THE COLLEGES : Cal Lutheran Cupboard Bare of Quarterbacks

Cal Lutheran is calling all signal-callers.

When Joe Harper was hired as Cal Lutheran’s football coach in February, he had four quarterbacks from which to choose.

Three of the four--Tim Zeddies, Dan Nagelmann and Eddie Hoffman--started last season.

The position was deep and reasonably strong. Nagelmann could pass. Hoffman could run. Zeddies did a little of both.

But now, at least temporarily, Harper says his new run-and-shoot offense is without a triggerman.

Zeddies, a sophomore who began last season as the starter, has decided to pursue academic interests. “I just wasn’t having fun anymore,” said Zeddies, who will be an assistant in the psychology department.

Nagelmann, a junior, reportedly also will concentrate on his studies in an attempt to graduate after the fall semester. Hoffman, a freshman, already has left the school.

Even Dan Blatt, a junior who was fourth-string last season, said that he is looking into transferring closer to his home in Washington.

What was a quarterback quandary, if not controversy, last season for then-Coach Bob Shoup has turned into a quarterback cattle-call.

Regional reckoning: Junior college baseball teams from the region have had mixed results against fellow entrants in the Southern California regionals, which will begin Friday.

Fourth-seeded Moorpark (22-12) finished 5-3 against other teams in the regional. Seventh-seeded Canyons (24-13) was 7-8, and 12th-seeded Mission (24-12-1) was 0-7. However, five of Mission’s losses were to Harbor, the state’s top-ranked team.

Canyons is the only team among the three to have played its first-round opponent this season. The Cougars dropped a 12-10 decision to Fullerton in February.

For the record: With three games left in the regular season, Craig Clayton, Denny Vigo and Scott Sharts of the Cal State Northridge baseball team continue to move up the Matadors’ single-season rankings in offensive categories.

Clayton, who is batting .394, has 87 hits to tie for fifth on the Northridge list, and 20 doubles, putting him in a tie for seventh.

Vigo has 19 home runs (tied for fourth) and has driven in 55 runs (tied for ninth), and Sharts has 21 home runs (tied for second) and 55 RBIs.

Rondal Rollin set the Northridge single-season records for home runs (24) and hits (105) in 1980, and Hank Clark set the RBI mark (78) in 1981.

Two-liners: A note to those who consider CSUN’s Anna Getherall an all-field, no-hit shortstop: She is batting a solid .273 and is second on the team with 20 RBIs. . . .

Getherall was a second-team pick on the National Softball Coaches Assn. All-West Region team. Pitcher Debbie Dickmann, catcher Patti Pearson and outfielder Lisa Erickson were first-team selections. Still, the Lady Matadors might consider themselves slighted because Kathy Welter of Bakersfield won coach-of-the-year honors over CSUN’s Gary Torgeson. . . .

Jerry Miller, a former standout at Hart High, will play soccer for The Master’s College next fall. Miller redshirted at Cal State Northridge last season. . . .

Northridge managed to sign infielder E. J. Pape from Valley College, but the Matador baseball team lost another key recruit when 6-foot-3 left-handed pitcher John Ingram of Harbor College committed to Cal State Fullerton.

Also of note: Northridge freshman Chris Perry’s school-record long jump of 25 feet 10 1/4 inches in the Northridge Open on Saturday overshadowed noteworthy performances by CSUN women’s team members Lolita Pile and Kim Young.

Pile, runner-up in the triple jump in last year’s NCAA Division II championships, set a CSUN stadium record with a leap of 42-3 1/2.

Young, a freshman from Madera High, ran a personal best of 13.77 seconds to finish second in the 100-meter low hurdles.

Pile’s effort was her best of the season and exceeded the automatic Division I qualifying standard. Therefore, if she places in the top two in the Division II meet at Hampton (Va.) University later this month, she would be eligible to compete in the Division I championships in Durham, N. C., starting May 30.

Closing kick: After struggling early in the season, Northridge freshman Erick McBride is beginning to live up to the expectations of Matador track and field Coach Don Strametz.

McBride, who won the 800 in last year’s Southern Section 4-A Division championships, ran a personal best of 1 minute 51.36 seconds Saturday at the Modesto Invitational.

The time lowered McBride’s previous best by .16 seconds, moved him to 11th on the all-time Northridge list and exceeded the provisional qualifying standard for the NCAA Division II championships in Hampton, Va., May 24-26.

“It’s just taken him a while to adjust to a higher level of competition,” Strametz said. “A lot of freshman, especially in the distance races, aren’t used to running this fast all the time.”

Now that McBride has made the transition, Strametz predicts even faster times. “I think he can run 1:48 or 1:49 if he gets in the right race,” he said.

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, John Ortega and Brendan Healey contributed to this notebook.