Christ College Irvine Wants Title, Trimmings

By winning two games of a softball doubleheader against Southern California College Thursday, Christ College Irvine players and coaches hope they did more than assure themselves of a tie for the Golden State Athletic Conference championship.

They would like a bit of recognition too. The title the Eagles (29-18, 8-4 in conference) share with Cal Baptist is the first conference championship in any sport for Christ College.

“This gives us an opportunity for people to notice, ‘Hey, there’s a campus on the hill,’ ” junior pitcher Michelle Vail said.

Nestled in the hills of the Turtle Rock development in Irvine, Christ College, which has an enrollment of 500, has been fielding intercollegiate teams for eight years. The school joined the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics in 1985 and is in its second year competing in the Golden State conference.

Last season, the softball team finished second and advanced to the District 3 playoffs before losing to Azusa Pacific. This year, the Eagles are the only district team that has beaten Cal Lutheran, which is ranked 14th in the nation.

But success hasn’t come easily for Christ College, which has been besieged by injuries. Darcy Schipporeit, the team’s shortstop, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in December and played the Eagles’ 47 games wearing a brace. When third baseman Donna Joslen joined the team after the basketball season ended, she had a broken thumb and a knee injury. Tracy Schultz, the second baseman, broke a finger, and Vail, the team’s top pitcher last season, has suffered tendinitis in her shins.

And with only 11 players, the injured Eagles got no rest.

Vail has an 11-9 record with a 1.70 earned-run average and freshman pitcher Lisa Merenda is 16-7 with an 0.62 ERA. Kathy Carroll leads the team in hitting with a .336 average. De Brunk, who went six for six in the second game of a doubleheader sweep of Loyola Marymount Saturday, is hitting .333 and has a team-leading 36 RBIs.

“The struggles helped us grow together as a team,” center fielder Denise Schaus said.

“We’re united. It’s not just a bunch of people thrown together on the field. We’re all friends.”

Last hurrah: Mike McGuire has resigned as Christ College softball coach after two seasons. McGuire, who teaches at Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Beach, said he wants to concentrate on teaching and spend more time with his family.

McGuire, who started the softball program at Southern California College in 1986 and coached the Eagles with current Chapman College Coach Lisle Lloyd last year, has a 102-99 career record in five seasons as a head coach.

He gained his 99th and 100th victories Thursday when the Eagles won a doubleheader against Southern California College.

Winning the conference title means Christ College will get a championship pennant to attach to the conference banner hanging in the gymnasium. Amanda Houlton, the college’s sports information director, said: “We’ve had that banner sitting up there empty for a long time. . . . It’s a nice accomplishment that shows our program is coming around.”

Dark day: After winning 10 consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games and moving a half-game behind first-place UC Riverside, the Chapman baseball team hit a streak of bad luck beginning (wouldn’t you know?) on Friday the 13th.

Since the 11-9 loss in 11 innings to Riverside April 13, the Panthers have lost five consecutive games, three of them in extra innings. Chapman (23-19, 13-10) has now lost five consecutive CCAA games--to Riverside, the 12th-ranked team in the NCAA Division II, and Cal State Northridge, the No. 7 team--and has dropped to third place in the conference and out of the national rankings.

College Division Notes

Christ College Irvine administrators will meet at 3 p.m. today to either decide on a basketball coach or bring back three finalists for another interview. The college released a list of seven finalists: Greg Marshall, a Westmont College assistant coach; Kirk Mueller, St. Louis Lutheran High coach; Ron Newton, a Seattle University assistant; Tim O’Brien, Estancia High coach; Cary Stelmachowicz, coach at Lutheran High School East in Harper Woods, Mich.; Cliff Thompson, Milwaukee Lutheran High coach, and Wayne Rasmussen, Concordia University coach.