Hawaii Breeze Blows Good News Toward Lions Mound Staff

With pitching always in short supply, Loyola Marymount has done well to sign high school standouts like Steve Surico, the Orange County Player of the Year at Tustin High in 1986, and Mike McNary, the CIF 4-A Player of the Year at Lakewood in 1987--players who helped Loyola reach the NCAA regionals last year.

But with Loyola’s all-conference pitchers struggling, the player who has stepped forward as the staff ace is senior right-hander Kalani Bush.

It may be overstating the case to say Bush’s rise is a shock. After all, he is a strapping 6-4, 220 pounds who was a three-sport star and Athlete of the Year at Kalaheo High School in his native Kailua, Hawaii.

But in his three previous seasons Bush showed only glimpses of potential and was forecast as the fifth starter/long relief man this year. Instead, he will take a 6-1 record, 3.03 earned-run average and team-high 59 innings pitched into his next start Saturday against San Diego. He has the staff’s only shutout, 8-0 over UC Berkeley, and victories over such highly regarded foes as UC Santa Barbara, Fresno State and Minnesota.

“He’s our ace, definitely,” Lions Coach Chris Smith said. “He hasn’t had a bad outing yet. Bush has really picked us up.”

Bush came to Loyola through a former high school teammate, Carl Fraticelli, who was playing shortstop for the Lions. He was an unknown quantity looking for a chance to get off the island. He had never been scouted by Dave Snow, then the Lions coach, or his staff, and was, in Smith’s words, “about as green as you could get.”

Bush didn’t own a pair of cleats. He didn’t know where to stand on the pitching rubber. His motion varied from pitch to pitch. He wasn’t prepared for the level of competition on the West Coast. But he could throw the ball. “The first thing they told me was, ‘What you learned in high school ain’t gonna cut it here.’ I was just a thrower. I had to learn the game,” he recalled.

Bush learned much about the mental approach to pitching from Snow, developed an excellent change-up and has spent his summers sharpening his game in collegiate leagues. Bush had one effective appearance in the NCAA regional last year. Over the summer, playing in San Francisco, his game began to mature.

“Even from the day he stepped on campus he had that good, loose arm,” said Smith, who was Snow’s top assistant. “He had to learn how to pitch and gain confidence. It had been a frustrating three years, all that ability without success. Snow did a great job of teaching him how to pitch. It was just learning how to go out on a competitive level every day. He had to go out there and experience some success.”

Bush said his success last summer--he did well enough to prompt some inquiries from pro scouts--give his confidence a boost, and Smith, who replaced Snow last June, has made him more relaxed. “Before, I didn’t know where I stood,” Bush said. “This year I wanted to start. I decided that’s where I felt most comfortable. I got off to an all-right start. . . . I’m more relaxed under Smitty. I feel a lot looser with him, you can talk to him.”

Bush is primarily a fastball-change-up pitcher, and he is trying to sharpen his curve. He said these days he has an idea where each pitch is going when he takes the mound. “The difference is learning to pitch and learning to pitch inside,” he said. “I definitely go out with a game plan. I try to keep the ball down. Lately I’ve been hitting my spots.”

Bush is due to graduate next winter with a business degree, but he’ll happily take a shot at a baseball career if he is drafted. “I’m definitely hoping but not really focusing on it right now,” he said. “I’ll keep it at ‘hopefully’ and worry about it later. I’m just concentrating on this season.”

Spoken like a man with a plan.

One for the Book: John Scolinos, Cal Poly Pomona’s wily baseball coach who seemingly has been in the game since Abner Doubleday invented it, tried to get a Dominguez Hills run disallowed Saturday via the rule book, but the umpires apparently put a cap on it.

The situation: The Toros’ Adrian Rodriguez was on second base with two outs when Fred Camarena lofted a fly to short center field. Rodriguez rounded third, stopped running, removed his batting helmet and watched the play. When the ball was dropped by the center fielder, Rodriguez resumed running and beat the throw to the plate.

Scolinos argued that Rodriguez violated the rules by deliberately removing his helmet while running the bases (an automatic out in high school rules). His claim sent the umpires searching through the NCAA rule book, but nothing was found. The umpires noted in the official score book that “rule book was checked, play was unchanged and run scored.”

Scolinos continued the game, eventually won by Dominguez Hills, 8-7, under protest.

California community colleges have had an impact on the NCAA Final Four, including Monday’s championship game in Seattle, where Leland (Pookie) Wigington was a key player for runner-up Seton Hall. Wigington, the 5-4 guard out of Morningside High, was Most Valuable Player in the California Community College tournament in 1987 when he led Ventura to the state title.

Another former South Bay star who had a key role in a Final Four was guard Mark Wade, the Banning High graduate who was state Player of the Year in leading El Camino College to a state title in 1985, then started for Nevada Las Vegas in the 1987 Final Four.

Other notables: Dean Garrett of San Francisco City College and Tom Tolbert of Cerritos College, co-Players of the Year in 1986. Garrett was the center on Indiana’s national champion team in 1987 and Tolbert started for Arizona in last year’s Final Four. Another state co-Player of the Year, Andre Wiley (Compton, 1987), appeared in last year’s Final Four with runner-up Oklahoma.

Loyola Marymount’s basketball team, which has opened its season against Azusa Pacific two of the last three years, will upgrade its inaugural decidedly next November when the Lions open against Nevada Las Vegas in the preseason Big Apple National Invitation Tournament. The game will be played Nov. 15 at Las Vegas. UNLV figures to be one of the top-rated teams in the nation next season, returning nearly everyone from the team that won the Big West title and reached the NCAA round of eight last weekend. Loyola and UNLV are among five in the 16-team NIT field that appeared in this season’s NCAA Tournament.

College Notes

Dominguez Hills infielder Ruben Jauregui collected nine hits last week to take over the team lead in batting at .344 . . . The Dominguez Hills softball team, off to a 19-11-1 start, swept a double-header from defending national champ Cal State Bakersfield last week. In the nightcap, Kim Park threw a 1-0 shutout. The Lady Toros play a home double-header Saturday against UC Riverside at noon . . . Loyola’s Hank Gathers was named to the All-Windex All-America team as one of the nation’s best rebounders. He led the NCAA with a 13.7 average . . . Enoch Simmons, a four-year letterman for Loyola in basketball, finished his college career as the Lions’ No. 10 all-time scorer with 1,379 points. Jeff Fryer goes into his senior season with 1,286 points, good for 13th on the career list. He needs 14 points to move up two notches. After only two seasons at Loyola, Gathers, a junior, is third with 1,736 points. Counting his freshman season at USC, Gathers has 1,969 points in his college career. Forrest McKenzie is the Loyola career leader with 2,060 points, followed by Keith Smith at 1,980. Both played four varsity seasons . . . Former Banning High star Eric Cooper finished the basketball season as the leading scorer at Texas-San Antonio, averaging 18.6 points. He set a school season record with 77 three-pointers. He had a season high of 35 . . . Robert Kutsch of Long Beach State was named Player of the Week in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. The middle blocker out of North Torrance High had 29 kills and 10 blocks as Long Beach upset No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 Hawaii.