Six County Players Are Out One Coach : While His Recruits Travel East, Cochell Switches to the West

Six Orange County baseball players who were recruited to Northwestern University found out just before their departure to Illinois Thursday that the coach who recruited them won’t be there when they arrive. He’ll be in Orange County, where he has accepted the job of baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton.

Late Thursday afternoon, Frank Appice of El Toro, Bob Brucato of Mission Viejo, Todd Krueger of Irvine, Greg Martin of Huntington Beach, Dave Staton of Costa Mesa and Dave Van Winkle of Los Alamitos were packed and ready to drive to Evanston, Ill.

Each had secured a baseball scholarship at Northwestern and planned to play for Wildcat Coach Larry Cochell.

But just before they left, the bad news came. While in Chicago, Cochell called the Orange County players to tell them he wouldn’t be in Evanston when they arrived. He wouldn’t even be close.

“I thought he was kidding me,” said Brucato, an All-Orange Empire Conference outfielder last season for Rancho Santiago College. “We were all so excited, planning everything out, then he calls and says, ‘Bob, I have some bad news. I took the Fullerton job.’ I realized he wasn’t kidding, and my chin hit the ground. He went on talking for about five minutes, but I was just sitting there going, ‘I just can’t believe this.’ We had hit it off so well.”

The players had been told that Cochell was considering the Fullerton job last week, but were reassured to hear he had turned the offer down.

“We were real scared at first that he might be leaving,” Brucato said. “But then he called from his hotel (in Fullerton) and said ‘No, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re going to have a lot of fun.’ That was his last comment. It still sticks in my mind.”

Krueger, a former pitcher at University High School, left USC after his freshman year this spring. He signed with Northwestern 2 1/2 weeks ago.

“He (Cochell) had told us that we were going to put Northwestern on the map,” Krueger said. “The drive’s going to be a bummer now, I guess.”

Staton was a designated hitter at Orange Coast College, Van Winkle a pitcher at Loyola Marymount, Appice a left fielder for Rancho Santiago and Martin a catcher and short reliever for Golden West College.

Though most of the players expressed disappointment, they said they would not follow Cochell to Fullerton.

“It wouldn’t be fair to leave Northwestern and my teammates now,” Brucato said. “And I’ve already packed my U-Haul. I was really looking forward to playing for the man, though.”

Cochell, who recruits heavily in Southern California, said he has no intention of recruiting the players to Fullerton.

“The boys I recruited to come to Northwestern should go to Northwestern,” he said. “They shouldn’t even consider making a change.”