COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Storm Hits Town, CLU Hits Road

No one ever said the road to a national championship would be smooth.

The Cal Lutheran softball team found that out Thursday when it drove to Cedar City, Utah, for today’s National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics bi-district tournament playoff against Southern Utah State.

The Regals, who left Thousand Oaks at 7 a.m. Thursday, pulled into Cedar City eight hours later, only to be greeted by a rainstorm and 38-degree weather.

The site of the best-of-three playoff--which will determine the team that advances to the 16-team national tournament May 15-17 in San Antonio, Tex.--has not been decided yet.

It was scheduled for Southern Utah State, but the town is too cold and under water. There has been talk that the tournament will be moved to Dixie College in St. George, Utah, an hour’s drive south of Cedar City.

“We’re going to have to ignore everything and go with it,” Coach Carey Snyder said of the situation.

“They better tell us tonight where it’s going to be,” said Jim Buchheim, the CLU sports information director. “We don’t want to show up at one field an hour and a half before the game and find out we’re still an hour away from the game.”

The Regals enter the tournament ranked 16th in the nation in the NAIA poll. Southern Utah is ranked 19th and is trying to qualify for the national tournament for the second straight year. The Thunderbirds finished 11th in the nation last season.

Kim Peppi (15-5) will start on the mound for Cal Lutheran in the first game today and Becky Wolfe (10-4) is expected to start the second game. A third game, if necessary, would be played Saturday.

Peppi and Wolfe are two of five Cal Lutheran players named to the NAIA All-District 3 first team. The others are Karen Fauver (.298 batting average), Michelle McCaslin (.365) and Wendy Olson (.287).

The Regals (29-8) qualified for the bi-district tournament by beating St. Mary’s, 5-2, in the District 3 championship Saturday. St. Mary’s was the two-time defending district champion.

Southern Utah (27-9) won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and the District 7 tournament. The Thunderbirds have won five in a row and have won 10 of their last 11 games.

Canyons at a peak: Winning 30 games during a junior college baseball season is the equivalent of a major league team winning 100 games. College of the Canyons is making the feat seem ordinary.

Thursday’s 5-3 win over West L.A. gave the Cougars a 31-5 record. They have now won 30 or more games six straight seasons. With the win, Canyon clinched the Mountain Valley Conference championship, its sixth straight conference title.

During the Cougars’ streak, they have also won two state titles and are favored to win their third this season. Their last state title was in 1983, when they posted a 30-10 record.

Coach Mike Gillespie, who has been mentioned recently as a possible successor to Rod Dedeaux at USC, has compiled a 419-176 record and a .710 winning percentage since starting the program at Canyons 16 years ago. During his tenure there, Gillespie has won 11 conference championships.

Canyons, ranked No. 1 in the Southland Poll of sports information directors, has a chance to surpass the 33-6 mark of the 1977 team.

The Cougars have two regular season games remaining, but the conference championship assures them of a bid in the Southern Regionals on May 17.

Last season, they advanced to the state championship game before losing to Cerritos.

Dotted-line fever: Cal Lutheran recruiters have been busy this week. They have signed four women basketball players and a football player to national letters of intent.

Among the recruits to sign with the women’s basketball team was Chris Cox, a second-team All-Marmonte League guard/forward from Simi Valley High. Cox averaged 7.3 points a game for the Pioneers her senior season. The Regals also signed Ann Jeffries and Joy Fuller of Tustin and Heidi Griffith of Eureka.

The football team signed Daniel Smeester, a 6-2, 210-pound linebacker from Sal Point High from Tucson. Smeester is the third linebacker signed by the Kingsmen this year. Smeester will battle Terry Rowe of Glendale College and David Moore of Phoenix College, as well as three returning linebackers, for a starting spot.

Florida (State) Key: Chris Pollack, who played at El Camino Real High and College of the Canyons, is now playing a key role in Florida State’s drive toward a national championship in baseball.

Pollack, a junior pitcher, is the Seminoles’ No. 3 starter and has posted an 8-3 record. He has 85 strikeouts in 74 innings for Florida State, which is ranked second in the nation by Baseball America and third in the Collegiate Baseball-ESPN poll.