Coach Pursuing His Love From Different Direction

Baseball’s minor leagues are filled with players who toil for years for a chance to break into the majors. Rex Peters no longer counts himself among those masses, but he still is being paid to pursue the game he loves.

Less than three years after playing in his final minor league game for the Dodger organization, Peters is more than halfway through his first season as coach at Chapman University.

Peters, a former Cal State Fullerton and Orange Coast player, was released by the Dodgers after the 1991 season after he reached double-A San Antonio. He was a first baseman in an organization flush with first basemen, including a minor leaguer named Eric Karros.

He moved immediately into coaching, first at a high school near Portland, Ore., for a season, and then at Chapman to assist then-Coach Gary Henderson last season.

After Henderson became an assistant at Pepperdine in July, Chapman promoted Peters.

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Peters’ first year as a head coach hasn’t been without frustrations. Chapman has a young, inexperienced team--19 of 23 players are new to the team, nine are freshmen--and the Panthers lost their first 10 and 12 of their first 13 games of the season.

“We just tried to stay as positive as we could,” Peters said. “If you get down on young guys, they might throw in the towel. If you’re 0-10 and you throw in the towel, you’re going to have a real long season.”

The Panthers apparently responded. Since then they have won six of nine.

Leading the charge have been three community college transfers: right fielder Duke Best, center fielder Boyd Sumner and first baseman Donny Disbro.

Best is batting .325, Disbro is batting .315 and leadoff batter Sumner is batting .310 and has stolen 10 bases in 11 attempts.

The pitching staff has been solid. Senior right-hander James Thomas, who received a medical redshirt last season after injuring his shoulder, is 1-6 but he has a 3.40 earned-run average. Junior right-hander Allistair Ray has a 3.80 ERA and a 3-4 record.

The Panthers (7-15) won’t have any postseason opportunities. Baseball is still technically an NCAA Division I program although it only has two Division I teams on the schedule--Pepperdine, which beat the Panthers, 5-2, Tuesday, and San Diego.

Next season Chapman will be a Division III independent. Looking to the future, Peters is giving almost everyone significant playing time.

“Chapman baseball is going to be a good Division III program,” Peters said. “It’s just a matter of when it’s going to happen, and I think we’re going in the right direction.”

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Gitte Mejer, a 6-foot-2 center on the Concordia women’s basketball team, was named NAIA All-American for the third consecutive season. Mejer, a senior from Aarhus, Denmark, was a second-team selection. She was a third-team pick in each of the last two seasons.

Mejer, who averaged 24.8 points and 9.7 rebounds this season, finished her four-year career as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,176 points and rebounder with 973. This season she broke the single-game scoring record twice, with 47 points against Point Loma Nazarene and 53 against Biola.

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Ila Borders, Southern California College’s groundbreaking baseball pitcher, is scheduled to make two national television appearances April 4, a day after she throws out the first pitch before a Freeway Series game at Anaheim Stadium.

SCC Coach Charlie Phillips said Borders’ is scheduled to appear on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and the “Home Show” on that day.

She is also scheduled to throw out the first ball before a Dodgers-Phillies game April 20.

On April 1 the “Today Show” plans to air Joe Garagiola’s feature on Borders. Garagiola put on the gear to catch a few of her pitches.

“He said she had good stuff,” Phillips said. “He turned to me and said, ‘I know you didn’t do it for the publicity because she can throw.’ ”

After getting no decision in the Vanguards’ 4-3 loss to Pacific Lutheran Wednesday, Borders is 2-2 with a 3.15 ERA. In 34 1/3 innings, she has given up 31 hits, walked 13 and struck out six.