Power Ratings Short-Circuit Lively Matchup

It has several elements of an intriguing matchup.

Cal State Northridge’s baseball team is ranked 11th in Division I. Cal Lutheran is rated seventh in Division III.

Eric Johnson and Mike Teron, both of whom played for Northridge last season, have transferred to Cal Lutheran.

Then, of course, there is the proximity factor. The majority of players on both teams are familiar with one another, having played at local high schools and in summer leagues.

There is even a revenge motive. Two years ago, the last time Northridge and Cal Lutheran squared off, the Kingsmen scored a stunning, 18-3 upset.

Unfortunately, Northridge and Cal Lutheran probably will not play each other in baseball again anytime soon.

The reason: Northridge, a Division I independent, cannot afford any blips on its power rating, a formula that helps determine the NCAA regional field.

According to the power rating, Division I teams are penalized for games against Division II, Division III or NAIA teams.

“I don’t want to play anything but Division I schools,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “If we could afford to play three or four non-Division I teams, then that would be great. I would love to play Cal Lutheran. It would be a good game and we’re so close, it just makes sense. I’d like to play them every year.”

Kernen’s sentiment is shared by Kingsmen Coach Rich Hill, who said that he understands Northridge’s predicament.

“They just can’t afford to do it right now,” Hill said. “He called me one time last season about playing a makeup game, but we couldn’t do it because we were at our limit (for games in a season).”

Northridge’s 56-game schedule includes only one non-Division I opponent: NAIA member Christ College of Irvine, in the opener Friday at Matador Field.

The Matadors scheduled that game because of a late cancellation and Kernen’s longtime friendship with Scott Sarver, Christ College’s coach. Sarver and Kernen were assistants at Cal State Fullerton in the late 1970s.

NEW RACKET

Danielle Wood, a starter on the Northridge softball team the past two seasons, has taken up a new racket as a member of the Matador tennis team.

Wood last played competitive tennis three years ago, as a senior at Hart High. Tony Davila, Northridge’s tennis coach, spotted her potential two years ago in a tennis class, but Wood was concentrating on softball at the time.

Wood was a two-year starter at first base for the softball team. She batted .260 and playing flawless defense, handling 255 chances without an error.

“She just wanted to go on to something else,” Davila said. “She may have been burned out.”

Davila said that Wood is on the verge of breaking into Northridge’s doubles lineup. “She’s doing real well but, obviously, after being off from competitive tennis for three years, she is a little rusty.”

MUSICAL PLAYERS

Until Mission College opened its new campus this year, the school was a combination of makeshift classrooms scattered throughout the east Valley.

Traveling from classroom to classroom perhaps prepared Free Spirit baseball players to be shifted around the baseball diamond in a similar manner by Coach John Klitsner.

Sophomore Lazaro Campos, an All-Southern California Athletic Conference selection last season, will move from first base to catcher. He will be replaced at first by Roy Lozano, a second-team All-SCAC selection at second base.

Last year’s shortstop, Gabe Chavez, will be this year’s third baseman.

Even newcomers Robert Garcia of Sylmar High and Marlon McKinney of Poly will be playing new positions. Garcia, a third baseman, will start at second. McKinney, also a third baseman in high school, will start in left.

Actually, Klitsner is clearing the bases, if you will, for his two best players to play their natural positions.

Mike Rogers, an all-conference shortstop in 1990, will be back after missing last season because of a shoulder injury. Campos, the team’s second-best catcher last season, is ready to play the position full time.

“We’re putting our best athletes on the field any place we can,” Klitsner said.

OUT OF ACTION

Angela Arrington of Antelope Valley, the defending state junior college champion in the women’s discus, has moved to Riverside to live with her parents and will not compete for the Marauders.

Antelope Valley Coach Mark Covert said he was disappointed with Arrington’s move but not surprised.

“Angie had a hard time going to class,” Covert said. “She had been living on her own for a while and, between having to work to support herself and going to school, things just weren’t working out.”

Arrington, a former standout at Palmdale High, has bests of 145 feet 3 inches in the discus and 43-1 1/2 in the shotput. She placed fifth in the shotput in last year’s state meet. Her departure struck a severe blow to Antelope Valley’s chances of placing among the top five in the state.

Arrington and distance standout Jean Harvey led Antelope Valley to an eighth-place finish last season.

SCURRYING ALONG

Northridge freshman Derek Scurry wasted little time making his mark on the Matadors’ all-time list in the men’s long jump, leaping 24-5 to finish fourth in the Nevada Invitational at the Reno Livestock Events Center last Saturday.

Scurry’s effort moved him to eighth on the all-time Northridge list and improved on his personal best of 23-6 1/2, set last year as a Hawthorne High senior.

Northridge Coach Don Strametz noted that Scurry had two attempts ruled foul that measured more than 25 feet, despite an approach in which he used only 14 steps. His approach will probably be lengthened to 18 or 21 steps during the outdoor season, allowing for greater speed and, theoretically, longer jumps.

“He came really close to hitting a 25-footer,” Strametz said. “He had two fouls that were right there, and they were toe fouls. They weren’t fouls where he was a foot or so past the board. He was just an inch or two by it.”

Saturday’s meet was Northridge’s first indoor meet. Northridge individuals had competed in indoor meets in years past, but the Matadors had not competed as a team.

GETTING DEFENSIVE

Mike Dunlap, Cal Lutheran’s basketball coach, has been stressing defense all season.

“Our goal is to shore some things up defensively,” he said before the season.

Unfortunately for the Kingsmen, it took a while before they practiced what their coach was preaching. Cal Lutheran allowed an average of 84.3 points in losing its first four games.

Recently, however, the Kingsmen defense has become a fortress, a change that has been reflected by the team’s success.

Cal Lutheran has won four in a row and through 15 games, the Kingsmen (7-8 3-0 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) are allowing 72.5 points per game.

Perhaps the team’s top defensive effort was turned in Jan. 15 when Pomona-Pitzer was held scoreless for a 10-minute, 15-second stretch in the first half of a 75-56 win. “I’ve been pretty pleased with our improvement,” Dunlap said.