Drinkwater Glad Cypress’ Season Didn’t End While He Was Ailing : Community Colleges: After food poisoning forced him to miss Chargers’ regional title game, infielder is ready for State tournament.

He was one of the main reasons Cypress College was there, but he wasn’t around to see the Chargers’ shining moment in the Southern California Regional baseball playoffs Sunday.

Sean Drinkwater, a sophomore second baseman, was home in bed, sick with food poisoning, when Jason Bates hit a ninth-inning home run to give Cypress a 5-4 victory over Los Angeles Pierce in the regional championship game at Los Angeles Harbor College.

Drinkwater got the news the season was still alive from his father, who had gone to watch the game.

“When he walked in, he didn’t tell me right away,” Drinkwater said. “I asked him, ‘Are we done?’ He said, ‘Yeah . . . until next weekend.’ When he told me how we won, it made me want to go find Bates and hug him right away, but I was too sick.”

Drinkwater had hit a home run Friday as Cypress defeated Los Angeles Harbor, 8-3, in the first round. He played Saturday when Cypress beat Pierce, 15-3. Then he went home for dinner. He began to feel sick at about 11 p.m.

It got so bad that he went to the hospital at about 1 a.m. He left five hours later but was much too sick and weak to play.

“I got the call about 6 a.m.,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said. “And I knew it wasn’t good news. I knew he had to be very sick, otherwise he would be there. He’s that type of kid.”

Drinkwater is feeling much better now and will return to the Cypress lineup for the State tournament beginning Saturday in Sacramento.

Cypress (33-14) will play Sacramento City (49-1-2) at 3 p.m. Riverside (36-13) will play Chabot (36-13-4) at 11 a.m. in the first game of the double-elimination tournament, which continues Sunday and ends Monday with the title game scheduled for 11 a.m.

“I can’t wait to play again,” Drinkwater said.

His refusal to wait is the main reason Drinkwater is at Cypress.

He received a scholarship from Texas A&M; out of El Toro High School in 1989 and was named most improved player after the Aggies’ 1989 fall season. But he spent most of the 1990 regular season on the bench.

He started two games but his role was usually limited to pinch-hitting. With just 23 at-bats and sophomores playing ahead of him, Drinkwater decided it was time for a change.

“I was basically a starter my whole life,” Drinkwater said. “It was really hard to sit and watch all season. It was an adjustment that I didn’t like making. I knew about halfway into the season I had to leave.”

Drinkwater said he considered all the community colleges in Orange County, but Pickler didn’t expect to get him. Cypress already had Troy Babbitt, an all-Orange Empire Conference player, returning at second.

“We were real honest with him,” Pickler said. “He knew Babbitt was here, but once Babbitt heard that Drinkwater was thinking about coming, he said that he would move to third. . . . Drink has the best baseball instincts of anyone I have coached in 15 years. He is just an outstanding athlete and can do so many things.”

Drinkwater’s arrival solidified one of the best community college infields in California. Drinkwater, Doug McConathy (first base), Bates (shortstop) and Babbitt (third base) were first-team, all-conference selections.

About the only suggestion Pickler and hitting coach Bill Pinkham had for Drinkwater was to stand taller at the plate--he had a tendency to crouch--and take a longer swing.

This has helped him develop more power. Drinkwater had six home runs in the regular season and hit two more in the playoffs. He is hitting .317 with 42 runs batted in and leads the Chargers with 14 stolen bases.

“We knew he was a special package when he was a freshman here,” said Dan DeLeon, who was his coach at El Toro. “He came to us with all the tools, but there was too much pressure on him then to excel. When he got to Cypress and they had other guys, he just took off. He can make it all the way. I’m looking forward to watching him play in ‘The Show’ someday.”