Last Time, Olson Got a Snow Job

Wendy Olson vividly remembers the last time a Cal Lutheran softball team traveled to Cedar City, Utah, for an NAIA regional playoff series.

“It had just snowed, so the fields had to be burned off and covered with sawdust,” Olson said.

Olson was a senior catcher for Cal Lutheran when the Regals lost a three-game series to Southern Utah State in 1986. When Olson returns Friday, however, it will be as the Cal Lutheran coach.

The Regals earned their second regional playoff berth in three years by winning four consecutive games Saturday to clinch the District 3 title.

Cal Lutheran (32-14) needs to win the best-of-three series against Southern Utah, the District 7 champion, to earn its first berth in the NAIA national tournament May 19-21 in Oklahoma City.

For Olson, qualifying for the national championships would help make up for the disappointment she felt two seasons ago as a player.

“I’m hungry to go to the nationals,” Olson said. “It’s even more important now to qualify because we’ve been stopped at the district level so many times.”

Softball awards: Cal State Northridge pitcher Debbie Dickmann, pitcher-outfielder Lisa Martin and outfielder Beth Onestinghel were named to the NCAA Division II All-West Region first team. Catcher Regina Lyons was a second-team selection.

Dickmann, Martin, Onestinghel and Lyons also were first-team All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. selections, as were teammates Delanee Anderson, Pam Smith and Kim Bernstein.

Add awards: Malia Ouzts, a sophomore catcher from Moorpark College, was selected player of the year in the Western State Conference for the second consecutive season.

She led the conference in batting (.440), hits (55) and runs scored (36).

Freshman right-hander De Dow was the conference’s pitcher of the year. Dow (17-6) led the conference in strikeouts (132) and earned-run average (0.92). She also two perfect games among her three no-hitters.

Moorpark first baseman Laura Detweiler, infielder Julie Myers and outfielder Jamie McDaniels also made the first team.

Infielder Heidi Leal and outfielder Tammy Ottino were second-team selections.

Will Thurston of Moorpark was named coach of the year for the second consecutive season and fourth time in the past five years.

Lone representative: Jon Egertson of Cal Lutheran was the only Kingsmen selected to the All-NAIA District 3 first team.

The senior third baseman led the team in batting (.413), doubles (13), runs batted in (31) and walks (23). Cal Lutheran was 21-23, 15-14 in district play.

Standout sophs: Sophomores Debbie Ball and Anna Howald lead a group of seven athletes from Moorpark College who qualified for the Southern California junior college track championships, which will be held Saturday at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.

Ball and Armstrong will compete in the 1,500-meter run, along with freshman Ramon Perez. Ball also will run in the 3,000, along with sophomore Kristy Armstrong.

Also competing are: freshman Matt Thomson (steeplechase), sophomore Ken Lowther (shotput) and freshman Stacy Gibson (long jump).

Masterful: Jeff Holen and Tod Skinner of The Master’s College were selected to the All-NAIA District 3 first team.

Holen, a senior first baseman, set a school record for home runs (11) and triples (eight). He hit .341 with a team-high 10 doubles and 48 RBIs, one shy of the school record.

Skinner, a senior infielder, collected 71 hits to set a school season record. He hit .372 and had 16 doubles.

WSC elite: Tim Nedin, a sophomore left-hander who won 12 of 13 decisions this year, was one of three players from the College of the Canyons selected to the All-Western State Conference first team.

Jeff Flesher also made the squad, along with Billy Picketts.

First baseman John Glantz, outfielder Chris Joy and reliever Kevin Miner were second-team picks.

Moorpark’s Corey Aurand, who batted a team-high .372, was another first-team pick. The sophomore center fielder hit .406 with seven home runs in conference play.

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, Gary Klein, Ralph Nichols and Lauren Peterson contributed to this notebook.