COLLEGES / ALAN DROOZ : A Career in Baseball May Await Lowery

Is baseball in Terrell Lowery’s future?

The Loyola Marymount basketball standout has made such rapid strides in baseball recently that he may soon have to grapple with a decision to turn professional.

Lowery, a junior who was among the NCAA’s scoring and assist leaders during the winter, has quickly established himself as a baseball standout, although he hadn’t played at an organized level since high school.

In a 10-9 loss Tuesday at UC Santa Barbara, Lowery hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning and another two-run homer in the ninth to raise his average to .410, second-best on the team. While appearing in 28 games--about half the Lions’ schedule--he has impressed scouts by knocking in 20 runs and batting with more authority as he has become increasingly comfortable at the plate. He has nine doubles, a triple and three home runs.

As impressive as his statistics are--especially considering Lowery has not played competitively in three years--pro scouts equally like the ease with which Lowery has readjusted to baseball and his combination of speed and willowy athleticism that is evident in both sports.

Lowery will undoubtedly play before a large group of scouts this week when the Lions play host to Pepperdine in a three-game series to decide the West Coast Conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. The series opens with a 2:30 p.m. game today.

Lowery’s baseball skills have developed so fast that he is being listed among the nation’s top 100 prospects in one survey for the June 3 major league draft. Some scouts have said privately that he could be chosen in the first two rounds.

That could create the interesting quandary of having to choose between baseball and basketball for Lowery, who is expected to be named to several preseason All-America basketball teams.

Under NCAA rules, Lowery could sign a baseball contract, play professionally this summer and return to Loyola for his senior season in basketball.

Still, it’s an intriguing emotional tug-of-war for Lowery, who until two months ago was immersed in basketball and looking forward to a possible pro career in that sport.

Loyola-Pepperdine rivalry: Loyola and Pepperdine have dominated the West Coast Conference baseball standings since the league was re-formed in 1985, but the Lions have had their troubles handling the Waves in that period.

Counting three earlier games this season, the Lions are 6-17 against Pepperdine over the past five seasons. Since the WCC reinstituted baseball, the Waves have won four titles and Loyola two--one of those the result of a playoff victory by the Lions after the teams tied for the title.

Cal State Dominguez Hills’ heavy-hitting first baseman Darrell Conner had a hand in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. most-valuable-player award, sharing it with Cal Poly Pomona outfielder Ramiro Garcia, but a sore hand may have kept Conner from carrying off the prize.

Conner, who led the CCAA in batting for most of the season, tailed off in the last two weeks while playing with a thumb injury. He still batted .386, second-best average in school history, but had to sit out the last game of the season.

He also came up short in his bid for the school record for runs batted in, finishing with 58, three shy of the record.

Conner, a senior, and Toro junior pitcher Mark Tranberg were chosen to the All-CCAA first team, although Tranberg (11-3) was beaten out for pitcher of the year by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Dan Chergey. Toros named to the second team were senior pitcher Vince Aguilar, junior infielder Miguel Medina and junior outfielder John Otte.

The CCAA finished in a three-way tie for first, and all three coaches shared coach-of-the-year honors: John Scolinos of Pomona, Chuck McFarland of Cal Poly SLO and Jack Smitheran of UC Riverside.

Scholar Athletes: Two Dominguez Hills athletes have earned District VIII Academic All-America honors.

Relief pitcher Leonard Fletcher, who led the Toros baseball team with a 2.03 earned-run average, earned academic honors with a 3.42 grade-point average. The senior from Banning High majors in physical education. On the softball team, third baseman Nicole Stelter received academic honors for the second consecutive season. Stelter, a junior from La Mirada who led the Lady Toros in many offensive categories including batting (.360), has a 3.59 GPA in psychology, the highest GPA on the District VIII team.

Their selection places them on the national ballot, with the national team being announced May 30.

Stat of the Week: Dominguez Hills outfielder Otte put his name in the Toro record book by being hit by nine pitches. Otte’s total passed the record of seven held by Eric Mihkelson, now the team’s third base coach, in 1987.

Notes

Loyola Marymount helped close the book on the U.S. International athletic program when their baseball teams played a doubleheader at USIU’s San Diego campus last weekend. It was the last home appearance for USIU, which will no longer fund athletics. A good crowd showed up to see a typically offensive day, with Loyola winning both games, 13-5 and 13-3. Among those on hand to watch was basketball standout Kevin Bradshaw, who led the NCAA in scoring and set a Division I record with 71 points against the Lions. “He showed up to see if he could score a few more points on Terrell (Lowery),” one observer quipped.

Lion third baseman Gerardo Perez has knocked in 57 runs on 58 hits. . . . Pepperdine pitcher Patrick Ahearne, the former Harbor College standout, has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 72-23 in 108 2/3 innings. . . . Wave first baseman Dan Melendez went nine for 17 last week. The sophomore from St. Bernard High raised his average to .359 and leads the Waves with 54 RBIs and seven game-winning RBIs. . . . In West Coast Conference games only, Loyola’s Joe Ciccarella is batting .447 and teammate Rick Mediavilla .372. Pepperdine’s Steve Rodriguez is batting .429 and Melendez .405.