Overtime Effort by O’Donnell Works for CLU

Your leading scorer fouls out at the start of overtime in a game for first place. Who you gonna call?

In Cal Lutheran’s game against host Redlands on Monday for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship, Simon O’Donnell answered. And the result was a ringing 119-113 Kingsmen victory.

Jeff deLaveaga, who leads NCAA Division III players with a 29.0 scoring average, fouled out just after the overtime tip-off. O’Donnell took over, scoring 14 of his 26 points in overtime.

It also helped that five Cal Lutheran players scored in double figures.

Cal Lutheran (14-11, 10-3 in SCIAC play) is one game ahead of Redlands (18-6, 9-4) and has secured at least a share of the SCIAC title in its first season in the conference. With a win tonight over Caltech in their conference finale, the Kingsmen will wrap up the title and an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III tournament.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION

Kenny Kendrena, Cal State Northridge’s senior right-hander, was quick to credit USC batters for helping him in his 16-strikeout performance Tuesday in the Matadors’ 6-1 victory.

“They were aggressive,” he said. “They helped me out a lot.”

Kendrena estimated that between half and three-quarters of the pitches the Trojans swung at were out of the strike zone.

“They were swinging at things that were moving and they didn’t make too many adjustments, so we just stayed with it the whole game,” he said.

Kendrena’s strikeout total was not a career high. Last season, he struck out 17 in 11 innings against UC Irvine.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION

Through Northridge’s first five baseball games, Jason Shanahan did not have a batting average. Going into last Friday’s opener of a three-game series against San Jose State, the freshman from Missoula, Mont., was 0 for 3. Four games later, he leads the Matadors with a .357 average.

ROLE REVERSAL

Northridge and San Jose State came into last weekend’s three-game baseball series going opposite directions. The Matadors were 1-4 and the Spartans, coming off a win over Stanford, were 4-1.

But by the time the series was over, both teams were 4-4.

“People were saying Northridge was 1-4, but the real Northridge, that team, is not a 1-4 club,” San Jose State Coach Sam Piraro said. “I can’t imagine what happened against Christ College (a 5-2 loss). Maybe they were all sick that day.”

POINT OF REFERENCE

How far did its season-opening, four-game losing streak set back the Northridge baseball team?

Last season, when the Matadors finished 44-18-1, they opened 6-4. Northridge takes a 5-4 record into a home game against UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday.

REA OF HOPE

Donnie Rea is on a comeback trail, one San Jose State hopes will lead him back to the form he knew as a sophomore in 1989.

The former Agoura High standout was an All-Big West Conference pitcher that season, leading San Jose State in earned-run average (2.38), complete games (eight) and shutouts (three). But the following season he sustained a serious injury to the elbow of his pitching arm. As a result, he spent all of 1991 in rehabilitation after reconstructive surgery.

This season, Rea has appeared in four games--all in relief--and has given up four hits and two runs in 4 1/3 innings. Against Northridge on Sunday, he pitched one inning and gave up a run and two hits.

“We’re bringing him along slowly,” Piraro said. “We’re trying not to put him in high-pressure situations because then his adrenaline would be up and he might try to do something he’s not ready to do.”

Which is not to say the Spartans won’t be relying on the 6-foot-2 left-hander in key situations. “We’re counting on him down the road,” Piraro said. “It’s just a little too early yet.”

SOME EXPLAINING TO DO

It wasn’t as if anyone expected the Pierce baseball team to go undefeated, but the Brahmas’ 5-4 loss to host Compton on Monday was a surprise.

“Coming back to school (Tuesday), people were saying, ‘Oh how could you lose?’ ” said Coach Bob Lofrano, whose team fell to 8-1-1. “Obviously, Compton is not known for its prowess in junior college baseball. But they did a good job. That’s baseball.”

Pierce did not start any of its top three pitchers in the nonconference game because Western State Conference play starts today. But after three ninth-inning victories in the Mt. San Antonio College tournament last week, Pierce’s late-inning rally well ran dry against Compton.

“It was an eye-opener,” Lofrano said of the loss. “Hopefully it will give us that kick or boost that we need now that the (conference) season starts.”

Although Pierce boasts five players who transferred in from Division I schools, the Brahmas’ top hitter entering conference play is Division II “bounce-back” Josh Smaler from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Smaler, a former Agoura High catcher, is batting .417 (15 for 36) with two homers and 15 runs batted in as the Brahmas’ left fielder.

WINDING DOWN

The 1-24 Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team will play its last game of the season tonight against visiting Northern Arizona at 7. The game will mark the final Matador Gym appearance for starting seniors Shagarro Lattin, Dawn Broline and Christine Rumfola.

Lattin, a 5-foot-9 forward from Birmingham High who received limited action in a backup role last season, is CSUN’s leading scorer and rebounder with averages of 10.8 points and 6.1 rebounds a game. She also enters tonight’s finale with a team-leading .495 field-goal percentage.

Broline, a 5-8 guard, completes her Matador career as the school’s all-time three-point shot leader with 50 in 177 attempts. The former L.A. Baptist player also ranks third on the Matador career list for minutes played with 2,429. Rumfola, a 5-9 guard from Burbank High who averaged just 1.7 points last season, is second in scoring with a 9.0 average.

GLAD TO BE THERE

College of the Canyons women’s basketball Coach Debby Blanchard wasn’t complaining Sunday when the Cougars were seeded 16th in the 16-team Southern California regionals, even though it meant traveling to top-seeded Golden West on Wednesday in a first-round game against the two-time defending state champion.

For Blanchard, the playoff berth capped a rewarding regular season that began with uncertainty--she was named head coach only a month before the opener--and ended with a 10-5 Western State Conference record.

“I had prepared myself for the worst,” Blanchard said of her first season at Canyons. “But the players knew I was going to stick with it. We became a team and we saw that we could beat the top teams.”

Led by returners Shannon Solway (19 points and 6.6 rebounds a game) and Kim Fischer (14 points, 6.8 rebounds), Canyons recorded the biggest upset of the WSC campaign when it handed defending champion Valley its only conference loss, 58-49, two weeks ago.

THE END OF AN ERA

Before the tip-off of The Master’s game against Biola Tuesday night, Master’s introduced its nine seniors and their families for an emotional goodby. Four of those seniors then took their spots in the starting lineup for their last regular-season game.

To say Master’s (20-10) is led by its seniors is an understatement. Forwards Jason Webster and Tom Bruner, center Joe Jon Bryant and guard Damon Greer--all seniors--lead the Mustangs in scoring, in that order. Webster also leads in rebounding. Senior Stuart Epperson is Master’s top three-point shooter.

Seniors Ted Hahs, Ryan Farrell and Bruce Watson come off the bench for considerable playing time.

CHANGING THE SUBJECT

If you can’t beat them and can’t join them, then change the subject.

With three minutes remaining and Biola beating Master’s by 30 points Tuesday night in a game that was to decide first place in the NAIA District 3, it looked as if the Eagles would beat the Mustangs for the second time this season.

The Biola crowd, which occupied about a quarter of Master’s gym, began boasting about its impending win.

Not to be outdone, someone crawled out of the crowd on Master’s side and held up a sweat shirt with large letters that read: “The Master’s Soccer.”

The Master’s crowd went nuts.

The Master’s soccer team defeated Biola, 3-1, Oct. 12 and went on to win the district title.

DIVISION I TRANSFERS

Jeff Ingalls and Mike Williamson, former standouts at Agoura and Thousand Oaks highs, are members of the Moorpark men’s track team, giving the Raiders a realistic chance of defeating defending Western State Conference champion Bakersfield.

Ingalls, who placed third in the 400 meters at the 1989 state championships, and Williamson, third in the 3,200 that year, are sophomores.

Ingalls signed a national letter of intent with UCLA out of high school but withdrew from school in the fall of 1990 when his father experienced heart problems.

Williamson originally signed with New Mexico, but moved back to Thousand Oaks a year ago because of a coaching change at New Mexico.

Ingalls, who had a best of 47.89 seconds in the 400 in high school, timed 48.5 to win a season-opening quadrangular meet at Santa Monica College last week. Williamson has yet to compete for the Raiders because of lower-leg injuries.

“Jeff’s basic goal is to run under 47 this season,” Coach Doni Green said. “His top goal would be to get a (provisional) qualifying time for the Olympic Trials.”

The provisional qualifying time is 46.40.

STRONG COMEBACK

Gil Carillo has returned with a vengeance for Northridge’s track and field team after redshirting last year because of injuries.

Carillo, fifth in the javelin for Moorpark in the 1990 state junior college championships, was sidelined most of last season because of an injured right elbow.

On Saturday, he improved his personal best by nearly eight feet with a winning throw of 222 feet 2 inches at the Pomona-Pitzer invitational.

The effort moved him to second on the all-time Northridge list with the new javelin, which has been used in competition since 1986.

“He’s finally healthy,” Coach Don Strametz said. “The injury did not require surgery, but it did take a long time to heal.”

Northridge could have a potent one-two javelin punch if Garrett Noel can get healthy. Noel, hampered by a groin injury, set the school record of 225-11 with the new javelin last year.

FAR FROM HOME

Remy McCarthy, the men’s basketball coach at Oxnard, was livid when the site for the Condors’ opening-round game of the Southern California regionals against Valley on Saturday was changed from Santa Clara High to Moorpark College.

The game will still be held at 7 p.m.

Oxnard, which does not have a gym, usually plays its home games at Santa Clara, but the Saints’ girls’ basketball team is scheduled to play host to Morro Bay in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division IV-AA playoffs Saturday night.

Upon learning this, McCarthy and Valley Coach Jim Stephens agreed Tuesday to move the game up to Friday at 7 p.m., but Walt Rilliet, the state commissioner of athletics, rejected that plan, citing an agreement by the coaches’ association that all first-round games be played as close to 7 p.m. as possible on Saturday night.

“The coaches association strongly recommended to me in years past that the playoffs at the regional and state level were the culmination of a lot of hard work,” Rilliet said. “And that they be staged on specific days and at specific times. . . . I’m holding to that recommendation.”

McCarthy believes the site change takes away Oxnard’s home-court advantage. Moorpark is not much closer to Oxnard than it is to Valley.

LAST HURRAH

Northridge seniors David Keeter, Brian Kilian, Keith Gibbs and Shelton Boykin were honored in pregame festivities before Saturday night’s Northeastern Illinois game. David Keeter’s mother, Liz, came from Hampton, Va. Brian Kilian’s parents, Marty and Teresa, who travel from San Jose for each home game, also were in attendance. In his absence, Gibbs was given a loud round of applause. Gibbs missed the game to attend his stepfather’s funeral.

REUNION

Northridge catcher Missy Cress was staring at a familiar face when she stepped to the plate with the game on the line last weekend in the San Diego softball tournament. Cal State Long Beach pitcher Mary Letournea was Cress’ teammate last summer on an American Softball Assn. team.

“I felt pressure because I know her and I knew that she wanted to strike me out as much as I wanted to get a hit off her,” Cress said.

Cress won the showdown with a bases-loaded single that scored Beth Calcante for a 3-2 Northridge victory.

NO HITS, NO KNOWLEDGE

Cami Allen of Northridge had a no-hitter going when she was taken out against St. Mary’s after the fourth inning last weekend. Teammate Tracy Tousley preserved the no-hitter in a 10-0 Northridge win, but Allen wasn’t biting her fingernails watching Tousley pitch. That’s because Allen didn’t know she had held the Gaels hitless until a reporter informed her several days later.

If she had known that she was throwing a no-hitter, Allen said she would have wanted to continue. Although she threw several no-hitters at Palomar College, she has yet to throw one for Northridge.

Ron Twersky and staff writers Mike Hiserman, Theresa Munoz, John Ortega and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this notebook.