Smitheran’s Title Hopes Blown to Smithereens

Jack Smitheran has lived through more than 800 victories and more than 500 losses. But the last defeat was one of the hardest.

His UC Riverside baseball team was a legitimate contender for the NCAA Division II championship. With a school-record 43 victories and a No. 2 ranking, why wouldn’t the Highlanders be?

Then along came a team with a losing record that beat UC Riverside twice in the West Regional over the weekend, knocking the Highlanders out of the running.

“Twenty-six years of doing this. . . It’s a tough one,” said Smitheran, who has a record of 808-572-3. “You really feel bad for the kids. They worked extremely hard all year long.”

UC Davis, an at-large team from the Northern California Athletic Conference, raised some eyebrows merely by getting a bid to the West Regional, considering its 26-29 record.

“That’s the crazy thing about this game, you never know,” Smitheran said.

Riverside (43-16) and Davis (30-30) split their two games on Saturday to force a championship game on Sunday. And the Highlanders seemed to be in good shape in the eighth inning Sunday, leading, 6-4, with their best relief pitcher, Scott Tebbetts, on the mound. Tebbetts set the NCAA Division II record with 12 saves last season, and had eight this year.

But Tebbetts, who inherited a runner, loaded the bases by giving up a walk and a single. Then pinch-hitter Scott Winton hit the first pitch he saw to the gap in left-center field, scoring three runs, and the Aggies became the West Region’s representative in the NCAA Division II World Series.

“[Tebbetts] is the hardest thrower we’ve seen,” Phil Swimley, UC Davis’ coach, said. “There wasn’t much doubt about what he was throwing. [Winton] just got up to swing the bat like he always does--pretty soon the ball’s going to fall your way.”

Riverside’s Andy Owen was named the Division II All-West Region player of the year and teammate Mike Eason was named pitcher of the year. Swimley was named the coach of the year.

Owen finished the season with a .400 batting average and Eason was 10-4 with a 2.73 earned-run average.

College Division Notes

La Verne’s baseball team swept a best-of-five series from Cal Lutheran over the weekend and will advance to the NCAA Division III Elite Eight May 25-30 in Salem, Va. La Verne is 35-8 and was 21-0 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. . . . Azusa Pacific, which won the Golden State Athletic Conference baseball championship for the fifth time in the last six years, was eliminated from the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics Division I West Regional over the weekend. The Cougars, 35-12 and ranked No. 14, beat Point Loma Nazarene, 12-1, in their first game, but lost to Cal Baptist, 6-5, then to Albertson of Idaho, 12-1.

Gary Frank of Cal State San Bernardino finished the season with a 28-game hitting streak--a school record. His 70 hits were also a record. Frank had a batting average of .372 and was named to the All-CCAA team. . . . Redlands’ Todd Born was selected as the senior player of the year for NCAA Division III by the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. In the doubles competition, Born and teammate John Weston won the national title by beating Brian Beethea and Jamie Saben of Trinity, a Texas school, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Redlands won its only other doubles tennis championship in 1979, with Mike Capelouto and Ken Whitmer. Redlands finished sixth in the Division III tournament.

Ann Lebedeff, the coach of the men’s and women’s tennis teams at Cal Poly Pomona, was named NCAA Division II West Region men’s coach of the year by the ITA. . . . The Westmont women’s tennis team won the GSAC tournament last week, clinching the title on the first day of competition. It is the fifth title and the eighth in the last nine years for the Warriors and their coach, Kathy LeSage. Westmont is at the NAIA national tournament in Tulsa, Okla.