COLLEGE HIGHLIGHTS : Pierce Duo Moves Into Tennis Final

The Pierce College doubles team of Alex Olaya and Robert Grundy defeated the San Bernardino Valley duo of Nick Mateljan and Erwin James on Saturday to advance to today’s final in the junior college division of the 88th Ojai Valley tennis championships. The scores were 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Orange Coast already has clinched the Gorham Cup for the top team, but a win by Olaya and Grundy in today’s doubles championship match against the Long Beach tandem of Matt Leventhal and Francisco Molina would give Pierce, which already has clinched third place, a share of second with San Bernardino.

Pierce also got an impressive performance from John Freeman, who advanced to Saturday’s semifinals before losing, 6-2, 7-5, to Mateljan. Earlier, Freeman won his quarterfinal match over Orange Coast’s John Gabriel, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Gabriel had upset West Valley’s Eric Jacobson, the top-ranked junior college player in the state.

Fifty doubles teams and 100 singles players were entered in the junior college division of the four-day event.

BASEBALL

Mark Anderson hit two three-run home runs to lead Cal State Northridge to an 11-6 win over UC Riverside in the first game of a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. doubleheader at Riverside. In the second game, Riverside homered five times to defeat Northridge, 7-6.

Anderson’s first home run broke a 3-3 tie in CSUN’s four-run seventh inning. Anderson delivered his second blast in the eighth to seal the win. Mark Hebert had three hits for CSUN, and Anderson, Jim Vatcher, John Balfanz and Chris Pinsak each had two. Pinsak was the only player for CSUN (31-17, 14-9 in conference) to have two hits in the second game.

Dave Borell allowed only one earned run in 5 innings of relief as Pierce defeated Santa Barbara, 7-5, to complete the sweep of a Western State Conference doubleheader at Pierce. Borell (2-0), who entered in the second inning after starter George Plyer was forced to leave with a sore arm, had four strikeouts for Pierce (13-17, 9-12). Mike Rosenberg was 2 for 2 with three runs batted in and Sabastian Goodlow also had two hits, including his second home run. Pierce won the first game, 7-6, on Darrin Cornell’s grand slam. Cornell’s home run, his fourth, highlighted a five-run seventh that enabled Pierce to turn a three-run deficit into a 6-4 lead.

Eddie Hall’s two-run home run highlighted a four-run fourth as Moorpark held on to defeat Cuesta, 7-5, in the first game of a Western State Conference doubleheader at Moorpark. Cuesta won the second game, 15-3.

In the first game, Moorpark starter Dan Russell (4-2) left in the ninth with a 7-3 lead, but reliever Joe Salomon walked the only three batters he faced and Cuesta cut the deficit to 7-5. David Raper relieved Salomon and retired the next three batters to pick up his second save for Moorpark (19-4, 12-9).