College Baseball : Stanford Cools Off USC, Quickly

The Stanford Cardinal breezed into town last weekend and quickly put an end to USC’s 15-game winning streak, the Trojans’ best start. Until this season, USC’s fastest start had been 14-0 in 1943.

A Friday night crowd of 1,898, Dedeaux Field’s largest since the Trojan glory years of the 1970s, watched Lee Plemel pitch the Cardinal to a 13-4 victory. Plemel, Stanford’s ace, is from Laguna Hills High School.

Stanford also won Saturday, although the Trojans rallied from a five-run deficit in the eighth inning before losing, 7-6. Freshman pitcher Mike Mussina, who turned down a $200,000 signing bonus from the Baltimore Orioles last year to attend Stanford, combined with Steve Chitren for the win.

But USC fared better Sunday. The game was rained out and rescheduled for April 18 at Dedeaux Field.

All along, USC Coach Mike Gillespie said he welcomed the winning streak but that he was looking to conference play as a real test of the Trojans’ strength. Although USC had played some highly regarded teams, until last weekend the Trojans hadn’t met a team with the maturity, experience and depth of Stanford.

Stanford hit USC pitchers hard both games, knocking out starters Randy Powers and Darrin Beer early. Powers and Beer are two of the pitchers who led the Trojans to a 15-0 mark.

Even so, Stanford Coach Mark Marquess had this to say about USC: “They have solid, good pitching, and they throw the ball over the plate. Anytime they have that type of pitching, they are going to be successful.”

Unfortunately for the Trojans, that pitching may be just too little to last too long.

Add USC: Gillespie reflecting on his team: “We are obviously a team that believes in streaks. Now we have a streak of three going.”

His reference was to USC’s three straight losses since the 15 straight victories--two to Stanford and a 15-7 drubbing at the hands of Cal State Northridge.

“We enjoyed the fact we played well during (the winning streak) and we know it paid dividends to help our young players’ confidence. Now, we’re just trying to figure out how we did it!”

Add Stanford: “What’s wrong with Stanford . . . “ came the cry a couple weeks ago when the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. defending champions’ record was 5-5 with a team batting average of .240.

Perhaps UCLA Coach Gary Adams answered it best: “There’s nothing wrong with Stanford. I wish there was something wrong with them. Just wait, they’ll be there.”

Stanford proceeded to win its next five games, raising its batting average 40 points to .280, with the help of seven home runs and eight doubles.

On the mound, the preseason question marks, freshmen Mussina and Stan Spencer have earned spots in the starting rotation and have a combined 4-0 record with an earned-run average of 1.54.

Last add Stanford: Last season, Stanford players believed the key to their winning the national championship was teamwork. They believed in it so strongly, in fact, that they voted the team the most valuable player of the 1987 season.

Loyola Marymount continues as the top-ranked team in Southern California. The Lions also are rated seventh nationally, up from No. 15 in preseason polls. Loyola’s record is 15-3.

Coach Dave Snow’s philosophy is to play a tough nonconference schedule to gear up for West Coast Athletic Conference play, which doesn’t begin until mid-March. Loyola’s victories over such highly regarded teams as Arizona State and UCLA are part of the reason for the Lions’ high ranking.

“For the most part, we’re a lot like our basketball team,” Snow said. “We give up a lot of points. I would say our team has a good balance on defense and offense, and there is more depth, position player-wise, than I have had with the three previous teams here.”

Early season injuries forced the Lions to play without three infield starters--shortstop Carl Fraticelli, second baseman Bobby DeJardin and third baseman Don Sparks. Still, the Lions won.

“With those three key players out, we were able to win and develop confidence,” Snow said. “We can have a starter get hurt and go down and we still have the capability to fill in. There is more versatility--we have had 10 different players hit home runs. That in itself is a statement.”

The Hawaii Rainbows have a hard-to-resist way of luring guests from the mainland. They help out with travel expenses, schedule all games on weekends, then play them at night so that visiting teams can take advantage of Oahu’s sun and surf.

And, by the time the visitors get to the ballpark, the Rainbows proceed, one way or another, to beat their sun-drained guests.

The Rainbows (8-5) play all of their nonconference games at home. So far this year they have swept San Jose State, taken two of three from Stanford, and won one each from California, Loyola and Hilo. But it’s doubtful the results would be the same if the Rainbows played those games on the road. A look at the scores show a definite pattern.

Stanford, still fresh off the plane, shut out the Rainbows in their first game. But Saturday the Cardinal players had fun in the sun, then returned to Rainbow Stadium and lost, 5-4, in 10 innings. By Sunday night, tired Stanford hung on for 14 innings before losing, 4-3. In both extra-inning losses, Stanford walked in the winning runs.

Loyola’s Hawaiian experience is similar, only the Lions didn’t make the pitching errors and were able to win two of three. Friday night, the Lions were semi-fresh, having arrived Wednesday, and they barely won, 8-7. Saturday night they had to play 14 innings before winning, 9-6. And by Sunday night, they were vacationed out, losing 8-2.

College Baseball Notes

Pacific 10 Southern Division standings: California, 3-0, 15-5; Stanford, 2-0, 13-5; Arizona, 1-1, 17-5; UCLA, 2-3, 12-6; ASU, 2-4, 20-5; USC, 0-2, 15-3. . . . ESPN will televise live UCLA’s game at Stanford Saturday at 11 a.m. Ron Franklin will provide play-by-play and Joe Morgan the commentary. . . . California swept Arizona State last weekend, marking the first time ASU has been swept at home in conference play since 1980, when Cal also was the spoiler. . . . Texas Coach Cliff Gustafson won his 1,000th game February 21. . . . Nevada Las Vegas Coach Fred Dallimore recorded his 500th victory Feb. 14.