Pepperdine’s Ace Throws Off CSUN Batters

Patrick Ahearne, Pepperdine’s ace right-hander, is an Orel Hershiser clone.

He resembles him facially, physically and in pitching style. He also wears No. 55.

And Tuesday against Cal State Northridge, he looked like Hershiser circa 1988, the Dodger pitcher’s Cy Young Award-winning season.

The Matadors generated a season-low three hits against Ahearne (12-1), who gave up only one earned run in 7 2/3 innings to earn his 10th consecutive victory in the Waves’ 11-2 win.

Battling the lingering effects of flu, Ahearne walked two and hit a batter but struck out 12. The other outs were recorded on nine ground balls, an infield foul pop and a baserunner who was caught stealing.

Other than a fourth-inning home run by Scott Mowl and an eighth-inning triple to right by Scott Richardson, Northridge hit only one other ball in the air to the outfield--a fly ball by Greg Shockey leading off the eighth that was dropped by left fielder Keven Dell’Amico.

DUMBFOUNDED

Andy Lopez, the baseball coach at Pepperdine, tried to recruit Kenny Kendrena out of Bishop Amat High while Lopez coached at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Since then, he has followed Kendrena’s progress--in person during one game last season when the Northridge right-hander defeated Pepperdine, 5-2.

Being familiar with Kendrena, Lopez was at a loss to explain how Pepperdine peppered Northridge’s senior ace for 13 hits, including seven home runs, Tuesday.

“That was not the real Kenny Kendrena,” Lopez said. “I think he’s probably going to take this for what it was--a bad day. I know I wouldn’t want to face him the next time he throws.”

UNWANTED MARK

Kendrena, who already holds Northridge records for complete games and strikeouts in a career, now owns a school mark of which he is far less proud. In giving up seven home runs in seven innings against Pepperdine, Kendrena broke the previous record for homers allowed in a game--five.

In 134 innings previous innings, Kendrena had given up only six homers. In 144 innings last season, he gave up 11.

STILL RESPECTABLE

Even with its loss to Pepperdine, sixth-ranked Northridge has a 5-3 record against teams ranked in Collegiate Baseball magazine’s top 25. The Matadors lost to the Waves (11-2) and California (3-1 in 13 innings), split a pair with Cal State Fullerton (5-2 loss, 10-4 win), won two against Cal State Long Beach (10-6 and 4-2), and defeated Fresno State (10-5) and Creighton (12-2).

Pepperdine is ranked fifth, Fullerton eighth, Fresno State 11th, Cal 13th, Long Beach 16th and Creighton 23rd.

SECOND CHANCE

Ryan McGuire, a sophomore first baseman at UCLA and a former All-City Section standout at El Camino Real High, is one of 40 players nationwide who have been invited to try out for the 1992 Olympic baseball team.

The twist is that McGuire missed a chance to play at Team USA’s palatial training facility in suburban Memphis, Tenn., in the summer of 1989 as a member of the Woodland Hills West American Legion team.

West won the World Series title at Team USA headquarters in the town of Millington, Tenn., but because he chose to honor a previous commitment to play on a high school all-star team in South Korea, McGuire did not play in the Series.

McGuire missed out on ESPN’s televised final of the World Series and a trip to Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion. Team USA’s weeklong tryout will begin June 8 in Millington.

TOP COMPETITION

The Cal Lutheran baseball team, ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division III, has an affinity for Division I competition.

“We are in a position where we will travel anywhere, anytime to play a ballgame against a good Division I team,” Cal Lutheran Coach Rich Hill said. “We have been extremely flexible in my five years here.”

Hill’s latest effort resulted in a game against Cal State Long Beach. The 49ers beat the Kingsmen on Tuesday, 5-4, giving Cal Lutheran a split with Division I teams this year. In February, the Kingsmen defeated San Diego State, 9-1.

Cal Lutheran (33-3) is 3-0 against Division II competition.

The Kingsmen have seven players on the roster who played at a Division I school before transferring to Cal Lutheran.

“These guys have all played with or against players on the other teams,” Hill said, “so there is no intimidation factor.”

RECORD-BREAKING

A look at the record book indicates that The Master’s baseball team had a season filled with accomplishments even though the Mustangs (16-26) failed to advance to postseason play.

Andy Martin, a junior, set the school home run record with 29, breaking Mark MacArthur’s mark of 28 set from 1987-90. He had four homers in a game against Cal State San Bernardino--another record. Martin also broke the school record for triples with 12. MacArthur and Steve Souza, who played from 1972-75, had 10.

E.J. Pape’s 18 doubles set a single-season record, breaking Tod Skinner’s 1988 mark of 17.

Four players were selected to the All-NAIA District 3 team: Dan O’Sullivan, Tony MacCaughtry, Mike Smith and Martin.

“Individually, we had some guys that were really talented,” Coach Chris Harrison said.

The Master’s (11-9 in District 3) lost six games by two runs or less.

PITCHING A SHUTOUT

California teams dominate the NCAA Division I softball rankings--seven of the top 20 are from the state, but none of the nine California teams that play softball at the Division III level appear in the national polls. In its first year at the Division III level, Cal Lutheran will not participate in postseason play for the first time since 1982.

Of the 35 Division III West Region teams, 24 are from Iowa and Minnesota. The four teams selected from the West to participate in the tournament are from Iowa: Buena Vista, Central, Simpson and Luther.

Cal Lutheran was ranked seventh in the West in the final regional poll. The Regals are 26-12, 17-3 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Before joining Division III, Cal Lutheran had won three of the past four NAIA District 3 championships and had represented the district in the national tournament in 1988 and 1989.

ELUSIVE GOAL

This has been a season of school records and personal bests for Cal State Northridge senior Sasha Vujic, but his No. 1 goal--qualifying for the NCAA championships in the men’s 5,000 meters--has eluded him so far.

The Burroughs High graduate lowered the school record in the 3,000--for the second time this season--to 8 minutes 10.79 seconds Saturday when he finished third in the UC San Diego Invitational.

Vujic also has set personal bests in the 1,500 (twice), mile (once) and two-mile (once) this season. However, his season best of 14:37.85 in the 5,000 is far short of the provisional qualifying standard (14:07.00) for the NCAA meet. “I just haven’t run well in the 5,000,” Vujic said. “It might be a mental thing with me about that race.”

THEY PREDICT

Quincy Watts of USC and Marty Beck and David Bunevacz of UCLA have been picked by Track & Field News magazine to finish among the top three in their events in the NCAA track and field championships in Austin, Tex., next month.

Watts, a three-time state sprint champion at Taft High, is tabbed to win the men’s 400. Beck and Bunevacz, former standouts at Glendale College, are picked to finish third in the 400 intermediate hurdles and the javelin, respectively. Watts finished second in the 400 and Beck placed fourth in the intermediate hurdles in last year’s NCAA meet.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Mike Hiserman, John Ortega and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this notebook.