Ventura’s Golf Success Is Par for the Course

After a brief hiatus, the Ventura College golf team is again executing the Marshall Plan.

Brian Marshall, in his 18th season of coaching at the school, will lead the Pirates into the Southern California Regional on Monday at the Santa Ana Country Club.

Ventura (24-8) qualified for the one-day, 36-hole event by finishing in a first-place tie with Bakersfield in the Western State Conference.

The Pirates (15-5) are led by Kelly Schlender (76.0 average), the player of the year in the conference, and Yannick Bibeau (76.5). But the team has plenty of depth.

“They (Schlender and Bibeau) have been the most consistent, but we’ve got good rounds from other players such as Tyler Satchwell, Tim Herman and Scott Anderson. They all average about 78,” Marshall said. “It’s a very young group but very talented. We have continued to get better as the season has progressed.”

Under Marshall, the Pirates have won 10 WSC titles, six in the 1980s. Their last title came in 1990.

JUNIOR COLLEGES

Spirited Victory

Cold winds and a little drizzle--OK, it rained hard Wednesday in Ridgecrest--weren’t going to keep Mission from winning its first Southern California Athletic Conference baseball title .

With a 20-11 victory over Cerro Coso, the Free Spirit (25-15, 17-7 in conference play) guaranteed itself a best-of-three home series May 13-14 in the first round of the Southern California Regional.

And although it wasn’t a well-played game--there were 30 hits and 11 errors, with many of the miscues caused by gusty winds--the Free Spirit took the three-hour bus ride home in, well, fine spirit.

Actually, for some it might have hurt to laugh too much.

Right-fielder Jesus Perez, Mission’s leadoff batter, was hit by a pitch five times in seven plate appearances. He flied out and reached on an error in his two other turns.

But most of the early hurting was felt by Cerro Coso when Mission scored 11 runs in the first inning, two shy of the school record set against El Camino in a nonconference game this season.

“That could have been a long ride home if we had lost,” Mission Coach John Klitsner said.

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE

Here’s the Pitch

So much has been made of the Northridge softball team’s batting prowess that the Matadors’ pitching has been virtually overlooked.

Heading into Friday’s doubleheader against Colorado State, Northridge had the best earned-run average among Division I schools--0.37. Handling the entire pitching load this year is the right-handed threesome of senior Amy Windmiller (19-2, 0.24), junior Kathy Blake (12-5, 0.59) and sophomore Jennifer Richardson (7-0, 0.28). They have limited opponents to a meager .148 batting average.

“And they’re all different,” Coach Gary Torgeson said. “And all three are tough.”

Windmiller is the ace and leads all Division I pitchers in ERA. She has pitched five no-hitters, including a perfect game. She has 13 shutouts and 165 strikeouts in 145 innings. Her strikeout-to-walk ratio is 11-1.

Around the Campuses . . .

* Cesar Martinez, a freshman second baseman at Pierce, has stolen 27 bases in the WSC, two shy of the conference record. Martinez has 35 overall.

* Gary Reznick, Northridge’s senior setter, finished his career with 3,530 assists, second on the school’s all-time list.

* Collin Smith, a freshman from Santa Cruz, averaged 2.74 digs to break an eight-year Northridge single-season record set by Mark Bird. Smith’s average was fourth best in the nation.

* Jason DuBrovo, a junior from Simi Valley High and Moorpark College, leads the Cal Lutheran golf team with a stroke average of 78.9.

* Northridge’s Tamara Ivie, a career .288 hitter, is batting .424 with 34 RBIs and leads the team with 38 runs, five triples, 56 hits and 14 walks.

Staff writers Fernando Dominguez, Steve Elling, Mike Hiserman and Paige A. Leech contributed to this notebook.