Toro Baseball--Some Good News and Some Bad : All that Was Rosy for the Men Last Season Has Turned to Shades of Blue as Injuries and, Inexperience Take Toll

Is this what they call the post-World Series blues?

Last year was a Cinderella season for the Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team. For the first time in the school’s history, the Toros went to the Division II College World Series. They did it in exciting fashion, trampling over opponents to win 32 of their last 38 games and 12 of their last 13.

A team that had gotten hot down the stretch wasn’t about to slow down. Cal State Chico couldn’t stop them, losing 12-1 in the state regional. Cal State Northridge was the next victim, as the Toros swept the Matadors in a double header, 5-1 and 6-3, to get to the Series, where they went 1-2 before being eliminated.

Now it’s a new season, and the Toros, with last season’s euphoria and No. 5 ranking behind them, are once again experiencing life on the tough side of the tracks.

After playing 12 Division I schools, the Toros are 9-15 overall and 0-6 in league play and have a long way to go to recapture the magic of last season. Seven of those losses have been to Division I opponents.

“It’s hard to learn character when you win,” Coach Andy Lopez said. “Sometimes when you have a losing situation and aren’t winning the way you are accustomed to, you do find out about your character.”

It is not just the losing that concerns Lopez. This season, he has seen players fall one by one like dominoes to injury. He lost three starters, had three others in and out of the lineup due to injuries and saw three players playing out of position--including a pitcher playing center field. The Toros squad that was once 31 players at times was whittled down to 20.

There were the usual bang-ups and ankle problems. Catcher Mike McCarthy had chicken pox and pitcher Joe Cortez has shoulder problems. But a few of the other injuries occurred in rather bizarre fashion:

In a game at Cypress in January, second baseman John Paboojian ran past first base trying to beat out a bunt attempt and snapped his thigh bone. He’s out for the season.

Infielder Craig Turley was warming up before a game against Loyola when the left side of his body wet numb. It turned out he had a cyst in his neck and needed spinal surgery.

In Irvine on March 5, first baseman Jeff Sears’ heel was stepped on by a baserunner. Lopez said he thought it was an injury to Sears’ Achilles tendon, though it didn’t turn out to be that serious.

“I did hold my breath and say, ‘Boy, oh boy, what do we do now?’ ” Lopez said. “For the first time as a coach, I didn’t want to go out there to check (on an injury).”

Lopez continues to be the recipient of bad news. “We were just notified (on March 11) that one of our starters (outfielder Joe Pardo) is going to be out a few days with pulled stomach muscles,” Lopez said.

“Makes it pretty difficult to juggle a lineup. We don’t have anything to juggle,” Lopez said.

Dominguez Hills had only 11 players from last season’s team, making for an inexperienced squad. When the season began, Lopez had two principal rules for his team: Be on time and do things right. Recently he added a third: Don’t get hurt.

“We stopped intra-squading in January,” he said.

And as infielder Ruben Jauregui--who has had a nagging shoulder injury--said jokingly, many team members have become familiar with local hospitals. “They know us all,” Jauregui said. “They expect another Dominguez player to come in sometime.”

All the injuries have made the Dominguez Hills baseball team a utility infielder’s dream. Two of the main guns in the depleted Toro attack have been Jauregui and infielder Damon Neidlinger, both junior college transfers who did not experience last season’s euphoric drive to the World Series.

Neidlinger, a first baseman at Napa Valley College, came to Dominguez Hills and was introduced to second base. He hadn’t played that position since age 14.

“I’ve never played it where you had to learn plays and pick-offs,” Neidlinger said.

Neidlinger did not have the smoothest of beginnings at his new position.

It was two out in the bottom of the eighth inning in a game at Long Beach State on March 12. Dominguez Hills was leading 10-2 and Long Beach had a runner on base. A Long Beach player lined a shot off the end of the bat up the middle with a lot of English. It appeared that the backspin shot would spell trouble for the novice second baseman. It did, zipping right between Neidlinger’s legs to score a run. The next batter got an RBI double.

In the bottom of the ninth with one out and a runner on base, Neidlinger booted a grounder hit right to him. When the next batter hit it to him, Neidlinger flawlessly tossed it to the shortstop for one out, who threw it to Jauregui--who dropped the ball.

In a game at UC Riverside on March 15, Neidlinger once again found himself playing hot potato with the baseball. He booted a double-play ball in the sixth inning that led to a run. The Toros lost to Riverside, 10-9, allowing nine of those runs in the sixth inning.

“First base is definitely easier than second,” Neidlinger said. “(At second), as soon as the ball’s hit, your first two steps are your most important steps. If I lag back, that can be an extra hop that gets me. I had a problem when we played Fresno when I booted two balls with two down in the game. I wasn’t reading the hops very well, as everything was in between and they were eating me up. That’s probably been the toughest thing, reading the hops.”

Neidlinger said that at first base, basically all he had to do was knock the ball down and keep it in play. To prepare himself for second base, he moved to third during the winter league to develop his arm strength.

He said the easiest part of second base for him to adjust to is the double play, thanks in part to playing third in the winter.

“It built up my arm a lot,” Neidlinger said. “Having an above-average second baseman’s arm helps a lot. I catch the ball, get rid of it as quick as I can, and it usually gets over to first in pretty good time.

“And (opponents sliding) doesn’t even bother me. I’ve been dumped a couple of times. I don’t even worry about that.”

Lopez doesn’t mind seeing Neidlinger at second base after losing four infielders in a 10-day stretch.

“He’s been a blessing for me,” Lopez said. “From a mental standpoint, he’s been doing a terrific job. From a physical standpoint, he’s not hurting us. He’s doing the best he can, and that’s most I can ask. He’s a fine young man. . . . You have baserunners coming at you at full speed and you have to throw against your body. That’s asking a lot out of a second baseman who’s been there a while.”

“I just want to be a good second baseman,” Neidlinger said. “I don’t care if I was a catcher or just came out of the bullpen.”

Jauregui, usually a third baseman, has been playing first base lately and was considered at catcher when McCarthy got chicken pox. He’s the team’s Theodore Roosevelt: He carries a big stick. Though he thinks he could do better, he’s already leading the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. in hitting (.441), with four homers and 16 RBI.

“I wanted to come in here and help the program out as best I can,” Jauregui said. “Right now, I’m struggling a little, but I feel I should get out of it and help the team the best I could.”

Even though he’s hitting over .400, Jauregui said he doesn’t think he’s hitting the ball hard at all.

“I haven’t been performing the way I like to perform,” Jauregui said. “I feel I have been leaving a lot of runners on base in clutch situations. But it’s still early in the season. I’ll get going.”

Jauregui feels that way about his team, also.

“We’re going to be all right,” he said. “All that’s holding us back is our injuries. With the guys right here, I feel we can win league. This team is good enough to beat anybody, in my opinion, and I know there are a lot of other schools that think we’re out of it already, but we don’t think so. There’s a lot of ballgames left. Right now we’re struggling, but we’ll get out of it.”

That will have to start with the close contests. Like any team that has been struggling with aches and pains, Dominguez Hills has lost its share of heartbreakers, games in which inexperience at key positions was revealed. It was poor defense that proved to be the team’s demise against UC Irvine earlier this season, as the Toros’ 2-1 lead with two out in the bottom of the ninth didn’t stand up.

Neidlinger recalled the painful ending.

“(Chris) Haslock was pitching and the guy hit the ball up the middle. He knocked it down and I think if our shortstop had knocked it down, he would have fielded it. (Haslock) got over to it, but he didn’t have enough time to throw the guy out.

“The next play was a hit and run and the ball was hit into right field, and I don’t know what happened in the outfield, but the guy (on base) ended up scoring. It was tied at 2-2 with a guy on third with two outs. Then the ball was hit back up the middle and the guy knocked it down again. The ball rolled between the mound and third and he threw it over the first baseman’s head.”

And Dominguez Hills lost.

So, how does Jauregui feel about all the injuries?

“What can you do about it?” he said. “You can’t just sit there and think about getting hurt. If you think about it, it going to happen. . . . We’re out here working, breaking our butts out here. We’re going to be all right.”