The night life in Lewiston, Ida., is...

The night life in Lewiston, Ida., is nonexistent and the cafeteria food at the local college, Lewis-Clark State, is horrible. But Jason Mitchell found baseball at Lewis-Clark exciting and savory, so the former Canoga Park High pitcher packed his bags and headed there last fall.

Mitchell, who ate his way to 250 pounds while moonlighting as a Los Angeles nightclub doorman in junior college, believed the combination of bad food, good baseball and the pastoral life would be good for him.

So did Ricky Banuelos, his old teammate at Canoga Park who wanted to get out of the Valley.

The Lewis-Clark baseball team has won seven of the last eight NAIA championships, including five in a row, and has played for the title 11 consecutive years. On a bad night, 500 fans will turn out. On a good night, 5,500--roughly one-third of the Lewiston population--will jam into Harris Field.

The only drawback? Lewiston is about halfway between Kinnewick, Wash., and Missoula, Mont. In other words, the middle of nowhere. “Baseball-wise, you can’t beat it,” said Mitchell, a hard-throwing, 6-foot-2 relief pitcher. “It’s a good program. But in the way of night life, there’s nothing. You play your game, then you go back to your dorm room.”

Banuelos welcomed the temporary change of scenery--with emphasis on temporary.

“It’s nice and quiet here,” he said. “The air is clean. But I wouldn’t take it so far as to say I’d stay here.”

Baseball makes life in northwest Idaho tolerable. Playing for the powerhouse Warriors (34-13), who have enough players on the roster (36) to field four teams, Mitchell, Banuelos and a third Valley product, infielder Gregg Sheren (El Camino Real), compete for playing time.

“I was told by the coach (Ed Cheff) that it would be this way,” said Banuelos, a 5-9, 150-pound middle infielder who has appeared in 28 games, starting 10. “There’s a lot of guys sitting on the bench that would probably start somewhere else.”

Banuelos is making the most of his opportunities, with a .287 batting average, 12 runs batted in and only one error in 34 chances in the field. Sheren, a 6-2 sophomore, is batting .174 in limited playing time.

Mitchell (Moorpark College) and Banuelos (Pierce) decided to reunite at Lewis-Clark because Cheff gave them the best scholarship offer of any four-year school: tuition, books and housing, but not food.

“We’re living in the dorms, so we only pay about $1,000 a semester for food,” said Mitchell, noting the economic advantage of having a meal card. “But the food is bad.”

So bad that Mitchell has spent more time working out on stair machines and stationary bikes than eating in the dining hall. The hard-throwing junior dropped 25 of his 250 pounds and won the job as closer this spring. In 15 appearances, Mitchell has a 2-2 record, a 3.00 earned-run average and 31 strikeouts in 36 innings.

“It was nice to come into a program like this,” said Mitchell. “The fans really expect us to win. We have to work hard and we play with a let’s-kick-butt attitude.”

By the way, Mitchell did find a weekend job last fall--as doorman for a dance club in Moscow. Moscow, Idaho.

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Checking the fax: In baseball, Arizona State has benefited from Jacob Cruz’s recent return from broken ribs. Cruz (Channel Islands), a sophomore center fielder, is batting .340. Fifteen of his 35 hits have gone for extra bases.

In softball, pitcher Toni Gutierrez (Canyon) of sixth-ranked Florida State has a 15-4 record with 11 shutouts and an 0.40 earned-run average. She has 103 strikeouts and 26 walks.