Lions 3rd in League but Still Expect to Make NCAA Baseball Playoffs

For the second straight season, Loyola Marymount finished third in the West Coast Athletic Conference baseball race, but this year it will be surprising if the Lions are passed over by the NCAA playoff selection committee.

Loyola split its weekend series with conference champion Pepperdine to complete the season, then had to sit idly this week while Santa Clara made up two rain-outs. Santa Clara won both games to bump Loyola out of second by a half-game.

In the tightly bunched final standings, Pepperdine finished 19-4-1, Santa Clara 18-5-1 and Loyola 18-6. In overall records, however, Loyola is on top at 46-16. Santa Clara is next at 40-16. Ironically, Pepperdine, which automatically qualified for the NCAA regionals by winning the title, has the least impressive overall record of the three, 34-22-1. Loyola’s victory total is third best in the West. Santa Clara’s is a school record.

The question now is whether the NCAA will take three teams from the WCAC. All three are ranked in the top 25 nationally. Despite a late-season slump, Lions Coach Dave Snow pointed out, Loyola played the most competitive schedule of the three and “46 wins should get you into the tournament.”

It’s thought that about 14 West Coast teams are under consideration for NCAA berths. The Pacific 6, traditionally the most prestigious conference, has four nationally ranked teams: Arizona State, UC Berkeley, USC and defending NCAA champion Stanford. However, only Arizona State has an impressive conference record, and the WCAC and Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. have done well in interconference games.

Loyola has beaten all four Pac-6 teams, including a three-game sweep of Berkeley. The Lions have also beaten UCLA.

The PCAA has three powerful contenders in Fresno State, Nevada-Las Vegas and Cal State Fullerton. The Western Athletic Conference boasts Brigham Young, Hawaii and San Diego State, and the Norpac is led by Washington State. Another Norpac team could enter the picture by beating Washington State in the Norpac postseason tournament, which will determine the automatic qualifier.

Actually, selection as an at-large team could work to Loyola’s advantage. Scouts and coaches at last weekend’s Pepperdine series speculated that the two Western Regional sites would chose among Fresno State, Arizona State and Stanford, all of which can seat several thousand people. “You don’t want to play at Fresno or Arizona State,” one scout said. “Nobody (but the home team) wins there.”

Full pairings will be announced by May 23. Regionals start May 25 and 26. However, Loyola hopes to know if it’s selected by early next week.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills women’s softball team won eight of its last 13 games to finish with a 25-37 record. The Lady Toros played respectable ball but had trouble scoring runs and again struggled in the tough California Collegiate Athletic Assn., where they won only 2 of 16 games against some of the nation’s top-ranked teams.

Senior third baseman Lisa Marzlo was the Lady Toros’ top performer and received all-CCAA first-team honors this week, while sophomore outfielder Maria Romero was named to the second team for the second straight year. Marzlo set school career records for games played (226), at-bats (663), hits (153) and runs batted in (57). Romero led the team in several offensive categories, hitting three home runs and setting a season record with 26 RBIs.

Other notable achievements: Pitcher Denise Biller tied her school record with 33 games pitched and Coach Jennifer Gorecki ran her two-year victory total to 55, putting her atop the career wins list.

Kris Anderson, the women’s tennis team leader for three seasons, and Mark Armstrong, a four-year starter and unsung hero of the record-setting basketball team, have been named Loyola Marymount female and male athletes of the year.

Anderson, a junior and the Lions’ No. 1 singles player and part of the No. 1 doubles team, who is one of the top-rated players in the Southern California Tennis Assn. open rankings, has also been involved in Special Olympics and has written for the Loyolan, a school publication, while maintaining a 3.6 grade average.

Armstrong, a 6-foot-6 forward, was the team’s co-captain and top defensive player in the front court and finished his career second in rebounding in school history, helping lead the Lions to a 28-4 record this season and a West Coast Athletic Conference title, Top 20 ranking and national scoring lead. He’ll graduate on schedule with a degree in business administration.

Cal State Dominguez Hills will hold a fund-raising golf tournament to benefit its athletic scholarship program June 6 at Rolling Hills Country Club. The 18-hole Toro Golf Invitational has a $100 entry fee that includes 1 p.m. shotgun tee-off, prizes--including trips to San Diego and Newport Beach and various sporting goods--and an awards dinner at Trani’s Majestic restaurant in San Pedro. For tournament information, call the Dominguez Hills athletic department, 516-3893.

College Notes

In Dominguez Hills’ five-game winning streak last week, reliever Chris Haslock revived memories of last year when he set a school record in saves. He had a save in each of the five games. They were his first saves of the season. . . . Entering the final week of play, the Toros’ Ruben Jauregui was batting .403, 23 points ahead of nearest competition. With a solid finish, Jauregui will lead the CCAA in batting and set a school record. He was 12-for-23 (.522) last week. Jon Beuder set the Dominguez Hills record last year at .368. . . . Two former El Camino College track stars won conference titles for Cal State Los Angeles last weekend. In the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet, which also served as NCAA Western regionals, junior Darryl Gilliams won the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.12, fourth best in school history, and junior Jerry Coulson won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 51.80, sixth best in school history. Cal State L.A. easily won the team title. . . . Sign of the times: At Loyola Marymount baseball games last weekend, the snack bar was selling baseball cards of Billy Bean, who helped lead the Lions to the College World Series in 1986. The asking price: $1.