COLLEGE DIVISION NOTEBOOK / MARTIN BECK : Weather Has Put Damper on Chapman Softball Season

While the recent rains ended California’s lengthy drought, athletic teams dependent on the state’s usually dependable late-winter weather suffered.

Take Hart Park, where the Chapman softball team practices and plays, for instance. A river runs through it.

Well, it’s more of a drainage ditch, but during heavy rains it turns into an creek that could not be crossed, and for about three weeks, the combination of a wet and/or unreachable field kept Chapman sidelined.

Half of the Panthers’ scrimmages were canceled, as were two early-season doubleheaders and a tournament at Cal State San Bernardino.

“We’ve had so many games canceled,” Chapman assistant coach Janet Lloyd said. “We started conference, and we weren’t ready. But I know that everybody is in the same boat.”

Chapman (5-7) has won three of its first six California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games, splitting with UC Riverside, losing to Cal State Bakersfield--7-0 and 10-0--and sweeping Cal State San Bernardino.

The Panthers have a largely new team that would have benefited from the early-season experience. Depending on the pitcher, they have seven or eight new starters on the field.

Sandy Olivas, a two-time All-American at third base and the NCAA Division II career home run leader, is gone from the team that finished fourth in the conference last season.

Key players: Several newcomers are performing well for the Panthers:

--Vicky Cavadias, the most notable new addition, joins the softball team after using up her final season of eligibility for the volleyball team last fall. Cavadias, the setter for the volleyball team, hadn’t played competitive softball since she was a four-time all-league player at Grossmont High School.

Cavadias, who was the student trainer for the men’s basketball team, joined the softball team after basketball season and is playing shortstop and batting .411.

--Wendy Clemens, a junior center fielder from Trabuco Hills High and Saddleback College who was an All-State selection last season, is batting .393.

--Melanie Schmidlin, a junior who played for the women’s soccer team her first two years at Chapman, is batting .322 and playing first base.

--Trisha Cox, the team’s only freshman, from Paramount High, is batting .242 and is playing catcher.

--Jennifer Jourden, a pitcher from El Toro High and Saddleback College, has pitched six innings of scoreless relief.

Three players from last year’s team are continuing to contribute.

--Deann Ford, a junior who pitches and plays second base, is 2-3 with a 1.91 earned-run average.

--Viki Vechinski, a sophomore pitcher, is 3-4 with a 1.40 ERA and 28 strikeouts.

--Rachel Fieber, a reserve outfielder as a freshman last season, is batting .261 as the Panthers’ designated player.

Add softball: Chapman will make its annual trip to Orlando, Fla., for the Rebel Spring Games, starting Saturday. The Panthers will play 12 games--six against teams ranked in the NCAA Division II top 20--in eight days with only two off-days.

A lot to learn: After losing convincingly in the first round of the NAIA national tournament for the second consecutive year, the Christ College Irvine women’s team again spent the next day watching the Sweet 16. The Eagles watched six of the eight games Friday.

“It was a nice education for us to watch the other teams and see what we have to do to get better,” CCI Coach Kent Schlichtemeier said.

Schlichtemeier’s team lost to No. 6-seeded David Lipscomb (Tenn.), 106-75.

Schlichtemeier said he has upgraded the Eagles’ schedule for next season, adding several NAIA schools from the Midwest.

Notes

Gitte Mejer, a junior forward on the CCI women’s basketball team, was a second-team NAIA All-American selection and Stacy Kirch, a senior guard, was an honorable-mention pick. . . . Jeff Gardner, a forward on the Chapman men’s basketball team, was a second-team All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. selection. Although he is 6 feet 3, Gardner, a senior from Beaumont, Tex., was fifth in the conference in rebounding with a 7.1 average. Gardner was third in scoring at 18.7 points. Vern Broadnax, a senior guard from Tustin High and Rancho Santiago, was an honorable-mention pick. Coach Pat Douglass, who led Cal State Bakersfield to an undefeated regular season and a conference tournament title, was named the coach of the year. Bakersfield guard Tyrone Davis was the player of the year. . . . Melody Earle, a sophomore guard for the Chapman women’s basketball team, was a second-team All-CCAA pick.