Loyola, Pepperdine on Collision Course for WCC Baseball Title

The quest for the West Coast Conference baseball title has become a race between Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine, as it usually does in the final weeks of the season.

The Waves (31-18 overall, 19-8 in the WCC) closed ground on league-leading Loyola (38-12, 21-7) by winning three of four games from St. Mary’s last week while the Lions were losing two of three to the University of San Diego.

By winning the final game of the series with San Diego, Loyola eliminated five teams from the race, but Pepperdine has moved to within 1 1/2 games of the Lions. The championship could be decided when the Waves play host to Loyola in a three-game series that starts May 18 and ends conference play for both teams.

Pepperdine will play at the University of San Francisco (12-37, 5-26) this weekend, in a single game on Friday and a double header on Saturday. Santa Clara (24-23-1, 15-15) will be at Loyola for a game at 2 p.m. Friday and a double header at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Freshman Steve Duda, with a 10-1 record and a 2.37 earned run average, and senior Britt Craven, with a 10-2 record and a 3.09 ERA, continue to lead the Pepperdine pitching staff.

The top hitters for the Waves are junior right fielder Jalal Leach and senior shortstop Chris Martin. Leach is batting a team-high .380 with three home runs, 26 runs batted in and 22 stolen bases. Martin is hitting .356 with 11 homers, 54 RBIs and 26 stolen bases.

Others hitting above .300 for the Waves are Dan Melendez at .347, Jim Doyle at .345, Steve Rodriguez at .323 and Mike Truschke at .315.

The fourth-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team, led by newly crowned Pacific 10 Conference singles champion Jason Netter, will play host to No. 3 Pepperdine at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus. The Bruins are 23-3. Pepperdine was 23-4 as the week began.

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett called Netter’s victory in the conference championships at last week’s Ojai tournament “a great win for our program and a great boost for Jason’s confidence.”

Netter, who had been dropped from the national rankings after losing six of his last eight matches, improved his record to 25-14 by winning four matches at Ojai, including two against Stanford’s best, No. 35 Jared Palmer and No. 10 Alex O’Brien. In the semifinals, he defeated Palmer, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4, and he won the final from O’Brien, 6-3, 6-2.

Last week the Waves defeated California, 7-2, and San Diego, 5-1.

The Santa Monica College women’s tennis team (18-1 overall, 15-1 in the Western State Conference and tied with Santa Barbara City College for the WSC title) is seeded third in the Southern California regional playoffs. The Corsairs will meet Saddleback in a first-round match at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Lindborg Racquet Club in Huntington Beach.

In defeating Santa Barbara, 5-4, last week, SMC avenged its earlier 5-4 loss to the Vaqueros. The match was decided when Jane Kwon and Ann Christensen won the last doubles match.

The Corsair men and women will compete Friday through Sunday in the WSC individual championships at Santa Barbara. The SMC doubles team of Melinda Phillips and Jackie Baker is the top seed, and Phillips is seeded second in singles.

The UCLA women’s softball team (50-5 overall and 13-1 in the Pac-10) will play tonight at Arizona State and Saturday at Arizona.

Last week the Bruins swept a double header from Sacramento State, 6-1 and 3-0, and extended their winning streak to 20 games. The winning pitchers were DeDe Weiman (12-3) and Lisa Longaker (17-0).

The Santa Monica College men’s and women’s swim teams will have 12 competitors in the state championships, which start today and end Saturday at Mount San Antonio College.

Last week the SMC men won their sixth straight WSC championship, while the women finished fourth in the conference meet, won by Ventura. SMC freshman Greg Behar was named the WSC Swimmer of the Year at the meet after he won three individual races, swam on two winning relay teams and set conference records of 4:09.02 in the 400-yard individual medley and 1:55.93 in the 200 IM.

At the state meet, Behar will lead an SMC men’s contingent of individual and relay swimmers that includes Chris Hall, Jamie Ament, Ken Shabota, Chris Brainard, Alonzo Galloway and Tom Kaye.

Representing the Corsair women’s team will be Cecilia Henricksen, Jeanie Chick, Heidi Schugar and Lisa Battig and alternate Julie Chick.

The UCLA men’s crew will defend its varsity championship Sunday in the Newport Regatta, while the Bruin women will row Saturday and Sunday in the Southern California championships at Oxnard.

Last week at Ballona Creek, the UCLA men novices defeated the USC freshmen, and the Bruin junior varsity topped the USC varsity. The Bruin women’s varsity won the Miller Cup on Ballona Creek last week, finishing ahead of USC by 30 seconds, and UCLA’s women novices remained unbeaten with a 30-second victory over UC San Diego.

At Newport, the men’s field includes the University of San Diego, Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and San Diego State.

The UCLA women’s varsity has lost only to Princeton this year, in the Stanford regatta at Redwood Shores.

The UCLA men’s and women’s track teams, which each defeated USC last week, will compete Saturday at the S & W Invitational at Modesto.

Against USC, the Bruin men (5-0) won their 12th straight meet from the Trojans, 90-40, and the UCLA women (3-0) triumphed, 90-40. The UCLA men are 46-0-1 in dual meets in more than five seasons under Coach Bob Larsen, while Coach Bob Kersee’s Bruin women are 19-0 in more than three years.

The UCLA men were led against the Trojans by freshman Mark Wilson, who won the high jump with a season-best 7-0 1/4, and by junior Chris Vincent, senior Mike Wisnovsky and sophomore Luis Luna, who each ran career-best times as they finished one-two-three in the 800-meter run. Vincent was first in 1:49.08, Wisnovsky second in 1:49.16 and Luna third in 1:52.6.

Tonya Sedwick and Janeene Vickers were each double winners against the Trojans, and each ran a leg on the winning 400-meter relay team. Sedwick won the long jump at 20-7 and the 400 in a career-best 52.92, and Vickers took firsts in the 100 hurdles in 13.63 and the 400 hurdles in 58.72.

The Santa Monica College men’s and women’s track teams will be represented by 14 competitors on Saturday in the Southern California preliminary meet at Cerritos College.

The SMC men are shot-putters Eduardo Vega and Lewis Capes, high jumper Andrew Saleh, sprinters Aaron Echols, Marion Singleton, Adelbert Baylis, Keith Pouncey and Dido Tshimunga and distance runners Dennis Wildy and David Babbitt.

The Corsair women will be led by hurdler LaTanya Davenport, who won both the 100-meter and 400 hurdles at last week’s WSC meet, and the 4-by-100 relay team of Davenport, Nichelle Watson, Canester White and Bridgette Robinson.

The UCLA women’s golf team won the Pac-10 championship last week at Stanford, while the Bruin men tied UC Berkeley for third, behind first-place Arizona State and second-place Arizona, in the conference championships at Arizona State.

The No. 8 Bruin women shot 898, beating top-ranked Arizona State by one stroke. Top UCLA woman was senior Jean Zedlitz, third at 222, while sophomore Christy Erb and freshman Elizabeth Bowman tied for fourth at 223. Junior Greg Garbero led the Bruin men, tying for fourth place with a three-under-par 285 that included a first-round 66, his lowest score of the year.

UCLA’s Jackie Steinmann was named the Pac-10’s woman coach of the year, Zedlitz and Bowman were named to the all-conference first team and Erb made the second team.