No Fool on the Hilltop : Hill Believes He Can Make USF a Baseball Power

Rich Hill has begun life on the Hilltop climbing out of a hole, scratching and clawing as the new coach of a long beleaguered baseball team.

“Battle, battle, battle, that’s us,” he says, although the rallying cry took on unintended meaning Friday in a game that characterized Hill’s first season coaching the University of San Francisco, where the team’s unofficial nickname-- Hilltoppers--refers to the campus being situated atop one of the city’s many hills.

Hill was ejected in the eighth inning for arguing a call that left Pepperdine with the bases loaded. For Hill, who left Cal Lutheran last year after a successful six-year tenure, it marked his first ejection in an NCAA Division I game.

Before the next pitch, USF players and assistant coaches got into a heated shouting match with Pepperdine third base coach Steve Kling.

USF escaped the jam and rallied in the ninth before Pepperdine turned a 6-4-3 double play with the bases loaded to preserve a 3-2 West Coast Conference victory.

There were no handshakes afterward and Pepperdine Coach Andy Lopez--who spent 15 minutes beforehand chatting cordially with Hill--directed a few choice words at the rookie coach.

Finding themselves one swing away from victory despite being outhit, 12-1, by the 1992 national champion Waves illustrates the Dons’ scrappy nature under Hill, 31, whose nickname around the Hilltop is Hurricane.

The season has been like taking a drive through San Francisco. Up and down, up and down, up and down. With no place to park.

USF (16-18, 4-9 in WCC play) won its first four games, then lost four of five. Three victories followed, then eight losses. Hill could charge admission for this ride.

There have been exhilarating moments for a team that was an 8-44 laughingstock last season: USF beat Stanford, 18-5, last week, swept a doubleheader from Loyola Marymount in March and beat San Jose State three times.

Then there have been days like Friday, the team’s seventh one-run loss. “We don’t accept losing,” Hill said. “I can understand how it happens, but these players are ticked off we aren’t doing better. That’s how I know this program is turning around.”

With his skill as a recruiter, Hill plans to do just that. In compiling a 194-76 record at Cal Lutheran, Hill sold players on the tiny Thousand Oaks campus by describing it as a bucolic setting where horses galloped beyond the outfield fence.

And now?

“(San Francisco) has so much to offer, it is so vibrant,” he said. “Golden Gate Park, the beach, it’s such a great experience to go to college in an urban setting, an experience everyone should have.

“When our guys hear a siren, they get pumped.”

Hill gleefully compares cramped Benedetti Diamond to Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.

Apartments run along the third base line and dormitories along first. Traffic along busy Masonic Avenue is pelted by foul balls. Bells clang from a nearby church.

The fog rolls in about 3:30 p.m. and lingers for a couple of hours. Strong winds are not uncommon. Fenway? Weather-wise, think Candlestick Park.

There is, however, a similarity to Cal Lutheran: The dugouts are a bunt away from home plate.

“It’s all the same between the lines,” said Daryl Hernandez, a USF outfielder from Moorpark College and Simi Valley High. “This is an up-and-coming program and a great place to be.”

That is the recurring sentiment among players. Hill will make the Dons top dogs. And he is doing it with an infusion of talent from Southern California.

The team’s top pitchers are Jason Mitchell of Canoga Park and Jason Chandler of Granada Hills. Chandler (5-4) pitched a complete game Friday.

Shortstop Ricardo Banuelos is from Canoga Park, second baseman Roberto Garcia is from Sylmar and relief pitcher Keith Halcovich is from Valencia.

More from the area are on the way. The College World Series is on the horizon, to hear the players.

“I think we’ll be going to Omaha by my junior year,” said Rich Igou, a left-handed pitcher at Notre Dame High who committed to USF during the early signing period.

Hill emerged from the clubhouse after the game sporting his trademark grin. He gabbed with recruits, the parents of players, friends from Cal Lutheran.

Finally Hill had a quiet moment. He rubbed his eyes. “It’s the start of things,” he said. “The snowball is gaining momentum, gaining size. Right now we have to do it on sheer desire. That’s what we’re all about.”