1989 COLLEGE BASEBALL PREVIEWS : UC Irvine Begins Season Already Behind in Arms Race

The name of the game is baseball, but Mike Gerakos--and a few thousand others who range from big league managers to Little League dads--figure they might as well call it pitching.

Gerakos, UC Irvine baseball coach, will watch the debut of his restructured team at 2:30 today against 18th-ranked USC at Dedeaux Field. Gerakos has little trepidation about his position players, though most of them are inexperienced, but he is worried about the guys on the mound.

The Anteaters, 30-28-1 last season, lost 10 seniors, 5 of whom are playing professionally. Both catchers, the first baseman, the second baseman and two starting outfielders are gone, but the biggest void was left by the departure of right-hander Craig Brink, who had 30 career victories at Irvine. Brink signed with the Yankees.

“This is the first time in 5 or 6 years that we don’t have a returning quantity and quality guy,” Gerakos said. “We lost 270 innings of pitching from last year. If my math’s any good, that’s 30 ballgames, and that’s 50% of the season.

“We can’t expect one person to assert himself to the point where he takes up the slack. As a staff, they’re all going to have to move up a level or two if we’re going to be successful. We’ve got a big-time closer in sophomore Steve May, but the question is whether or not we’ll be in a position to use him often enough.”

Irvine’s starting rotation at the moment is left-handers Jeff Haack and Rob Johnson and right-handers Ken Whitworth and Chris Huber.

Haack was 4-7 with a 6.69 earned-run average in 14 starts last season. Johnson made 8 starts, made 7 relief appearances and was 3-3 with a 5.58 ERA. Whitworth was a middle reliever who appeared in 18 games with an 0-1 record, 1 save and a 6.37 ERA. Huber redshirted last year after pitching at Duke in the 1986 and ’87 seasons.

While assistant coach Robin Dreizler, whose main responsibility is the pitchers, will be trying to squeeze an out or two from every arm on the staff, Gerakos feels confident that the other nine starters will do their share, both offensively and defensively.

And the Anteaters are especially strong up the middle.

Sophomore Al Rodriguez returns to shortstop after playing in all 59 games last year and hitting .274. Junior Chris Gallego, whose brother, Mike, plays for the Oakland Athletics, will start at second after redshirting last year with a shoulder injury. In 1987, he played shortstop and hit .262, but Gerakos believes the move to second will put less stress on Gallego’s injured throwing shoulder.

Senior Stacy Parker will be back in center after hitting .282 last season.

Community college transfer Jon Berger (L.A. Harbor) will be the starting catcher and junior transfer Freddie Combs (Arizona State) will be at third base. Junior Osmar DeChavez, who will be the Anteaters’ cleanup hitter, is making the transition to first base after hitting .275 with 3 homers as a part-time designated hitter last year.

Utility man Ed Luna, who hit .411 with 2 homers and 13 RBIs at Rancho Santiago College last year, will fill in at second, short and third.

Mike Goodcase, who hit .288 as a freshman last year, will be in right field. Community college transfer Courtney Davis (Riverside College) will probably start in left. Sophomore Chris Dray, who hit .217 in limited action last season, might get some starts in left.

Freshman Jim Koehler and junior Brian Young, another transfer from Rancho Santiago, will platoon at designated hitter.

“We’ve got only two seniors on this club,” Gerakos said, “and we don’t have any superstars like the past couple of years. But this team, with some returning veterans and all the new pieces, probably reflects my personality, my temperment, more than any other ‘Eater team I’ve coached.”

As always, the Anteaters face an uphill battle in the Big West Conference. Gerakos thinks Fresno State, which has most of its team back, and Cal State Fullerton, which had a “great” recruiting year, will be the top teams.

“But I think Santa Barbara will bounce back from an off year; Vegas is loaded; they’re building a new program at (Cal State) Long Beach under (first-year coach Dave) Snow, and both San Jose State and (University of the) Pacific are improved.

“I think we can compete. We’ll play well defensively. We’ve got more speed than in the past and we’ll swing the bat pretty well. I think we can be successful . . . if we get some pitching.”

But then that’s the name of the game, isn’t it?