College Notebook : ‘Intruder’s’ Prank Left Him in Stitches

Mopar, a frisky Alaskan malamute and former friend of Matt Bellers, outside hitter for the Pierce College volleyball team, took a chunk out of the Brahmas’ hopes for a Western State Conference championship. He did it by taking a bite out of Bellers.

The sophomore needed 78 stitches in his head to close the gash left by Mopar. Bellers was trying to pull a practical joke on his neighbor, the dog’s owner, by sneaking into his house and surprising a group of friends.

“I wanted to surprise them, but I guess the only one I surprised was the dog,” Bellers said. “When the dog finally saw me, we were eye to eye.”

Bellers, who hopes to be playing again by next week, said the neighbor is a longtime family friend. “So was the dog,” he added.

Indoor sports: Brian Clark and Tony Palamara, who played side by side on the Cal State Northridge offensive line last season, have made the final 21-player roster of the Cobras, Los Angeles’ new arena football team.

Speed and agility are more important than size in arena football, which is played indoors on a playing surface half the size of a regulation field. Clark (6-1, 255) played center for CSUN. Palamara (6-2, 260) is a guard.

The Cobras, who dropped a 58-51 decision to the New England Steamrollers in an exhibition game last week, open the regular season next Saturday at the L. A. Sports Arena against the New York Knights.

Tiner was finer: De Dow could only duck Joy Tiner so long, and when the Moorpark College pitcher finally chose to pitch to the slugger from Saddleback College, the inevitable happened: a home run--inside-the-park--that gave Saddleback a 1-0 win in 14 innings.

Dow, who has two no-hitters this season, had intentionally walked Tiner twice with runners in scoring position during Monday’s game. Dow allowed only seven hits, but her record dropped to 14-6.

Kingsman honored: Jon Egertson, a senior third baseman from Cal Lutheran, was selected Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Week. He went 6 for 10 with a home run, scored 4 runs and had 3 runs batted in 3 games last week. The former Thousand Oaks High teammate of Kansas City Royals shortstop Kurt Stillwell leads the Kingsmen with a .449 batting average and six home runs.

CLU signing: Eddie Lample, an All-Delphic League catcher from Crossroads High, signed a letter of intent Wednesday with Cal Lutheran. Lample (6-0, 165) is batting .395 with five doubles, a home run and a triple in 21 games. He has been rated one of the 12 best high school catchers in the West by the Major League Scouting Bureau.

Streakers: Coach Bob Lyons expected the Pierce College baseball team’s 10-game losing streak to end last Saturday when Scott Schaeffer batted with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning against Cuesta College.

Instead, Schaeffer flied out, the Brahmas lost, 6-5, the streak continued and the coach was left more frustrated than ever.

“It was very disappointing,” said Lyons, whose team dropped to 10-15, 3-13 in the Western State Conference. “We had other opportunities with guys looking at third strikes with a runner on third.”

Pierce’s next chance to snap its skein comes today at College of the Canyons. But the Cougars are 24-4, 16-1 in the WSC, and, worse, miffed that their 21-game winning streak was snapped by Bakersfield, 5-1, Tuesday.

Triple treat: It used to be that Cal State Northridge always found a way to lose a track meet to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but, oh, how times have changed.

With sophomores Tyrone Jeffries and Kevin Hendrix leading the way, Northridge defeated Cal Poly for the third consecutive time, 85-74, in San Luis Obispo on Saturday.