Bonilla Quits at CSUN, Cites Rift With Kernen

John Bonilla, a senior outfielder who batted .357 last season at Cal State Northridge, left the team Friday, citing frustration over injuries and what he called “a personality conflict” with Coach Bill Kernen that Bonilla believed caused a reduction in his playing time.

Bonilla, who started in center field last season after transferring to Northridge from the University of San Diego, was batting .254 and had driven in six runs in 64 at-bats.

“The hardest part is trying to play with someone always watching over you that you have personality conflicts with,” said Bonilla, who suffers from chronic shin splints and who had been nursing a sprained thumb for much of the season. “And then they use my injuries, which are injuries, as excuses for not hustling at practice. They don’t take my injuries into account.

“They treat practices like games so we do a lot of running. They’re expecting me to practice 100% all the time. It’s not possible without taking anti-inflammatories.

“It just got to the point of, ‘Why am I doing this?’ ”

Kernen said that he was not surprised by Bonilla’s decision.

“He never really did jump in with both feet to what we were doing, so we had some discussions about that, but those were a long time ago,” said Kernen, who replaced Terry Craven last summer. “Recently, the reason he wasn’t playing was because of being hurt and he just wasn’t playing up to his potential because of it.”

Greg Shockey, a freshman from Mater Dei High, has been the starting center fielder for most of the season and will likely be the starter today when CSUN (14-9-1 overall, 5-6-1 in California Collegiate Athletic Assn. play) meets Cal State Los Angeles at 1 p.m at CSUN.

Shockey is batting .235 overall and .262 in CCAA play.

“He came to rebuild the program and he’s starting with the kids he recruited,” Bonilla said of Kernen. “They’re putting most of their attention to the future program. I think it’s been hard on all the seniors.”