UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Bardens Getting the Breaks, and Baseball Team Has Been the Beneficiary

Luck, good and bad, is part of hitting and part of baseball. Billy Bardens knows that.

He became UC Irvine’s starting third baseman because of a series of injuries to teammates, including a season-threatening knee injury to Ed Luna.

He put together a 12-game hitting this season, partly, he says, because some balls dropped in for hits.

“They weren’t all the best hits, but I’ll take them as they come,” he said. “Those just make up for the line drives people catch.”

Bardens, a sophomore from Capistrano Valley High School, has stepped in for an Irvine team that has exceeded expectations, taking a 21-11 record into its Big West Conference opener against Cal State Fullerton Friday.

“Billy was going to be in a backup role for us,” Coach Mike Gerakos said.

But Luna had knee problems, and Osmar DeChavez took over at third. Then first baseman Brian Young suffered a season-ending knee injury, and DeChavez moved to first, leaving third open again.

“I guess I got in by default,” Bardens said.

After a slow start, he boosted his average as high as .340, and has been above .300 for 13 games.

“He got his feet wet, and he’s been playing pretty good,” Gerakos said.

He has also helped Irvine win some of those 21 games. In five games, he was credited with the game-winning RBI, a category in which he leads the team.

Bardens says he finally feels settled now. But next year, he knows, he may have to fight for playing time.

“I could have to battle for the spot again,” he said.

Gerakos remembers approximately where his UC Irvine baseball team was chosen to finish in the Big West Conference before the season began.

“We were below the others,” he said. “We weren’t mentioned with the others.”

Irvine was picked to finish seventh in the eight-team league, ahead only of Pacific.

But already this season, Irvine has 21 victories, one more than the team had all last season.

Tom Beckett, an associate athletic director at Stanford, and Dennis Farrell, associate commissioner of the Big West Conference, are among the six finalists for the Irvine athletic director’s job, sources said.

Candidates are being interviewed by a 15-member committee this week and next week. The committee will submit its recommendation to Horace Mitchell, vice chancellor for student affairs and acting athletic director. The school hopes to name an athletic director in the next two weeks, filling a position that has been vacant since Oct. 1, after John Caine was reassigned as a special assistant to the chancellor.

Beckett has been at Stanford since 1984, and previously worked at San Jose State. Among his duties at Stanford are football operations, community relations, and the overseeing of a number of sports, including baseball, track and wrestling.

Farrell has been with the conference for the past 10 years and oversees compliance with NCAA regulations. He also coordinates conference championships and directs the Big West basketball tournament. He was a finalist for the position of Big West commissioner in 1988 when Jim Haney replaced Lew Cryer.

When the Irvine men’s volleyball team upset third-ranked Cal State Long Beach last week, coming back after trailing by two games, it was the first time Irvine had beaten the 49ers in 11 attempts, and the 49ers’ first home loss of the season.

The match didn’t lack for drama.

Long Beach won the first and second games and led the third, 13-7, before the Anteaters came back with eight unanswered points to keep the match alive. UCI won the final two games, 15-6 and 15-13.

“This was definitely one of the biggest wins in UCI volleyball history,” Coach Bill Ashen said.

Irvine (6-11) plays sixth-ranked Cal State Northridge Friday.

The month of April is when track and field athletes will be trying to qualify for the NCAA championships, after pacing their training toward important invitational meets at the end of the season.

Irvine’s Mike Morales has already qualified in the hammer throw. Decathlete Matt Farmer has already made the provisional qualification, much like a waiting list.

Others who are probable or possible qualifiers, and their events: Buffy Rabbitt (1,500, 3,000), Rayna Cervantes (1,500, 3,000), Carolyn Plier (5,000, 10,000), Amy Dabul (3,000, 5,000, 10,000), Aaron Mascarro (5,000, 10,000).