The Colleges : Washout at CS Northridge Delays Season Debut for Eager Umpire

There were a lot of unhappy coaches and ballplayers Friday when the rains came and forced the postponement of several openers for Valley-area college baseball teams.

No one, however, was more disappointed than Nick Buncick, an umpire who has been a fixture on the high school, junior college and 4-year scene for 20 years.

Buncick, 49, stood in the Cal State Northridge dugout Friday afternoon, lamenting the fate of the Matadors’ opener against the University of San Diego and looking like a child who had just lost his dog.

“I guess I sound like a kid sometimes,” Buncick said, “but I love to be out here. I think I look forward to the season more than the players.”

Originally from Ohio, Buncick moved to California in 1967. But after attending the Al Summers Umpires School in Daytona Beach, Fla., he worked 2 seasons in the Class-A Midwest League calling balls and strikes for players such as Carlton Fisk, Vida Blue and Bill Lee.

Buncick has worked 17 years for the Rapid Transit District, arranging his schedule as a dispatcher around his umpiring assignments. This season, he will work about 70 games, the majority of which will be spent behind the plate.

“You can get into more trouble on the bases,” Buncick said. “Gimme the plate any day.”

All on the line: Steve Murphy, a sophomore guard at Moorpark, had a feeling that he was going to have a good year at the free-throw line after making 16 of his first 17 free throws. However, he never expected to have a chance at breaking Steve Ornelaz’s record of 27 consecutive free throws set during the 1978-79 season.

Murphy has made 25 consecutive free throws in the past 8 games and hopes to break Ornelaz’s record tonight when Moorpark plays host to Glendale College.

“The streak is making me nervous at the line,” Murphy said. “Once I get the record out of the way it will take pressure off me.”

Murphy, who has not shot a free throw in the past 2 games, said that his confidence at the line has improved during the streak.

Said Murphy: “Confidence is a real big part of it. If you go up there knowing that you are going to nail them, that’s about 80% of it.”

Roadhouse blues: The Cal State Northridge volleyball team travels to San Diego State tonight looking for its first win in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.

The Matadors, who fell from 10th to 11th in the national rankings after WIVA defeats to Pepperdine and USC, play 5 of their first 6 conference matches on the road.

Northridge plays its first home match Friday against sixth-ranked Stanford.

“In this conference it’s imperative that you win your home matches,” Northridge Coach John Price said. “The schedule will even out for us by the middle of the season. But we need to win at least two of our first six matches.”

Whistle while he works: It’s bound to happen. Brett Dennis will be walking down the street, hear a shrill whistle, turn to an imaginary scorer’s table and sheepishly raise his hand. Tea kettles and tiny birds will haunt him.

Dennis, a 6-0 forward on the Occidental basketball team, seemingly collects fouls faster than points.

Because he is considerably shorter than most of the players he guards, Dennis often has to rely on muscle to compensate.

“Anytime Brett’s in the building he’s going to get called for the foul,” said assistant Jim Kerman, adding Dennis often gets assessed for committing a pay-back foul. “It’s the Kurt Rambis syndrome.”

Maybe the afternoon of bodysurfing Dennis spent with the ex-Laker rubbed off. Dennis met Rambis in La Jolla a few years ago.

Impact player: It took a while, but senior center Doug Friedman is finally making an impact for the Westmont College basketball team. The former Thousand Oaks High player is averaging 7.8 points.

“One of the reasons we have won so many games lately is because of the improved play of Doug,” Coach Chet Kammerer said.

Staff Writers Gary Klein, Sam Farmer and Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.