CSUN Lands 5 Players on CCAA Softball Team

Seniors Lisa Erickson and Debbie Dickmann head a list of five Cal State Northridge softball players who have been selected to the All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. team.

Erickson, the CCAA Most Valuable Player last season, was named co-MVP this year along with Deanna Dresmann of UC Riverside.

Erickson has a .389 batting average with 41 stolen bases and 16 runs batted in.

Dickmann (21-7 with a 0.77 earned-run average), a four-time All-CCAA selection, was named most valuable pitcher for the third consecutive season.

CSUN’s other first-team picks are senior shortstop Anna Getherall (.267, 17 RBIs), senior outfielder Erin McGuire (.257, 19 RBIs) and sophomore catcher Patti Pearson (.290, 14 RBIs).

Getherall and McGuire also were first-team selections in 1989.

Freshman first baseman Danielle Wood (.215, 10 RBIs) was named to the second team.

Northridge, which will move up to the NCAA Division I level next season, clinched its ninth consecutive CCAA title with a doubleheader sweep of Riverside on Saturday.

The Lady Matadors (42-19, 16-2 in CCAA play) have three games left in the regular season. They will play a doubleheader at Chapman today and a nonconference game at United States International on Saturday.

Ken Whitney of Cal Lutheran has signed a free-agent contract with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and said he will leave for New Orleans within a week.

Whitney received a $5,000 bonus when he signed Monday and will try out for a position on the Saints’ offensive line. Whitney said incentive bonuses could push his yearly salary beyond $100,000 if he makes the team.

“I’ve got my foot in the door,” Whitney said. “I’ve just got to prove myself.”

For the ninth time in 10 years, Cal State Northridge has qualified for the eight-team NCAA Division II women’s tennis nationals.

The Lady Matadors (14-12) were among four teams from the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. to make the field in the single-elimination tournament. CSUN will meet top-ranked Cal Poly Pomona, the CCAA team champion, on May 6 at the Golden River Racquet Club in Rancho Cordova, Calif.

Pomona defeated CSUN, 9-0, in the CCAA finale on April 24.

Northridge’s top two singles players, Cathie Teobaldi and Allison Kincaid, qualified for individual competition, which begins May 9. Teobaldi, a transfer from Pierce College, also will team with Kincaid in doubles.

Marty Beck of Glendale College, the Western State Conference track and field athlete of the year, has orally committed to UCLA.

Beck successfully defended his WSC title in the 400 intermediate hurdles with a personal-best 51.84 seconds, placed second in the 400 (47.59) and anchored the Vaqueros’ 1,600-meter relay team (3:14.80) to a third-place finish.

“I want to run with the big boys,” Beck said of his decision to attend UCLA. “I want to run against the best.”

Beck, unbeaten in his speciality, this year has the fastest qualifying mark in the Southern California prelims, which will be held Saturday at Cerritos College.

Canyons, Moorpark and Mission will begin play in the Southern California regional of the state junior college baseball tournament May 11.

The two-day first round consists of best-of-three series played at the higher-seeded team’s home field. Southern California winners move on to either Cerritos or Riverside for mini-tournaments May 18-20 to determine the south’s two representatives in the Final Four. UC Irvine will play host to the Final Four, May 26-28.

Greg Crosley, a sophomore member of the Antelope Valley College track team, was named the Foothill Conference track Athlete of the Year in balloting by coaches after he won three individual championships in the recent conference championship meet.

Crosley won the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:07.08), 1,500 (4:07.81) and 5,000 (15:56.62).

Pepe Reilly, 18, of Glendale won the 119-pound division of the California Golden Gloves Championships on Saturday at Lincoln Park in Los Angeles. With the victory, Reilly advances to the national championships, which begin May 7 in Miami. Reilly, a senior at Hoover High, has won three junior and two senior California Golden Gloves titles.