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Forgive Andrew Lorraine if he is a...

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Forgive Andrew Lorraine if he is a bit dubious about his prospects in the June major league baseball draft.

“I’ve been told that I’ll go within the first five rounds,” said Lorraine (6-foot-3, 195 pounds), a junior left-handed pitcher at Stanford. “It’s looking good right now. But I don’t believe everything I hear.”

Lorraine, a two-time All-Southern Section selection at Hart High, takes it with a grain of salt when pro scouts say they are excited about him.

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Statistically, he has had a slightly better-than-average season (8-5 record, 4.16 earned-run average) while playing for a mediocre team (the Cardinal is 26-26, 9-18 in Pacific 10 Conference play).

He is 4-4 in the Pac-10 with a 4.73 ERA. Pac-10 opponents have a .286 batting average against him. Yet Lorraine was tabbed first-team All-Pac-10 Southern Division on Tuesday.

“It’s been a tough year for our team, but I’ve had a chance to start here and I think I’ve done well,” he said. “I had one game at Arizona where I gave up (13 runs and 16 hits). It’s hard to recover from that, statistically.”

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The draft? A wait-and-see proposition.

“It’s something that I’m going to have to consider,” Lorraine said. “It’s attractive. It’s a motivating factor when you look at somebody like Mike Mussina (former Stanford pitcher now with the Baltimore Orioles) who was in my position a few years ago. Now he’s one of the best in the major leagues.”

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Maher-velous: Fresno State junior Kim Maher (Buena), who will bring one of the nation’s most feared bats to the NCAA softball regional at Cal State Northridge this weekend, has mixed feelings about shattering the school home run record. She has hit 14 this year to pass Wende Ward (13) and has 21 in her career.

The Bulldogs retired Ward’s jersey this year. Maher, who has benefited from a livelier ball introduced this year, said she would consider putting an asterisk next to her record.

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“For the players of the past, I’d really hate to see their records beaten by the players of today,” Maher said, “because I think the players of the past were better.”

Maher said Ward played during a “golden era” in college softball.

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Kansas minus Carpenter: Florida State pitcher Toni Gutierrez (Canyon, 15-4 record, 0.39 ERA) was looking forward to facing an old friend and foe, Kansas catcher Krissy Carpenter (Hart), Friday in the softball regional hosted by the Seminoles.

Unbeknown to Gutierrez, Carpenter left the Jayhawks in early April because of what she called “athletic burnout.” The sophomore was batting .286 at the time.

“I wasn’t burned out on the game, but I wasn’t happy with myself,” Carpenter said shortly after quitting. “I was neglecting the rest of my life. It was a difficult decision, emotionally.”

Gutierrez, a senior, said she had reached a similar crossroads in her own career but decided to keep playing.

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Checking the fax: UCLA first baseman Ryan McGuire (El Camino Real) was named Pac-10 Southern Division co-player of the year Tuesday along with Arizona State’s Paul LoDuca. Lorraine and former Hart teammate Casey Burrill (.417 average, 11 home runs, 46 runs batted in at USC) made the team. In 52 games, McGuire has 23 home runs and 79 RBIs. Excluded was Arizona State sophomore center fielder Jacob Cruz (Channel Islands), who has a .361 average, 10 home runs and a .621 slugging percentage.

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