THE COLLEGES / MIKE HISERMAN : Martinez’s Stock Up After Stint in Mexico

His record was 12-7. His earned-run average was a glossy 2.50. He pitched 170 innings and struck out 195, the third-highest total of any pitcher in the minor leagues.

Fili Martinez, a string bean left-hander, made quite a pitch last season in an effort to catch the attention of the powers that be in the California Angels player development system.

Playing for the Angels’ Quad Cities farm club, Martinez earned an invitation to the Arizona Instructional League with consistently strong showings at the Class-A level.

But he saved one of his best performances until what would normally be considered the off-season.

Martinez, who three years ago was the ace of the Cal State Northridge pitching staff, was among a handful of minor league players taken south of the border by Dodger scout Mike Brito in November for a series of games against the Mexico national team.

Brito, who is credited with discovering Fernando Valenzuela, among others, managed the team and chose to make Martinez his starter in the series’ first game in Monterrey, Mexico.

After a shaky start, Martinez allowed only two hits and had 14 strikeouts entering the ninth inning. Still, the game was scoreless.

Then apparently politics came to the plate. On a pitch Martinez is certain was a strike, a Mexican player was awarded first base on a walk.

It was the last batter Martinez faced. He was forced to leave the game because of a blister.

Brito’s reliever didn’t fare as well, giving up two hits and the winning run, a run credited to Martinez because of the walk.

“There was no way that pitch was a ball, no way I walked that guy, but there wasn’t any way they were going to let their national team lose,” Martinez said this week. “You just don’t beat the national team, not right there in Mexico. It was pretty controversial.”

But not so difficult to accept under the circumstances, especially because Martinez had pitched so well.

“When we went over there kind of representing the U. S. . . . It was a great feeling,” Martinez said. “It wasn’t really a feeling of intensity, it was more of pride.”

After returning stateside at the conclusion of the series, Martinez received an indication of just how impressive he had been.

An invitation came from the Mexican government, asking him to attend the nation’s Revolutionary Parade, an annual event held in Mexico City. Martinez, whose grandparents and father were born in the Mexican city of Juarez, happily obliged.

The trip, he says, was an experience he won’t soon forget. Officials hoping that Martinez had been born in Mexico invited him to join the national baseball team he so completely baffled a few weeks earlier.

Martinez declined, revealing that he had been born in the United States and would not be allowed to play because of his career as a professional.

Still, it was nice to be asked.

Recently, Martinez felt forced to decline another invitation. He will attend Northridge’s alumni game Sunday but will not pitch.

“I haven’t picked up a ball in months. I’m out of shape,” Martinez said.

That will change over the course of the next few months, however. Spring training, which begins in mid-March, is fast approaching. Martinez hopes he has secured a promotion to double A.

In the meantime, he says he will follow the fortunes of his old school closely. Northridge, which will begin its first season of Division I baseball next week, begins action ranked among the nation’s top 25 teams according to two major polls.

Martinez says he is only mildly surprised. “I learned more in one year with Coach (Bill) Kernen than I did in three years before that,” Martinez said. “He got us off on the right foot.”

Kernen, in turn, credits players like Martinez, the cornerstones of CSUN teams during the transition from Division II to Division I, for giving the Matador program a boost in the right direction.

“I hope he does feel that way,” Martinez said. “Because we feel like we helped lay the foundation. I hope we set an example for some of the young guys that are still there.”

If the job fits, take it: Among former Northridge baseball players scheduled to play for the alumni is 1975 graduate Gil Kubski. His current occupation: scout for the Chicago Cubs.

Prospect hunt: It seems that Northridge missed out on a golden opportunity by not attempting to recruit high school basketball players during its four-day stay in the Chicago area.

Chicago is considered one of the nation’s basketball hotbeds and most recruiters sift through its high school seniors like they were so many oysters on the shores of Nantucket.

Northridge had a chance to do the same but didn’t.

Coach Pete Cassidy said there wasn’t time as CSUN, which arrived in the Midwest on Saturday, prepared to play Northeastern Illinois on Monday and Loyola on Tuesday.

“We had our hands full just getting there and getting ready to play,” Cassidy said.

And even if he and assistant Tom McCullum had had the time, Cassidy said, they wouldn’t have the money. For a state university, the difference in scholarship costs between an in-state player and an out-of-state player is substantial.

“If we had someone we knew, someone we were absolutely sure was going to be an impact player, then it might be different,” Cassidy said. “As it is, we need to be judicious with who we recruit.”

Which is why it only makes sense to scout an area if the team is there on a trip anyway.

Even if CSUN didn’t have a recruit in mind this season, it wouldn’t have hurt to take a look at some high school juniors. Perhaps a few invitations might have gone out to attend Northridge’s games in the area--both of which they won impressively.

Defensive questions: Forget about USC scoring machine Harold Miner, whom Northridge will have to defend on Feb. 4 at the Sports Arena. A more pressing question is which Matador defender will draw Kevin Bradshaw, the 6-5 senior from USIU who poured in an NCAA-record 72 points against Loyola Marymount, when CSUN plays host to USIU on Jan. 28?

Based on the job he did against Loyola-Chicago’s Keith Gailes, former El Camino Real High star Sean Davis probably will get the call. Gailes scored 27 points against CSUN but Davis, a transfer from San Jose State, helped force him into one of his poorest shooting nights of the season.