Sanchez Gets In to Program on the Ground Floor : College baseball: Northridge assistant coach to rebuild dormant Southern Colorado team.

Stan Sanchez is coach of a college baseball team that doesn’t own a baseball, a bat, or have any players. And he couldn’t be happier.

Sanchez, Cal State Northridge’s third base coach for two seasons, has been hired to resurrect the baseball program at Southern Colorado, an NCAA Division II school in Pueblo, Colo.

Southern Colorado played baseball from 1963 to 1985, then disbanded its program. Sanchez, 43, was chosen from among 151 applicants to give the sport a jump-start beginning in the 1994 season.

“The whole community is excited about bringing baseball back,” said Sanchez, who will finish the season as Northridge Coach Bill Kernen’s top assistant. “It’s a great baseball area.”

Some four decades ago, a Dodger minor-league team played at Runyon Field in Pueblo, at the time considered the best baseball facility in Colorado.

But Sanchez’s team won’t be playing at Runyon. Southern Colorado has plans to build a 2,500-seat stadium, which is scheduled for completion early next spring.

“They seem real interested in building a program that can compete on a national level,” said Sanchez, who will start his job in June. The coaching position is full-time and does not include classroom teaching responsibilities.

Before coming to Northridge, Sanchez was director of player personnel for the San Bernardino Pride, which competed in Major League Baseball’s senior league. Before that he spent three years as ssistant eneral anager and irector of aseball perations for the San Bernardino Spirit, a minor-league affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.

In addition, Sanchez was coach at San Bernardino Valley College from 1983 to 1990.