Sacramento Takes Final Swings at CSUN

What had been brewing for three days between the Cal State Northridge and Cal State Sacramento baseball teams boiled over Sunday after Sacramento’s come-from-behind, 5-4 victory at Matador Field.

Northridge won two of three emotionally turbulent games in which brawls nearly erupted on at least three occasions.

About 20 minutes after Sunday’s game, Northridge second baseman Scott Richardson and Sacramento third baseman Bruno Haro came to blows near the third-base coaching box and had to be separated in what became a pileup of half-dressed players.

In the series opener Friday, Richardson and Haro went nose to nose near third base.

Rumors swirled throughout the weekend that Richardson, who is black, was the target of a racial remark by a Sacramento player.

On Tuesday, Richardson would neither deny nor confirm that such a remark had been made.

“That’s over now. I don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “It was just two teams going at it. Naturally, tempers are going to flare and words are going to be exchanged. That’s all.”

Said Northridge catcher Mike Sims: “Bad remarks were said, I can tell you that. What happened after the game was a bad remark on (Haro’s) part.”

Sims was involved in a skirmish with Sacramento’s Jon Beauchemin as Beauchemin was completing his home-run trot in the ninth inning of Saturday’s game.

As Beauchemin crossed the plate, his feet became entangled with Sims’ and he fell. No punches were exchanged between the players, who were teammates at Alemany High.

“With Sacramento, I guess you could say it goes way back,” Sims said. “But we handled it with bats and balls on the field.”

Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said that no disciplinary action was taken against any of his players.

BIG TIME

A running back left Northridge football players wide-eyed and with mouths agape last Thursday. And no, it was not Jamal Farmer, the Hawaii transfer who is expected to lead the Matador rushing attack next season.

This runner is taller, faster and considerably more affluent. It was Eric Dickerson, who two days later became a Raider via a trade with the Indianapolis Colts.

Dickerson is a friend of former Ram teammate LeRoy Irvin, now a Northridge assistant.

“He stayed for about a half-hour, told some stories and wished the players well,” Northridge Coach Bob Burt said. “It wasn’t a planned thing at all. He just showed up.”

SOLAR POWER

Mike Solar was kidding, but after hitting four home runs in Northridge’s first eight games he planted tongue firmly in cheek and told former Matador slugger Scott Sharts that his home run records were in jeopardy.

In fact, Sharts’ home run marks of 29 in a season and 51 in his career will survive another season. But Solar’s numbers in the power department are higher than even he might have imagined. Solar has a team-high 13 home runs after hitting only 19 in his first three seasons.

STAR SEEKER

A short time after picking up his second win of the season, an extra-inning decision over Sacramento, Northridge’s Tony Ljubetic was approached by an autograph seeker.

After politely obliging, Ljubetic, a seldom-used relief pitcher, was asked whether he had just penned his first autograph.

“No, the first time was actually in Fresno,” Ljubetic said. “But that shouldn’t count because they asked for everybody’s.

“This guy was really the first. He actually knew my name.”

For the record, it’s pronounced Lou-BET-ic.

MARATHON MEN

Distance runners are known for their stamina, but Glendale track Coach Eddie Lopez really tested his charges’ endurance in the WSC meet.

Oved Aguirre, Robert Nelson, Oscar Perez and Jesse Torres each competed in three events.

Aguirre won the 10,000 meters Tuesday, then placed second in the 1,500 and won the 5,000 Friday.

Nelson placed second in the 10,000, then came back with a pair of runner-up finishes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000. Perez placed third in the 10,000, won the steeplechase and finished fourth in the 5,000. Torres placed sixth in the 10,000, third in the steeplechase and sixth in the 5,000.

Glendale, which placed third behind Bakersfield and Moorpark, scored 105 of its 143 points in the 1,500, steeplechase, 5,000 and 10,000 meters.

ENDURING FRIENDSHIP

When Cal Lutheran’s Dan Smith hit a solo home run in the fourth inning of the second game of a doubleheader against Redlands on Saturday, Jeff Berman stood at the plate to congratulate him--a ritual the two seniors have followed at four different schools.

Smith, a shortstop, and Berman, a pitcher, have played on the same team since high school at Newbury Park. They then played at Moorpark College for two years and for a year at San Jose State in 1991 before transferring to Cal Lutheran in the fall.

Where one goes, the other is sure to follow, and that has been good news for Cal Lutheran. Smith is batting .323 with 14 doubles and six home runs and has a .969 fielding percentage. Berman (2-0) has struck out 38 and has a 2.30 earned-run average in 31 1/3 innings.

LOOKING FOR NO. 1

The Cal Lutheran softball team can clinch the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in its first season in the conference Friday with a doubleheader sweep of second-place Redlands at Cal Lutheran.

The Regals (26-12, 17-3 in conference play) are percentage points ahead of the Bulldogs (23-9, 18-4) in first place. Cal Lutheran has four games left, Redlands two.

The teams split a doubleheader March 14 at Redlands. The Bulldogs won the first game, 6-0, and the Regals took the second, 13-6. “I think we are a completely different team than we were then,” Cal Lutheran Coach Teri Rupe said. “We have more self-discipline at the plate.”

Michelle Phillips (11-5) will be one of the starting pitchers for Redlands, which has won 12 games in a row. Phillips also is batting .460.

BUSY SCHEDULE

Ever since Tomislav Zelenovic of Rijeka, Yugoslavia, earned an academic scholarship to Cal Lutheran in 1990, he has developed a remarkable work ethic.

Zelenovic, a sophomore, plays No. 1 singles for the tennis team while maintaining a 3.9 grade-point average with a double major in sociology and biology. In addition, he works as a resident assistant in his dormitory and serves as an intern in a student-run organization in the business school.

Zelenovic’s schedule leaves little time for relaxation, but his hard work has paid off. He won five consecutive SCIAC matches, capped by a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Grant Deremer of Occidental last week. Zelenovic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Independent College division at the Ojai tournament last weekend, losing to Carl Hinds of Cal State Bakersfield, 7-5, 6-2.

“The whole CLU community has been very supportive of me,” Zelenovic said. “They help me out in a lot of different ways. I’m just trying to pay them back.”

Zelenovic is a candidate for one of 64 berths in the NCAA Division III championships May 18-21 at Emory University in Atlanta. A decision is expected this weekend.

PLAYING OVERTIME

If Kasper Nielsen of Pierce is getting extra sleep this week no one is going to blame him.

Nielsen, a freshman from Denmark, played two singles matches and two doubles matches Friday in the men’s junior college division of the Ojai tennis tournament. With only 20-minute breaks between matches, Nielsen was on the court for 97 games and nine hours in an 11-hour stretch.

Remarkably, Nielsen won all of those matches to reach Saturday’s quarterfinals in both events, despite going without a lunch break. Nielsen finally was beaten by top-seeded Henning Wold of College of the Desert, 6-3, 6-3, in a two-hour match.

Nielsen then teamed with Vanja Nadali to play the second-seeded team of Tom Fatehi and Robert Malkuist of Grossmont. Not surprisingly, Nielsen and Nadali lost, 6-0, 6-0.

“They couldn’t even move (during the match),” Pierce Coach Paul Xanthos said.

Nielsen and Nadali’s efforts were rewarded in another way, however. By advancing to the quarterfinals, they helped the Brahmas tie Palomar for fourth place in the team competition.

AWAY FROM COURT

Injuries have been a painful companion of Ojai’s Julie Tullberg during her college tennis career, first at San Diego State and then at USC. But the pain was no just physical for the Trojan senior last week at the Ojai tournament.

For the second time in four years, Tullberg was forced to miss her hometown tournament because of injuries.

In 1989, Tullberg was sidelined after undergoing surgery on both feet. This time, back and shoulder injuries forced her out of the Pacific 10 Conference women’s events.

David Coulson, Vince Kowalick and staff writers Mike Hiserman, John Ortega and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this notebook.