USC Golfers Cash In on Local Knowledge

Randy Lein, the USC golf coach, said Monday that his team will benefit from a home-course advantage at this week’s NCAA Division I men’s championships at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.

But, judging by scores from the first round of play Wednesday, he was only semi-prophetic .

USC shot a 7-over-par 291 to settle into third place behind Florida (289) and Washington (290).

Yet one player who should have benefited most from previous North Ranch experience, sophomore James Kim, soared to an 82 and did not figure in the team scoring.

“I’ve played this course for five years,” said Kim, who played at North Ranch as a member of the Westlake High golf team. “We haven’t done it all at the same time this year, but if everybody on our team plays like they’re capable we can win this tournament.”

Kim, a native of South Korea, immigrated to the United States with his family at age 8. Unlike many of the players he is competing against this week, Kim did not play in a lot of junior tournaments while he was growing up.

“I played a lot of tournaments the last two years so I’m gaining experience,” Kim said Tuesday. “I still have rounds that I know if I had played longer I would have done better.”

And Wednesday was one of them.

Local shooters: Other area players participating in the tournament include USC’s Mike Blewett, who went to high school in Millbrae, Calif., but lives in Westlake, and UCLA’s Rich Greenwood, who attended Notre Dame High. Blewett shot 74 in the first round and Greenwood carded 82.

Double trouble: After overcoming injuries, two Valley-area products have helped UCLA attain the No. 1 ranking in Division I softball entering this week’s College World Series in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Karen Walker, a junior from El Camino Real High, finished the regular season as the team’s fourth-leading batter despite missing the first six games while recovering from knee surgery. Walker, the Bruins’ starting left fielder, batted .301 and drove in 15 runs.

Samantha Ford, a junior pitcher from Hart, missed 10 games because of mononucleosis but has returned as the Bruins’ No. 2 starter behind All-American Lisa Longaker. Ford has a 17-4 record, an 0.86 earned-run average, 9 shutouts and 15 complete games in 21 starts.

UCLA opened play in the World Series on Wednesday with a 1-0 victory over Northern Illinois.

Rough Day: Debbie Day, a 1987 graduate of Burbank High, set six Southland Conference records in her first season of pitching for Texas Arlington. Day was 31-21 and posted an ERA of 0.77 for UTA, which finished with a 34-27 record.

Day set conference records for victories, appearances (57), complete games (44), shutouts (19), innings pitched (363) and strikeouts (294). She also was second on the team in batting with a .267 average and had 14 RBIs and 9 stolen bases.

Staying put: The state junior college shotput championship stays put at Moorpark College.

Sophomore Ken Lowther of Moorpark won the title with a throw of 55 feet, 3 inches Saturday at Bakersfield College. Donnie Laut won the same event for Moorpark last year with an effort of 54-6.

Debbie Ball finished fifth in the 3,000-meter race Saturday in 10:28.3.

Short people: Add former Taft High and Valley College standout Larry Middleton to the short list of Valley-area professional basketball players.

Middleton plays in the fledgling World Basketball League, a six-team league for players under 6-foot-5. Middleton, a 6-3 guard, made his debut Thursday night, scoring 19 points to help the Calgary 88s to a 132-94 win over the Vancouver Nighthawks in the season opener for both teams. The league also has franchises in Youngstown, Ohio; Fresno, Las Vegas and Chicago. Middleton’s road to Calgary was a circuitous one. Last summer, he tried out for what was supposed to become the International Basketball Assn. and was selected for an All-Star team that toured Asia. In December, the Los Angeles Jaguars made Middleton a territorial selection in the IBA draft.

But the Jaguars and three other franchises decided to wait until next year to make their debuts and the six remaining franchises reorganized as the WBL. Middleton signed a one-year contract with Calgary in March.

Middleton, 22, was an all-state player at Valley College in 1985. He completed his collegiate career in 1987 at Clemson, averaging 9.9 points a game.

Softball signing: Malia Ouzts, a two-time All-Western State Conference catcher from Moorpark, has signed a letter of intent to play softball for Cal State Fullerton.

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

Regional awards: Lenn Gilmore, Chae-Ho Chung and Fili Martinez of Cal State Northridge have been selected to the NCAA Division II All-West Region baseball team. Gilmore was a first-team selection. He batted .357 and led the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. in runs scored (51), home runs (17) and RBIs (63).

Chong, who led CSUN in batting with a .387 average, was a second-team selection. Martinez, a third-team choice, had a 5-3 record, a 5.40 earned-run average and 77 strikeouts in 96 innings.

Regal signings: The Cal Lutheran softball team has signed Michelle Campos and Tina Altobello to letters of intent.

Campos, an All-Tri-Valley League center fielder, batted .400 for Fillmore High this season. Altobello, a utility player, hit .300 for Santa Monica College. The Regals earlier signed Christy Teffeteller, a left-handed shortstop from Simi Lutheran High.

Steven Fleischman, Steven Herbert and staff writers Mike Hiserman, Gary Klein and Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.