Injury Behind Him, Tagliaferri Resumes Career

After three years away from the game, former Kennedy High standout Gino Tagliaferri has resumed his pro baseball career by signing with Corpus Christi, Tex., of the independent Texas-Louisiana League.

Tagliaferri, a third baseman and outfielder, was a third-round pick of the Detroit Tigers after graduating from Kennedy in 1989.

Tagliaferri led the Golden Cougars to the City Section 4-A Division championship as a senior and was named the 4-A player of the year after hitting 15 home runs, a single-season City record.

However, Tagliaferri hasn’t played since 1992 after suffering a back injury in a car accident.

He was given medical clearance last fall.

Tagliaferri’s batting average hovered around .200 during three years at the Class-A level. He briefly quit the game in frustration in 1991, then rejoined the organization a year later. The accident, which left him with two bulging discs in his back, apparently ended his career.

“I’m excited,” he said. “I’m up at 6 every morning, running by 7, at the gym by 9 and on the field by noon.”

Tagliaferri, 24, reports May 11. The league’s 100-game season begins May 19.

“I cost myself a shot at the big time,” Tagliaferri said. “I don’t think I was mature enough for pro ball right out of high school. This is a new life.”

Miscellany

Students at Cal State Sacramento followed the lead of their brethren at Northridge and this week passed a fee referendum that will keep football and other sports programs from being eliminated.

Sacramento and Northridge both play in the four-team American West Conference in football and basketball.

The Sacramento vote was 62.2% in favor of raising each student’s fees $40 per semester.

If the measure had been rejected, the school’s 40-year-old football program and other sports would have been eliminated as part of a $400,000 budget reduction.

Sacramento’s $2.5 million athletic budget will increase by about $400,000 per year by 1998.

Basketball

Santa Paula High backcourt partners Manuel Escamilla and Ben Tryk will play at Ventura College next season, Pirate Coach Philip Mathews said Thursday.

Escamilla averaged 18.3 points last season. Tryk averaged 18.7 points.

Alemany’s Carly Funicello and Samantha Rigley and Ventura’s Ember Brown were named the All-Southern Section Division II team. Funicello is a two-time selection and Rigley and Brown are three-time picks.

* Contributing: Fernando Dominguez, Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, the Associated Press.