Rain Putting Damper on Key Baseball Games at Christ College Irvine

The recent rains may help relieve the drought, but they also are making it difficult for Christ College Irvine to play its home baseball games.

The Eagles’ showdown with Azusa Pacific for first place in the Golden State Athletic Conference has been postponed twice because the CCI baseball field was swamped.

The field sits at the base of the hills on the edge of the campus in the Turtle Rock area of southwest Irvine, and it is a prime destination for storm runoff. Apparently, the outfield is an especially good reservoir.

The maintenance crew has taken a number of steps to try to solve the problem, including using vacuums to suck up the standing water. The latest effort has been to dig a trench to divert the runoff. But the field was unplayable Saturday, for the originally scheduled doubleheader with Azusa, and Tuesday, for the makeup. The games have yet to be rescheduled.

The Eagles (16-7, 5-2 in the GSAC), who are a half-game behind Azusa (5-1 in the conference), are scheduled to play host to Western (Ore.) Baptist today and Linfield (Ore.) in a doubleheader Saturday.

Add rain: A part of French Hill, which rises behind the CCI athletic fields, is threatening to slide onto the school’s soccer field and track. The potential slide is pushing up and over a four-foot retaining wall and seems likely to let loose if there is more heavy rain, CCI sports information director Amanda Houlton said.

“We’re all just sort of watching it to see what happens,” Houlton said.

It’s Pac-10 week at Hart Park. Weather permitting, the Chapman baseball team will play California today and USC Saturday after losing to UCLA Wednesday. The Panthers also play Sunday at USC.

The Panthers (21-9) are No. 24 in the Baseball America poll and No. 30 in the Collegiate Baseball poll. Entering the week, shortstop Kevin Monson led the team with a .362 batting average and catcher Larry Stahlhoefer had a team-high six home runs and 37 runs batted in.

Rick Witmer, a long-range shooter on the Southern California College men’s basketball team, was an All-NAIA Division I honorable mention selection. Witmer, a senior who averaged 19.5 points and 3.5 three-point baskets this season, was the only District 3 player to be honored.

Teammate Mike Henjum, who averaged 12.5 points, was named an NAIA All-American scholar athlete. Henjum, a senior math major, has a 3.89 grade-point average.

Nancy Geisler, a senior forward on the Christ College Irvine women’s basketball team, was also named an NAIA scholar athlete. Geisler, who averaged 16.4 points, has a 3.89 GPA. Her major is English literature.

The Pacific Christian men’s basketball team finished its season Saturday by defeating San Jose Christian, 101-81, in the third-place game of the National Bible College Championships.

The Royals (23-19) had lost to San Jose in four overtimes in the regional playoffs of the National Christian College Athletic Assn. this season, but this time they were paced by Phil Garcia, who had 31 points and 20 rebounds, and Ime Oduok, who had 22 points and 23 rebounds.

Garcia, a junior from Los Amigos High, was named a first-team all-tournament selection. Bob Gaskill was a second-team pick. For the season, Garcia averaged 18.1 points and 15.3 rebounds and was second-team All-American in the National Christian College Athletic Assn.

“He really stepped up his play in one year,” PCC Coach Lee Erickson said. “He’s twice the player he was last season.”

At one point this season, the Royals had won only six of 21 games but they gained experience and another player, Oduok, a 6-8 Nigerian freshman who enrolled at the school in the middle of the season. Oduok didn’t get much playing time at first, but averaged about nine rebounds in 10 minutes of play.

Notes

SCC’s David Black was named the NAIA District 3 pitcher of the week after allowing only two hits and one unearned run in seven innings of the Vanguards’ 6-1 victory over Metro (Colo.) State. Black, a senior from Orange, struck out eight, lowering his district-leading earned-run average to 1.36. . . . The Pacific Christian women’s basketball team finished fifth at the NCCAA Division II tournament earlier this month in Atlanta. The Royals finished the season 19-9. Sophomore Kandee Almond was an all-tournament selection and Almond and senior Donna Allen were selected to the NCCAA All-American team. . . . Curtis Batchelder and Scott Van Wig of the PCC men’s team, were named NCCAA scholar athletes.