Community College Notebook : Golden West’s Baseball Team Gets Some Attention at Last

Golden West College’s baseball team has had a tough time getting noticed much of this season.

Most of the attention before the conference season started went to Fullerton, El Camino and Cerritos, the defending state champion.

Golden West had a pair of nonconference victories over Rancho Santiago, the top-ranked team in the state, but the Rustlers still struggled for respect. Golden West was ranked no higher than eighth in the Southern California poll.

But Golden West swept through the first three games of conference play last week as the only undefeated team. The Rustlers shut out Pasadena, 6-0, beat Compton, 17-4, and defeated El Camino, 5-4, in 11 innings.

No one expects Pasadena or Compton to be in the conference race, but El Camino is one of the quality teams in the conference.

“At least we know we can beat a good team in conference,” said Fred Hoover, Golden West coach. “We know we can play with the better teams around, but we still have to prove it in conference.”

Golden West is now ranked fifth in the Southern California poll, but has a difficult week ahead. Golden West (12-6, 3-0) plays host to Fullerton (15-4-1, 1-2) today at 2:30 p.m., is at Cerritos (16-6, 2-1) for a 2:30 game Thursday and at Long Beach (8-7, 2-1) Saturday at noon.

“Every year all the coaches say it’s going to be a close race with a lot of teams involved,” Hoover said. “But about the middle of the season some team always seems to pull away. But I don’t see that happening this season. With all I’ve seen, there are a lot of teams about the same. But we should be able to hang in there.”

Golden West’s pitching is one of the reasons Hoover is so enthusiastic about his team’s chances. Golden West has a team earned-run average of 4.08, which is much better than previous seasons. Golden West had a team ERA of 5.39 last season.

Ken Hokuf (4-1, 3.32 ERA) and Tom Thobe (4-1, 4.07 ERA) are Golden West’s top pitchers.

Jack Fullerton, who coached water polo at Orange Coast from 1965 to 1984, is returning to the job, the college announced Monday.

Fullerton coached OCC to state titles in 1968 and 1972, but retired for medical reasons after the 1984 season. Fullerton remained a physical education teacher at OCC the last three years. He replaces Bob Shupp, who was a walk-on coach last season.

Community College Notes

Tina Constable won three individual events and was part of four winning relays as the Orange Coast women’s swim team won the Cuesta Invitational Saturday. Constable won the 50-yard freestyle (24.73 seconds), 100 freestyle (55.11) and the 50 butterfly (27.12). All three times are best in the state so far. She was also part of the 200 and 400 freestyle and the 200 and 400 medley relay teams. . . . OCC, the defending Orange Empire Conference baseball champion, is off to an 0-2 start in conference play this season (15-11-1 overall) and one of the reasons in the lack of hitting. OCC’s first four hitters--Jason Young, Darrel Conner, Mike Misuraca and Derek Dedashtian--are a combined 1 for 29. Dedashtian has the only hit, a leadoff double in the sixth innning of OCC’s 4-3 loss to Saddleback Saturday. It was the first time in 15 innings in conference play that OCC got the leadoff hitter on base in an inning.