49ers’ Midseason Turnaround Leads to Conference Title, NCAA Berth : Baseball: Coach changed his tactics to more positive reinforcement, and the team responded with victories.

A smile creased the face of the usually stoic Dave Snow, whose most difficult season as baseball coach at Cal State Long Beach has turned into a success.

Snow overcame the frustration of a 12-12 start and player complaints to guide the 49ers to a 39-17 record and a second consecutive Big West Conference title. Long Beach, ranked fifth in the country by the magazine Baseball America, will find out Monday where it will play in the NCAA tournament.

The intensely focused Snow seems satisfied now, but earlier in the season he was far from content. “We had a big turnover in players from last year, and when the season began my expectations for them were questionable,” he said.

Only one sure starter, center fielder Cobi Cradle, returned from last year’s team. The pitching staff looked promising, but was untested. There were also two new assistant coaches, Mike Weathers and Steve Rousey, who started in June last year.

Snow spent all of last summer as an assistant coach with the U.S. Olympic team. That left most of the coaching responsibility at Long Beach to Weathers, a former Chapman University coach, and Rousey, a player on the 1984 Cal State Fullerton national championship team and a former high school and community college coach.

The team developed slowly last fall, hindered in part by new NCAA rules that restrict the number of ofF-season games. When the regular season began in February, the 49ers lost five of their first seven games. Fielding errors abounded. The 49ers’ only bright spot was the pitching of right-handed sophomore Daniel Choi, who was well on his way to a 15-1 record, best in the nation, and a 2.47 earned-run average.

“Because the players were coming from so many directions, different high schools and junior colleges, there was a period of adjustment,” said Associate Athletic Director Dan Radakovich, the university’s administrator in charge of baseball.

Snow, whose 369-177-3 career record over nine years as a collegiate coach is based on mental toughness and execution, was incensed after the 12-12 start. Players began to complain that he did not understand them, that he was driving them too hard.

“I don’t think a lot of guys were used to Coach Snow. He’s unique,” said senior shortstop Rudy Rodriguez. “Personally, I like getting my butt chewed, but some of these guys weren’t used to him getting in their face. It put people off.”

“I was really hard on them,” Snow said. “We were always making a lot of mistakes, and I guess it was human nature to criticize.”

Dan Barber, a Cal State Long Beach professor of public administration and an ardent 49er baseball fan, could see the problem from the stands. He alluded to it in a weekly newsletter he publishes about the team.

“The ballclub had some tension early on,” Barber said. “It wasn’t so negative, like they weren’t getting along with each other, but it was more the kind of pressure that this was Long Beach and big things were expected of them.”

The 49ers showed signs of awakening late in March when they beat Cal State Northridge, a top-25 team, 20-2.

“That was the spark that told these guys that they could play with anybody,” Radakovich said.

Snow, who was voted conference coach of the year for the third time, made some changes in the lineup that also benefited the team. Rodriguez, who had been playing third base, moved to shortstop. Tim Falsken, a utility player splitting time at second base with Eric Martins, moved to third. The moves solidified the middle of the field, Snow said.

At New Mexico State in Las Cruces the last weekend in March, the team won two of three games but still was not clicking. The 49ers came home with a 5-4 Big West record.

Upset because the team was getting used to losing, Cradle and Rodriguez, the captains, called a team meeting for 6:30 the next morning. A few hours later they confronted Snow in his office.

“We told him we needed more positive reinforcement,” senior catcher Brian Whatley said.

“At practice he was pressuring us too much,” said senior first baseman John Swanson, a .331 hitter. “He would lose his poise. We just wanted him to let us play the game.”

The players also pledged to Snow that they would try their best to do what he asked of them.

Snow decided the players were right, and communication dramatically improved.

The result was a 24-4 record the rest of the season, with three-game series sweeps against San Jose State, Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara and Nevada.

Seated in his office last week, a pinch of chewing tobacco between cheek and gum, Snow pointed to the leadership of Cradle and Rodriguez as the main reason the season turned around. Then he talked about his role in the process:

“I was smart enough to realize that I had to be more positive. I backed off and really encouraged the team, and they responded.”

49er Baseball Leaders

Pitcher Daniel Choi, with a 15-1 record, six complete games and 105 strikeouts, was chosen the Big West Conference’s best pitcher.

Leadoff hitter Cobi Cradle, with 32 stolen bases, made the all-Big West first team, as did pitchers Mike Fontana (8-3) and Gabe Gonzalez (13 saves).

Designated hitter Jeff Liefer, a freshman who hit .354, made the second team.

Pitcher David Goldstein, who had six saves, and outfielder Kevin Curtis, who led the team with a .377 batting average, received honorable mention.