BASEBALL : As Devoted Students of Christianity, Players at The Master’s College Come Across as a Well-Versed Group

Like a lot of schools, The Master’s College features its players in the team media guide. Included are players’ pictures and biographical information from height and weight to class and major.

Unlike most schools, The Master’s, a Christian college, includes an additional category. Sandwiched between “hometown” and “coach’s comments,” is each player’s “favorite verse” from the Bible.

The squad favorites appear to be John 3:16, Romans 8:28 and Colossians 3:1-5.

As Casey Stengel might have said, you “cud look ‘em up.”

Funny, but who’s laughing?: After losing at Cal State Northridge, 27-4, a week ago, The Master’s (5-2) came back the next day to beat Whittier, 14-3, and later in the week, the Mustangs beat West Coast Christian, 17-9.

“I knew we weren’t that bad,” Coach John Zeller said. “Northridge was just popping them out of there that day. But our kids recovered well.

“Baseball’s a funny game. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Add Master’s: The Mustangs are hitting .292 as a team, led by shortstop Eric Beagles, who has a .450 average. In seven games, Master’s has collected 78 hits, including 9 home runs, 16 doubles and 4 triples.

But the Mustangs also have committed 17 errors. “Defensively,” Zeller said, “it seems like we’re a day late and a dollar short all the time.”

Big bats: After splitting a doubleheader at Azusa Pacific on Saturday, the CLU baseball team, which faces Cal State Northridge at 2:30 today, is 2-2.

In their first four games, the Kingsmen have scored 35 runs but have given up 31. First baseman Ed Howard leads CLU with five home runs.

Weather permitting: The Master’s-Point Loma Nazarene game, which was rained out Tuesday, has been rescheduled for April 28 at Master’s. The Claremont-Master’s game that was rained out Feb. 13 has been rescheduled for May 1 at Master’s.

Poll-itics: The reputation of College of the Canyons baseball team apparently is intact despite the Cougars’ slow start this season.

Canyons, the defending state community college champion and winner of the title three times in the past six years, is ranked No. 9 in this week’s Southland poll of sports information directors.

That might seem like low billing for Canyons, but it could be worse. When the poll was taken, Canyons had a losing record and had played eight fewer games than some other ranked teams.

Canyons, under first-year Coach Len Mohney, improved to .500 with a 13-10 victory over Long Beach on Tuesday.

Keeping tabs: Pete Kuld, a junior catcher out of College of the Canyons, hit his first home run of the season for Pepperdine in the Waves’ 7-4 victory at San Diego State on Saturday. Kuld is batting .333 with 8 RBI.