COMMUNITY COLLEGES : This Time, Things Are Different

The last time Golden West played Rancho Santiago in an Orange Empire Conference baseball game, it was considered a match-up of the conference’s best and worst teams.

But when they play at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in Huntington Beach, it will be a meeting of the conference’s top two teams.

Rancho Santiago has rolled to a 20-3 overall record and is 6-0 in conference. Golden West is 10-7 and 5-1, but the Rustlers’ success has come very recently--like last week.

Golden West went 5-0 in consecutive conference games last week. Teams normally play three conference games a week, but the previous week’s rain forced two make-up games.

Golden West entered last week 5-7 and had lost to Rancho Santiago, 7-0, in the Rustlers’ conference opener Feb. 26.

“We just got on a roll and stayed on it,” Golden West Coach Bert Villarreal said. “I’m proud of our guys. They surprised a lot of people, including me. Now we just have to keep it going.”

Golden West rallied for three runs in the ninth to defeat Riverside, 3-2, last Tuesday. On Wednesday, Golden West beat Saddleback, 7-6, in 10 innings. Derek Ogle pitched a five-hitter and Golden West beat Fullerton, 7-2, Thursday.

The Rustlers beat district-rival Orange Coast, 10-4, Friday and Cypress, 15-11, in 10 innings Saturday.

Golden West had fallen behind, 10-4, after six innings before coming back against Cypress.

Corie Blount, Rancho Santiago’s 6-foot-10 sophomore, was selected the state men’s co-basketball player of the year. He shared the honor with Tony Amundsen of Chabot.

Blount, who played especially well in the final six weeks of the season, averaged 19.5 points and nine rebounds.

Forward Erik Martin of Rancho Santiago and forward Eric Pauley of Cypress also were chosen to the first team.

Long Beach’s Rob Goodman, a sophomore forward from Los Alamitos High School, was also a first-team member. Goodman graduated from Los Alamitos in 1985, injured his knee the following fall, then temporarily gave up the sport. He came back with Long Beach in the fall of 1989. He and teammate Terry Nelson were selected the co-most valuable players of the South Coast Conference this season.

Eric Pauley of Cypress scored 11 points in a losing effort as the North defeated the South, 166-152, in the all-star game played before the state title game Saturday at UC Irvine.

Eighteen of 23 players scored in double figures in the game, which was played in 12-minute quarters.

Pauley is the biggest recruiting prize still unclaimed in Orange County. He will be making a trip to Kansas in the next few weeks and is also being sought by about 60 other schools, including Kentucky and UCLA. He took a trip to Colorado State early this season but has yet to decide on his other visits.

Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino came to the Bren Center on Thursday to watch Pauley, who scored 26 points as Cypress defeated Columbia, 71-60, in the opening round of the state tournament.

There were plenty of sad faces on members of losing teams in the state tournament last weekend, but one of the saddest sights were signs held by Long Beach fans.

They read: “Get a New Ref(eree)” and “Get Real, Ref.” And they were being held by children not more than 10 or 11 years old.

Community College Notes

Riverside and Fullerton, tied for first place in the Orange Empire Conference track and field standings, meet at 2:30 p.m. today at Fullerton. The men’s and women’s teams from each college are 2-0. The meet is a makeup of the one rained out March 1. . . . Fullerton’s Bob Terry (620 points) and Garry Hunter (610) became only the second men’s basketball duo to score at least 600 points each in a season at Fullerton. Leonard Guinn (736) and Edgar Clark (735) were the others in 1961.

Saddleback’s Rob Nye has a .444 average, tops in the Orange Empire Conference, as the baseball teams head into Round 2 today. Other leaders: Octavio Medina (Rancho Santiago) with 38 hits, Tom Wilson (Fullerton) with seven home runs, Roul Rodarte (Rancho Santiago) and Greg Fife (Orange Coast) with 26 runs batted in. Paul O’Hearn (Rancho Santiago) leads in victories with five.