BASEBALL : Broken Left Thumb Sidelines Kuld From Pepperdine Lineup

Pete Kuld will be out of the Pepperdine lineup for at least three weeks after breaking his left thumb last Saturday in a game against Loyola Marymount, Waves Coach Dave Gorrie said.

Kuld, who set a home-run record at College of the Canyons last season, had been the starting catcher for Pepperdine which is ranked sixth among NCAA Division I schools.

Earlier this season Kuld had chipped the tip of his left thumb, then broke it in a different place in the first game of a double-header sweep by the Waves at Loyola. Pepperdine won all three games of the weekend series to move into first place in the West Coast Athletic Conference.

Add ‘Dine: Pepperdine is the top-ranked Division I team in the West, but the Waves may be fortunate they are not playing a Division II schedule. Of their six losses, three have come to Division II schools.

Cal Poly Pomona took both ends of a home-and-home series last month, and Cal State Northridge beat the Waves, 9-2, in Malibu on Tuesday.

Poll watch: Canyons is ranked sixth in the first JC Athletic Bureau state baseball poll. The defending state champions are ranked fourth in Southern California. Cerritos heads both polls.

Laughing last: A trio of The Master’s College baseball fans laughed when Cal Lutheran pitcher Dan Meltreger relieved starter Chris Vanole in the second inning against Master’s on Tuesday.

Meltreger wasn’t breaking any land speed records with his pitching. In fact, a few of his pitches didn’t have enough velocity to make it to the plate.

“This guy’s throwing marshmallows,” one said.

“Marshmallows?” “Those are watermelons. I could hit this guy,” another said.

Maybe the fan could have, but the Mustang batters mostly couldn’t. In three innings, Meltreger faced 12 batters and gave up two hits and an unearned run. Meltreger suffered rotator cuff damage last season and his velocity has suffered, too. Of the four pitchers Cal Lutheran threw at the Mustangs, Meltreger, oddly, was the most effective. “He threw us off, totally,” Master’s Coach John Zeller said. “He messed up our timing. Balls we thought we could hit out of there ended up being slow grounders or infield flies.

“He may only last once through the other team’s lineup because you’ll get used to him but they should get a lot of mileage out of that guy.”

Those danged watermelons are hard to hit.

Top dogs: Both Moorpark College baseball Coach Ron Stillwell and Canyons Coach Len Mohney have said that a Western State Conference consensus shows Glendale, Moorpark and Canyons as three of the conference’s top teams.

After beating Moorpark last week, Mohney said: “Just from what I’ve seen and heard, we’re the teams to beat, I guess.”

Said Stillwell: “Glendale can hammer the ball, and Canyons has all that pitching. It looks like Canyons, Glendale and us are the top teams. At least that’s what everybody has been saying.”

Not much has been said about Pierce, though.

Pierce let its bats do the talking on Tuesday. Trailing, 8-1, in the eighth inning, Pierce scored 10 runs with the help of a three-run homer by Brian Ogle and a two-run home run by Darren Cornell to come from behind and beat Glendale, 13-8.

Grooving out: Moorpark’s pitching staff may be finding its groove. Jon DeGennaro picked up his third victory Tuesday, an 8-2 win over Santa Monica. DeGennaro struck out four, walked only one and gave up four hits.

“He also had 16 guys hit ground balls,” Stillwell said. “And Santa Monica is a fast team, a real fast team. We watched them a few days before and it looked like a track meet. It’s nice to have a pitcher who hits the spots after you have scouted a team. DeGennaro did. Sixteen ground balls isn’t bad against a fast team because, well, you can’t steal first base, right?”

From Waikiki to why? Frank Mutz, one of 15 players new to Master’s baseball this year, is off to a 3-0 start for the Mustangs. Before transferring to Master’s, Mutz played the past two years at Hawaii. When he isn’t pitching, the former Granada Hills High standout catches.

“He’s just the kind of guy any coach would like,” Zeller, Master’s coach, said. “A very aggressive player with a great arm.”

Book on Bible, “heavy hitter”: After losing eight starters from a team that batted better than .300 last season, Len Mohney was hard pressed to find replacements. At one position, catcher, the Canyons team may have found a replacement for Pete Kuld, the Pepperdine catcher who last season broke a Canyons record with 17 home runs. Kuld played in 47 games.

Mike Bible, who starts at catcher for Canyons, has three home runs in the Cougars’ nine games. At that pace, Bible could pass Kuld this season.