Northridge Pitching Is Potent

As an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton, Bill Kernen oversaw several talented pitching staffs, including one in 1987 that produced Mike Harkey of the Chicago Cubs and Larry Casian of the Minnesota Twins.

But Kernen, in his fourth season as head coach at Cal State Northridge, says he has never had a staff as good as the one that has pitched the Matadors into contention for another run at the NCAA playoffs.

Northridge rebounded from an 0-4 start to enter the week 17-5-1 and ranked 19th by Baseball America.

Last weekend, the Matadors won the Fresno State tournament and extended their winning streak to nine games. Senior right-hander Kenny Kendrena earned two complete-game victories during the tournament, including the championship game against Fresno State.

Kendrena, who improved to 5-3, anchors a staff that has pitched 17 complete games, compiled a 2.73 earned-run average and recorded 242 strikeouts in 217 2/3 innings.

“I have five guys I can throw out there and beat anybody,” Kernen said. “When you have a staff like that, you’re not going to have long losing streaks because someone is always going to step up.

“These guys can throw complete games because they are in good shape. When you have a quick hook or you panic and run out to the mound every time something goes wrong, you’re sending a message that you don’t think your pitcher can handle it. If you let them get themselves out of jams, it’s amazing how they dig in and get it done.”

Junior right-hander Kevin Kloek is 4-1 with a 1.90 ERA, and junior right-hander Steven Morales is 3-1 with a 2.26 ERA for the Matadors, who fell one game short of advancing to the College World Series last season.

Kernen does not expect his team to be denied this season. “This is a team that is going to have to be contended with,” he said. “It’s better than last year’s team, and there are indications that it’s one of the best in the country. We’ve just begun to show that.”

Reversal of fortune: What a difference a day makes.

On March 3, Chapman College moved into the national rankings, a heady achievement for a program in its first season of competition at the Division I level. Coach Mike Weathers and his players were elated.

On March 4, Chapman President James Doti dropped a bombshell on Weathers and the rest of the school’s coaching staff: Chapman would move down to nonscholarship Division III in 1993. Currently, all sports except baseball compete in Division II.

The news disheartened Weathers, who reportedly had turned down the opportunity to become coach at Loyola Marymount last summer so he could remain at Chapman and build a Division I program. Chapman players will retain their scholarships through next year, but no new scholarships will be awarded.

Chapman is 21-8 and ranked 24th by Baseball America.

“With the success we’re having this year and the potential of next year’s recruits, things were really looking good for the program,” Weathers said. “We’re going to try and keep it together this season and find the best situation for each player next year, whether that’s here or somewhere else.”

Trivia time: Name the pitchers from Southland university teams who have won a Cy Young Award.

Gone but not forgotten: UC Irvine Coach Mike Gerakos recently placed a call to the UCLA baseball office and left a message for Coach Gary Adams.

“I saw the Pac-10 box scores in the paper this morning, and it’s nice to see the UC Irvine pitching staff is doing so well,” Gerakos joked.

Gerakos was referring to UCLA reliever Gabe Sollecito, a sophomore transfer from Irvine who had picked up his seventh save for the Bruins, and Arizona freshman Kirt Kishita, who had won his third game for the Wildcats.

With Gerakos’ blessing, Sollecito left Irvine and Kishita rescinded his commitment to the Anteaters when the baseball program was rumored to be going under last spring.

Gerakos has been left to wonder what kind of staff he might have had if Sollecito and Kishita were part of a group that includes senior right-hander David Bladow, who is 6-1 with a 2.53 ERA.

“We’re hanging in there,” said Gerakos, whose team is 13-9 overall and in a four-way tie for second place in the Big West Conference at 4-2. “Despite what happened last spring, we have an experienced team with 10 seniors. I’d love to have those two pitchers, but you can’t worry too much about what might have been.”

Well-armed: Junior right-hander Kennie Steenstra of Wichita State, who was 17-0 in 1991, is 6-0 this season for the Shockers, who are ranked No. 1 by Baseball America.

Steenstra, who was 65-11 at Plato High in Missouri, has won 18 of his last 19 starts and is 32-2 in his collegiate career.

Six of the Southland’s 10 teams are among the top 25 this week, including No. 7-ranked Cal State Fullerton, No. 11 Pepperdine, No. 14 Cal State Long Beach, No. 19 Cal State Northridge, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 Chapman.

Conference call: Fifth-ranked Stanford won two of three games at UCLA, improving its first-place record to 6-3 in the Pacific 10 Southern Division.

Arizona, ranked 18th, is second at 4-2, followed by 10th-ranked Arizona State (5-4), UCLA (4-4), USC (6-6) and California (2-8).

Trivia answer: Tom Seaver of USC, who won the National League Cy Young Award in 1969, ’73 and ‘75, and Mike Scott of Pepperdine, who won the National League Cy Young Award in 1986.

College Baseball Notes

David Main is batting .413 for Pepperdine (18-8-1). The Waves, who lead the West Coast Conference by half a game, will play host to second-place San Diego this weekend. Pepperdine is 11-0-1 at home, 7-8 on the road. . . . USC pitcher Jackie Nickell shut out California last weekend, improving to 4-3 and lowering his earned-run average to 2.70. . . . Phil Nevin of Cal State Fullerton (19-7) leads the Big West Conference with 28 runs batted in. David Waco and Chris Johnson of UC Santa Barbara (18-8) each have 26 RBIs, and Jeff Antoon of Santa Barbara has 25. . . . David Roberts, a redshirt freshman for UCLA (17-8), is batting .379 and has 20 stolen bases in 26 attempts. The Bruins will travel to Arizona State this weekend, then play USC the following weekend.