COLLEGES / IRENE GARCIA : Harbor Doesn’t Miss a Beat After Move to SCC

When the Harbor College baseball team switched from the Southern California Athletic Conference to the South Coast Conference this season, it was thought the Seahawks might struggle.

But Harbor, which has won three state championships and 12 league titles, has done more than hold its own against highly regarded teams such as Cerritos and Long Beach.

With three games left in the regular season, Harbor leads the six-member conference with a 13-4 record. The Seahawks are 25-10-1 overall.

Harbor is ranked third in the state behind Sacramento and Rancho Santiago.

Barring any last-minute disasters, the Seahawks will earn a berth in the Southern California regional playoffs, which begin May 14 at the sight of the highest-seeded team. The state championship will be played May 29-31 in Sacramento.

“We have proved a lot of teams in the league wrong,” Harbor Coach Tony Bloomfield said. “A lot of people felt we didn’t belong in this league.”

Bloomfield, who played at Harbor and was an assistant under longtime coach Jim O’Brien, says this is the best team in his three years as coach.

“Our team is overachieving,” he said. “But we’ve been working hard. I’m real happy with this group. We have a great chance to win it all.”

The Seahawks will complete SCC play next week against fifth-place El Camino, second-place Long Beach and third-place Mt. San Antonio College.

Harbor’s success can be attributed to solid hitting and consistent pitching.

The Seahawks’ batting average of .321 ranks sixth in the state. Sophomore second baseman David Rostao leads Harbor with a .410 average and sophomore third baseman Tristan Paul is batting .398, which includes a team-high 38 runs batted in. Paul is batting .500 in league play.

Sophomore center fielder Rolando Avila (.361) leads the Seahawks with 52 hits and 38 runs. Freshman shortstop Jay Uhlman is batting .357 and freshman catcher Jeff Poor is batting .333.

Harbor’s pitching ranks ninth in the state. The Seahawks’ three starters have combined for a 10-2 record. Freshman right-hander Javier Mejia leads the team with a 6-0 record and a team-high 39 strikeouts and freshman left-hander Mike Miller is 4-1 with a 3.18 earned-run average.

Relievers Marco Martinez, a left-handed sophomore, has the league’s second-best ERA (2.56) and is 4-1. Clint Lynch, a right-handed sophomore, is 4-2 with a 3.49 ERA.

“We throw strikes,” Bloomfield said. “We really have some great pitching. They struggled early in the year, but they’re getting better and better.”

The El Camino women’s swim team placed second at last week’s SCC meet in Long Beach and the men placed fourth. Both teams qualified for the state meet at Hartnell College in Salinas this weekend.

In addition, 10 swimmers qualified for the state finals in individual events. Only the state’s top 16 finishers make it to the state in each event.

Freshman Eric Worcester (Peninsula High) qualified for state in the 200-yard backstroke with a school-record time of 1 minute 57.01 seconds at the SCC meet. He also qualified for state in the 50-yard free and 100-yard back.

Sophomore Tomas Salcedo, who qualified in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke earlier in the season, placed second in both events and qualified for state with a time of 1:59.16 in the 200 individual medley.

Greg Sellers qualified in the 50 free, 100 breast and 200 breast and Brian Kutil (El Segundo High) qualified in the 500 and 1,650-yard free. Jan Hargett made it in the 200 and 400-yard medleys and the 200 free.

“We looked real good,” Coach Corey Stanbury said. “The men could be as high as sixth or seventh at state.”

Stanbury expects the women to finish among the state’s top 10. Several individuals have a strong chance of winning state titles.

Chrissy Johnson (Redondo High) will compete in the 100 and 200 free and 50 back; freshman Lori Booth (Peninsula) in the 200 individual medley, 100 back and 100 breast; DeeDee Dietz in the 500 free. Tiffany Matsumura (Narbonne) will be part of the Warriors’ 200- and 400-yard medley relays along with Johnson, Booth and Dietz. Tanya Halford (Mira Costa) will also compete in the freestyle relay with that same group.

Notes

Stanford University setter Canyon Ceman has been named the Mountain Pacific Federation player of the year. Ceman played on Mira Costa’s undefeated 1990 Southern Section 4-A Division championship team. . . . El Camino has the state’s top-ranked women’s sprint medley relay team (1:45.00) and the second-ranked women’s 1,600-meter relay team (3:51.15). . . . Freshman outfielder Tim Hairston leads the struggling El Camino baseball team (12-20, and 4-11 in the SCC) with a .366 batting average. He has 30 hits and 16 runs batted in.