College Division : Young UC Riverside Club Surprises Smitheran

At the start of the season, UC Riverside baseball coach Jack Smitheran didn’t exactly have that championship feeling.

He had only three seniors and only four players with noteworthy experience from last season.

Not only that, but Riverside had finished fifth in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. at 12-18 last year--28-23 overall--so it was no wonder that the Highlanders were not considered among the strong contenders.

The outlook didn’t appear any rosier once the season started.

Three of the team’s four starting pitchers were quickly injured. Randy Jackson has not played since suffering a muscle strain March 9, Steve Green broke his elbow five games into the season and will probably miss the rest of the season, and Mitch Ferrick developed arm problems Feb. 22 and did not pitch again until last week against Chapman.

Even Troy Kent, the lone uninjured starter, missed two weeks of play because of the flu.

That helps explain why the Highlanders struggled to a 4-10 early-season record.

But it certainly does not explain what has happened since then.

Riverside has won 21 of its last 27 games, boosting its record to 25-16 overall and moving into first place in the CCAA with a 13-5 record. The Highlanders, 1 1/2 games ahead of Cal Poly Pomona at 10-6, began the week ranked No. 18 in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s Division II by Collegiate Baseball.

Smitheran, who has a 443-355 record and two Division II titles in 15 years as coach of the Highlanders, said that the turnabout has been surprising, although he noticed signs of progress early in the season.

“Even when we were going bad, the team seemed to have a resiliency about them that they were going to bounce back,” Smitheran said.

“We thought we had a certain degree of talent but you go through the fall season and you don’t really know how the kids will react until they get a uniform on and fans are in the stands,” he said.

“Within the last 10 to 15 ballgames, we’re getting good pitching and we’re starting to get hitting in key situations.”

Sophomore third baseman Mike Eatinger is hitting .374 with 6 home runs and 45 runs batted in. Sophomore second baseman Ty Murphy is at .350 with 3 homers and 32 RBIs. And sophomore first baseman Logan Ostrander is at .345 with 5 homers and 28 RBIs.

Eatinger is batting .541 in April and Murphy has been hitting well most of the season since starting the year with a school-record 29-game hitting streak.

The only senior among the team’s starting position players is shortstop Matt Beltran, who is hitting .345 with 8 homers and 33 RBIs.

There has been no shortage of postseason honors for college division Southland basketball coaches and players in recent weeks.

Topping the list is Cal Poly Pomona Coach Darlene May, who has been named NCAA Division II coach of the year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn.

Not a bad choice considering that the Broncos finished with a 28-4 record, won their seventh straight California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title and reached the Division II quarterfinals despite having only 1 senior--and 7 freshmen--on their 12-player roster.

May’s leading scorer, junior point guard Cathy Gooden, was the only West Coast player selected to the Division II All-American team chosen by the WBCA. Gooden, who was also named to the All-CCAA and All-District 8 first teams, led the conference in scoring with a 20.2 average. Guard Paula Tezak, the team’s only senior, and sophomore center Niki Bracken were also named to the All-District 8 team.

Biola, which had a 31-5 record and finished third in the National Christian College Athletic Assn., placed 6-5 senior forward Johnny Griffin on the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics’ All-American team. Griffin led the Eagles by averaging 21.2 points and 7.7 rebounds and making 65% of his shots.

Biola co-coach Dave Holmquist was also honored by the NCCAA as coach of the year for the 1987-88 season. Holmquist, who has an impressive record of 246-51 and an .828 winning percentage in nine years at Biola, was also named the NAIA District III coach of the year for the second time.

It marked the end of an era for the Biola men’s basketball program when Howard Lyon resigned as the team’s co-coach last week.

The 59-year-old Lyon coached for 34 seasons including the last 17 at Biola. He has shared the coaching duties with Holmquist the last nine seasons. Lyon, who will continue to teach physical education classes and conduct a summer basketball camp at Biola, leaves the coaching profession with a 726-276 overall record, 401-143 at Biola.

With the resignation of Lyon, Holmquist will be Biola’s head coach.