with seven home runs and a club-high 39 RBIs while compiling an 8-4 record with a 2.22 earned-run average on the mound.

The freshman from Granada Hills High, who bats and throws right-handed, plays the outfield or is the designated hitter when he’s not pitching.

Center fielder Tony Ciccone (37 steals), shortstop Don Erickson (20 steals) and second baseman Chris Hernandez (16 steals) are the players who get on base for the power hitters.

With offensive statistics like those, the only thing that’s prevented Canyons from being a great team has been its lack of pitching depth, specifically a bullpen ace, and occasional defensive lapses, especially early in the season

“We have been a mystery team sometimes this season,” Gillespie said. “We’ve been inconsistent in our execution.”

In addition to Halcovich, left-handers Chris Pollack (8-2, 1.21 ERA) and Titchener (5-2, 2.35) were consistent pitchers for the Cougars. But beyond these three, Gillespie didn’t have many other dependable pitchers. Pollack and Titchener were in the starting rotation but also were used frequently in relief

However, Greg Mayer threw six innings of strong relief against Long Beach in the regional playoffs, and Gillespie is hopeful that he will be effective there.

Defensively, at times, Canyons has looked like the Dodgers--that is, errors have not been uncommon.

Erickson and Bluhm have had the worst problems in the field.

“We made many errors early, and even though we’ve played much better defense the last third of the season, it still worries me,” Gillespie said.

“There was a point when we were giving teams four and five outs an inning, where I would sit in the dugout and hope the ball wasn’t hit to certain players.”

But slowly Canyons’ defense improved, and now Gillespie is feeling a lot more confident about his team’s chances in the State tournament.

“If our team that catches the ball and gets good pitching shows up,” he said, “then I think we’ll do well.”

State Tournament Notes

If Canyons beats Mission, and tournament-favorite Cerritos (35-5) beats College of Marin (20-15), the Cougars and top-seeded Falcons will meet in a winner’s bracket game in the second round . . . Cerritos, which breezed to the championship of the tough South Coast Conference, has won six state championships, more than any other school . . . In other first-round games today at John Euless Park, Oxnard (25-10-1) plays Laney (27-9) at 2 p.m., and second-seeded Sacramento City (30-8) plays San Bernardino Valley (30-10) at 7:30 p.m.