College Division / Mitch Polin : Westmont’s No-Stars Reach NAIA Area Baseball Playoffs

Westmont College Coach John Kirkgard wasn’t too surprised when only two of the players of his district-winning team were named to the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics All-District 3 baseball team.

He has become used to it.

“It’s kind of surprising when you win the district and have only two players on the team, but it’s indicative of the balance on this team,” Kirkgard said.

Kirkgard said his team doesn’t usually have the individual talent to receive much attention on postseason all-star teams. So, Kirkgard has to console himself with team success.

The Warriors have been the hottest team among College Division schools in the Southland since March 17, winning 25 of 27 games.

With three consecutive victories last week, the Warriors won their first district tournament title in 23 years and advanced to the NAIA area playoffs that start Thursday at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash.

Westmont (33-14) will face Linfield of Oregon in its opening game, and Hawaii-Hilo meets Whitworth in the other game of the four-team, double-elimination tournament. The winner advances to the NAIA World Series that starts May 26 at Lewis-Clark State in Idaho.

Kirkgard said the team is confident after recovering from an 8-12 start.

“If anything, losing motivated us,” he said. “It’s an indication of how hard this team’s work ethic has been.”

Hard working or not, the coach said he couldn’t have anticipated his team winning 25 of its last 27 games.

“We anticipated that we had the opportunity to be district champion,” Kirkgard said. “I’ve been here six years and our expectations are always to do better than the year before and we accomplished that. But I never expected to do it by winning 25 of our last 27 games.”

Westmont has four players batting at least .300. There are outfielder David Heldoorn and shortstop Tim Kimmel at .321, catcher Jackie Schniepp at .302 and third baseman Greg Loewen at .301.

However, Kirkgard is quick to add, “We are without a doubt a pitching and defensive-oriented team.”

The Warriors have an outstanding 3.28 team earned-run average and an exceptional .965 fielding percentage.

“We don’t beat ourselves with mistakes,” Kirkgard said. “We don’t walk anyone to give a team extra chances.”

Westmont’s top player is Jeff Ludwig, a senior who was selected district player of the year. He has a 10-3 record and 2.19 earned-run average, with eight complete games in his last nine starts.

“He’s the closest (to a star) as far as his numbers go,” Kirkgard said. “But he’s really a fine example of the type of talent we have. He’s a player who’s had to do a lot of hard work to get to this point. His work ethic got him to where he is now.”

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has grown accustomed to winning California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles in just about every sport, except baseball.

Before this season, the Mustangs had never won a conference title in baseball. In fact, the school’s first and only appearance in the NCAA Division II playoffs was in 1977, whenthe Mustangs were eliminated in two straight games.

But San Luis Obispo ended its frustration by winning the CCAA title last week and will host the three-team Division II West Regional that starts Friday.

Third-ranked Cal State Sacramento (35-16) will play San Francisco State (31-20) in the opening game of the double-elimination tournament at 2 p.m. Friday, and the loser faces the sixth-ranked Mustangs (31-23) in the second game at 7 p.m. Friday. The tournament continues Saturday and Sunday.

Perhaps the biggest factor in San Luis Obispo’s success this season has been its pitching. The leaders are senior Greg Paxton, 9-2 with a 3.45 ERA and 7 complete games, and junior Dave Wilson, who is 6-5 with a 2.82 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 108 1/3 innings.

On offense the Mustangs have been paced by junior Rich Shepperd, batting .323 with seven home runs and 41 runs batted in. First baseman Pat Kirby (.317) and outfielder Billy Smith (.305) are next in average, and shortstop Ron Crowe has a team-leading 11 homers and 48 RBIs.

In perhaps a preview of the regionals last week, San Luis Obispo and Sacramento split a two-game nonconference series last week in Sacramento. San Luis Obispo won, 11-2, and Sacramento won, 5-3. However, the Mustangs didn’t pitch Paxton or Wilson in either game.

For the second consecutive season, Cal Lutheran and Cal State Bakersfield have advanced to the national tournament in women’s softball.

Bakersfield (35-22) will compete in the four-team NCAA Division II nationals starting Friday at Cal State Sacramento, and Cal Lutheran plays in the 16-team NAIA nationals starting Thursday at Emerson Park in Midland, Mich.

Cal Lutheran will be trying to improve upon its performance in the nationals last season, when the Regals were defeated in their first two games of the double-elimination tournament.

The Regals, seeded No. 11 in the tournament with a 35-16 record, will meet sixth-seeded Kearney State (28-14) of Nebraska on Thursday in their opening game. West Florida is the top seed.

Cal Lutheran, which won two straight games over Mesa State of Colorado in the Bi-District playoffs last week to advance to the national tournament, has been led by the pitching of junior DeeAndra Pilkington and sophomore Leslie Stevens.

Pilkington has an 18-4 record and 0.99 ERA, with five shutouts in her last six games. She is also leading the team with a .413 batting average and 25 runs batted in. Stevens has a 12-5 record and 1.15 ERA.

College Division Notes

Bob Coons, coach of the cross-country and women’s track teams at Cal State Bakersfield for the last 13 years, has announced that he will resign at the end of the season. Coons, the school’s first and only head coach in women’s track, guided the Roadrunners to top five finishes in the NCAA Division II from 1981-83. . . . Brian Newhall, interim men’s basketball coach at Occidental last season, has been named full-time to the position. Newhall guided the Tigers to a 15-10 record--the team’s best since 1980--and third place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last season. . . . Mari Uchida, who led Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to second place in the SCIAC and competed last week in the NCAA Division III individual championships in singles, has been named conference player of the year.