Rift Led to Sanchez’s Departure : College baseball: Kernen apparently believed his assistant was becoming increasingly lax in his CSUN coaching duties.

Bill Kernen and Stan Sanchez did not have a typical professional relationship.

Kernen, Cal State Northridge’s baseball coach, and Sanchez, his second-year assistant, had a friendship that spanned almost three decades, from the time they became classmates as sophomores at San Gorgonio High.

Back then, Kernen played forward and Sanchez was the point guard on the school’s basketball team. During baseball season, Kernen was the star pitcher; Sanchez the slick-fielding second baseman.

Similarly, their alliance at Northridge was mutually beneficial. Kernen was pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. Sanchez was batting coach and chief fund-raiser.

Until Wednesday, when Sanchez resigned.

Sanchez, 43, said in a statement released by Northridge that he needed to concentrate on his duties as head coach at Southern Colorado, which hired him in January to guide its newly formed Division II team beginning in 1994.

In the same statement, Kernen said he was “shocked.”

Kernen on Thursday included additional adjectives--”hurt, disappointed and angry.”

“I was shocked in terms of the fact that a friend of mine for 30 years would bail out on us in the middle of a season,” Kernen said.

According to several sources familiar with the baseball team, a rift developed between the coaches because Kernen believed Sanchez was becoming increasingly lax in meeting his coaching responsibilities.

Their differences apparently climaxed last weekend during a three-game Western Athletic Conference series against San Diego State in San Diego. Two sources from the school’s athletic program say Kernen was informed then that school officials had learned Sanchez used a lodging agreement between Northridge and Host Team Communications to secure a hotel room for a Southern Colorado assistant who was on a recruiting assignment.

Kernen said Thursday that “an incident” last weekend was “the final straw.” He would not elaborate.

Reached at his San Bernardino home Thursday night, Sanchez denied any impropriety. “That’s all been cleared up,” he said. “Our athletic department at Southern Colorado paid for that. Everything is fine.”

But everything was not fine with Kernen, who said he met Monday with Bob Hiegert, Northridge’s athletic director, telling him, “I think we need to find out whether (Sanchez) is with us or not.”

Hiegert said he advised Sanchez not to attend Northridge’s nonconference home game against Cal State Long Beach on Tuesday in order to give Sanchez a “chance to consider his options.”

P.C. Shaw, a 24-year-old volunteer assistant, served as third base coach in Sanchez’s absence. Long Beach pounded the Matadors, 20-2.

The next morning, Sanchez told Hiegert he was resigning. “I needed to,” Sanchez said. “It wasn’t a healthy situation. I had too many responsibilities with people tugging at me from both sides.

“Both schools deserved better than what I was giving them. All I can do is wish Northridge well.”

Still, for Kernen, the parting was not amicable.

“This hurts me and disappoints me and is going to have an effect on this team,” Kernen said. “I just hope we can put it behind us, put some things together pretty fast and go on.”

Northridge (17-5) is scheduled to play host to Cal State Sacramento in an important WAC three-game, weekend series beginning today. Sacramento has won five of six conference games. The Matadors are 3-3 in WAC play.

Sanchez, who doesn’t officially take over at Southern Colorado until June, said his resignation was “best for both programs,” even though it leaves Northridge short-handed.

Kernen said that when Sanchez accepted the Southern Colorado job the coaches agreed he would remain at Northridge, “giving 100%,” until the conclusion of the Matadors’ season.

“It didn’t happen,” Shaw said. “His body was here, but his mind wasn’t. Here, it’s 25 guys giving it every ounce you’ve got, and it wasn’t that way with Stan.”

Kernen said he learned from players that on at least one occasion when he was away on a scouting assignment, Sanchez had cut a practice short so he could attend a junior college game on a recruiting assignment for Southern Colorado.

“The situation I was in was a real difficult one for anybody,” Sanchez said. “I’d be out recruiting for Northridge and see a good player and it was only natural to think, ‘Gee, I’d like to have him too.”

Kernen said he was aware Sanchez was “cutting some corners,” but he feels “betrayed” by his friend’s resignation at a point critical to Northridge’s run at an NCAA postseason berth.

“This is personal to me because, except for my mom and my sister, I’ve known him longer than anyone,” Kernen said. “I think I probably will not be hiring a friend as an assistant coach here again anytime soon.”