College Baseball : Southland’s Division I Title Races Heating Up

With less than three weeks left in the regular season, it appears that the race for conference titles and regional berths will come down to the final games in all three Southland Division I conferences--the Pacific 10 Southern Division, the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. and the West Coast Athletic Conference.

The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. will conduct eight regional tournaments of six teams each. The winners advance to the College World Series. Twenty-seven teams automatically qualify by winning conference titles, and the remaining 21 are chosen by the NCAA. The regionals are scheduled for May 26-30.

There is no team hotter than Arizona State in the Pac-10 Southern Division. The Sun Devils are ranked third in the country and since March 6 have won 23 straight games, moving from last place to first place.

The big turning point probably was a three-day boot camp Coach Jim Brock put the team through after losing six straight conference games.

ASU went to Hawaii during spring break, arriving four days before the start of their three-game series with the University of Hawaii. Instead of spending the extra time on the beach, however, the Sun Devils spent it reviewing fundamentals.

Since then, ASU (43-8 overall, 14-7 in conference play) hasn’t lost a game, in large part because of solid pitching. Ace right-hander Linty Ingram is 13-2 with a 3.15 earned-run average. Blas Minor has a 5-1 record, 6 saves and a 2.36 ERA; Gordy Farmer is 5-0 with a 3.77 ERA. Rusty Kilgo, a left-handed reliever, is 5-1 mark with 3 saves and a 3.18 ERA. The team’s batting average is .315.

ASU is putting its streak--and first place--on the line this weekend in a three-game series at second-place Stanford.

Stanford is winning enough games to stay on the heels of the Sun Devils. The team’s problems have been inconsistent relief pitching and ace Lee Plemel, who is only 5-6 with a 5.60 ERA.

Fortunately for Stanford, its two freshman pitchers, Mike Mussina and Stan Spencer, have a combined 12-2 record. Cardinal bats were slow to come around but are consistent now and the team batting average was .301 at the start of the week.

California and USC, waging a battle for third place, are waging it against one another this weekend at Dedeaux Field.

In late March, just about the time Cal got swept by Loyola Marymount in a nonconference series, the Bears also lost their best starting pitchers, Travis Willis with tendinitis and Mark Juhas with a sore elbow. They each missed several conference starts.

Then, in what coach Bob Milano believes was an effort to compensate, the team began to press. The Bears have lost 10 of their last 16 and are batting .250 in April. Juhas and Willis are both back, however.

USC, after winning 15 straight games to start the season and then sweeping both Arizona and Arizona State, lost ground when starter Randy Powers developed a sore arm. Although he has a 9-3 record, his ERA is 4.46 and he has not pitched effectively since March 19.

Darrin Beer, the only other experienced Trojan starter, has done his part by pitching three complete games in his last five starts. He has an 8-4 record with a 3.42 ERA.

In the PCAA, Fresno State has a 41-6 overall record, a 12-0 conference mark and the nation’s longest winning streak, 24 games. The second-ranked Bulldogs also have won 33 of their last 34 games.

Fresno’s starting pitchers, John Salles, Erik Schullstrom and Rich Crane, have combined for 33 wins and only 2 losses. They have 28 complete games and an ERA of 2.14.

Fresno’s batting order has no holes, either. The Bulldogs are averaging 13 hits a game and outscoring opponents by 6 runs a game. The team has a .349 batting average and 73 home runs, 23 by senior first baseman Lance Shebelut.

Cal State Fullerton, 31-11 and 9-3, is tied with Nevada Las Vegas for second place in the PCAA after winning two of three close games from the Rebels last weekend.

Fullerton’s next major conference series is against Fresno State next weekend at Fullerton. UNLV will close out the conference schedule by playing host to Fresno State May 6-8.

Loyola Marymount was undefeated in the WCAC at 12-0 and 39-10 overall going into the weekend, but was only half a game ahead of Pepperdine, 13-2-1 and 27-18-1 overall. The conference title may come down to the final series of the season May 6-8, when Pepperdine plays four games at Loyola.

Loyola’s pitching has been suspect all season. Although the Lions give up a lot of runs, they score even more. The staff ERA is 4.67, but the team batting average is .343, best in the league.

Pepperdine got off to a slow start, then lost pitcher Craig Stiveson to tendinitis. Doug Simons, 7-2 with a 3.09 ERA, has helped pick up the slack. He has eight complete games, four in conference play.