Orange County Community College Notebook / Steve Kresal : Fullerton’s Young Baseball Team Isn’t Deterred by Lack of Experience

Nick Fuscardo, Fullerton College baseball coach, has found the inexperience of his freshman-dominated team to be a blessing.

Fullerton, which starts as many as seven freshman, isn’t being intimidated by the South Coast Conference, which is considered to be one of the toughest in the state.

Fullerton also is ignoring the predictions of conference coaches, who picked the Hornets to finish fifth. Fullerton (12-5-2 overall) is tied for first place with Cerritos at 7-2.

“When your players are young, your goal is to make them as competitive as possible,” said Fuscardo, in his second season with the Hornets. “But you look realistically and you see that you have only one sophomore returning to the position he played last season (second baseman Jon Rice) and past him you are new up the middle. . . . Yes, it’s a surprise we’re doing so well.”

As for starting sophomores besides Rice, Fullerton has Reggie Brown, who moved from shortstop to center field and has 16 stolen bases, tops in Orange County; Brad Weller, a catcher who transferred from Cerritos, and third baseman Bart Stroozas, who didn’t play much last season.

First baseman Andy Ruscitto, who has six of the team’s 11 home runs, leads the cast of freshman starters. Right fielder Emmitt Cohick is hitting .343 with three home runs, and left fielder Scott Einhorn is hitting .300. Designated hitter Tim Churchill is hitting .316 with two home runs. Shawn Blankenship (.250) and Rodney De Young (.241) platoon at shortstop.

Craig Oden (2-0) and Brian Coriell (0-1) are the only sophomores getting much work on the pitching staff. Freshmen Brad Hooper (4-0), Mark Kiefer (2-3), Jeff Petredes (2-0) and David Wackerman (2-0) have done most of the pitching.

Fullerton has twice upset Cerritos, the top-ranked team in the state and the Southern California baseball poll. Fullerton and Cerritos will meet two more times this season.

In its first game against Cerritos, Fullerton scored a run in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch for a 4-3 upset in its second conference game March 3.

Cerritos (16-3) wasn’t taking any chances in the second meeting last Thursday.

The Falcons started their best pitcher, sophomore Tim Lockhart, who was 5-0. Lockhart took a 7-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth. But Fullerton needed only four hitters to score three runs and an 8-7 upset.

Brown opened with a single, and pinch-hitter Mike Baker tripled him home. After a ground out, Ruscitto hit a two-run home run.

Now Fullerton is starting to get some respect. Unranked three weeks ago, the Hornets are fifth in this week’s Southern California poll.

Equal time: The Orange Coast College men’s tennis team took a big step last week in beating Saddleback, 6-3.

It was the first time since 1980 that OCC, coached by George Mattias, beat Saddleback. The Gauchos were ranked fourth in the state and OCC ninth going into the match.

OCC is led by Chris Ganz and John Gabriel, both from Huntington Beach High School. They are 11-0 each in singles and 8-0 as a doubles team.

Gabriel injured his back at the start of the 1985 season and sat out two seasons before returning to play this season.

Community College Notes

Cerritos is the top-ranked team in the Southern California baseball poll this week despite an 8-7 loss to Fullerton last week. Los Angeles Harbor is second, Orange Coast third, Rancho Santiago fourth, Fullerton fifth, College of the Canyons sixth, Cypress seventh, Mt. San Antonio eighth, Oxnard ninth and Citrus 10th. . . . Jim Sammon, a starter on the Cypress basketball team, is playing No. 2 singles on the Cypress men’s tennis team.