BASEBALL : All-CCAA Squad Includes 8 CSUN Players and 1 Notable Omission in Scott McIntyre

Cal State Northridge placed eight players on the All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. baseball team.

John Balfanz, who led CSUN with 16 home runs, was a repeat selection on the first team. He was joined by third baseman Tim Rapp, outfielder Jim Vatcher and pitcher Dan Penner.

Pitcher Jeremy Hernandez was a second-team selection for the second straight year. He was joined by pitcher John LaRosa and outfielders Lenn Gilmore and Mark Anderson.

Apparently overlooked in the vote of coaches was CSUN catcher Scott McIntyre, who hit .321 with a .981 fielding percentage in 27 conference games.

Darren Nelson of Chapman was voted the most valuable player in the conference. Mike Aspray of Cal State Dominguez Hills and Charlie Webb of Cal Poly Pomona were co-pitchers of the year. Andy Lopez of CCAA-champion Dominguez Hills was coach of the year.

Add honors: Doug Simon and Pete Kuld, both juniors, were among eight Pepperdine players named first-team All-West Coast Athletic Conference in a vote of conference baseball coaches Tuesday.

Simon, a left-hander from Calabasas High, was 10-3 with three saves and a 3.50 earned-run average.

Kuld, a catcher from College of the Canyons, batted .312 with 36 runs batted in, 10 doubles and 7 home runs.

Other Pepperdine players on the all-league conference team were first baseman Scott Shockey, shortstop Paul Faries, outfielders Steve Erickson and Rick Hirtensteiner, freshman pitcher Craig Stiveson and designated-hitter Ruben Gonzalez.

Faries and Erickson, who were teammates at Campolindo High in Moraga, Calif., shared player of the year honors, Stiveson was rookie of the year and Dave Gorrie was coach of the year as Pepperdine dominated the postseason honors.

Pepperdine (46-10-3) breezed to the WCAC championship with a 22-2 record and is ranked second in the nation by Collegiate Baseball magazine/ESPN and third by Baseball America magazine.

Andy Skeels, a catcher who played at Thousand Oaks High and Oxnard College before going to University of Arkansas, has tied the Razorbacks record for home runs in a single season. Skeels’ 17 homers equaled the record set by Kevin McReynolds and Jeff King.

He is batting .377 and leads the team in doubles (23), triples (7) and runs batted in (72).

“His power production has been a real surprise,” said Rick Schaeffer, Arkansas sports information director. “Nothing that he did a year ago indicated that he’d hit that many home runs.”

In Skeels’ first season at the school, he hit four homers.

Rivals: If familiarity breeds contempt, there should be no love lost this weekend when College of the Canyons (30-7-1) travels to Wilmington to play Los Angeles Harbor College (35-8) for a best-of-three series to open the the Southern California regional playoffs.

“In the last 10 years it’s been a tradition for us to play Harbor,” said Coach Len Mohney, whose Western State Conference-champion Cougars are ranked third in a Southland poll. Harbor, winner of the Southern California Conference American Division, is ranked fourth.

“In 1978, Harbor eliminated us and won the state championships. In 1981 and ’83 we won and they were the runner-up. In ‘84, they eliminated us and went on to win the state championship. Last year we eliminated them in the regionals. This year they will be trying to do the same to us.”

Mohney has named Fred Riscen (8-3, 2.17 ERA) as his starting pitcher in Saturday’s 1 p.m. opening game. Jeff Ward (7-1, 2.49 ERA) will pitch in Game 2 at 11 a.m. Sunday.

No justice: Lenn Gilmore was not in the Cal State Northridge lineup in the Matadors’ regular-season finale against Cal State Los Angeles on Friday. Gilmore was hit on the wrist by a pitch during batting practice and was replaced in right field by Craig Burns, who had been the team’s designated-hitter. Scott Stewart was the player who actually filled in for Gilmore, taking Burns’ spot at DH. Stewart was also the player who threw the pitch that nicked hit Gilmore.