State Honor Is Fleeting for Cantrell; It’s Also Ollie’s to Share

Good thing Ventura College forward Damian Cantrell wasn’t asked to make an acceptance speech.

Last Saturday at San Jose State, before Ventura won its second consecutive men’s state championship, the all-state team was released to the media and Cantrell was tabbed as California’s co-player of the year with West Valley’s Bennett Davison.

Only one problem. Someone had written Cantrell’s name mistakenly. The honor actually belonged to Damon Ollie, the former North Hollywood High player who just concluded two strong seasons at Santa Monica.

Apparently, the two first names sounded too similar for whoever gave out the information. Cantrell nonetheless was a first-team pick.

Bittersweet: Losing two of three games to UC Santa Barbara last weekend did not make Cal State Northridge too pleased, but if anyone was smiling it was Eric Gillespie.

The junior third baseman went 10 for 13 to raise his batting average to .408 and was named Western Athletic Conference player of the week, the fourth Matador to be accorded the honor in five weeks. Catcher Robert Fick and pitchers Robert Crabtree and Erasmo Ramirez are the others.

During five games last week, Gillespie was 12 for 20 with 10 runs batted in, nine runs, three home runs and a double.

Fast debut: It didn’t take long for freshmen Zarinah Tillman, Erika Bowling and Mickey Rogers to make their presence felt on the Cal State Northridge women’s track team.

The trio combined for two firsts and two seconds in Sunday’s outdoor opener against UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Bakersfield and host USC.

Tillman, a graduate of Pleasanton Foothill High, won the 400 and placed second in the 200 with personal bests of 55.02 and 24.64.

Etiwanda graduate Bowling placed second in the 400 with a personal best of 56.58 and former Apple Valley standout Rogers won the 100 high hurdles in 14.48, also a lifetime best.

Quotebook

Hueneme High baseball Coach Reg Welker, whose young team entered the week with an 0-5 record.

“It’s trial by fire and we’re getting burnt real bad right now.”

Stats

Believe it or not: Pepperdine’s basketball team, which finished 10-18 and had a last-place record of 2-12 in the West Coast Conference, was 3-3 against teams in the NCAA tournament. The Waves were 2-1 against Santa Clara, 1-0 against San Jose State and 0-2 against Portland.

After several weeks of being ranked higher by Collegiate Baseball than by Baseball America or USA Today, the Cal State Northridge baseball team is ranked 12th in each of the three polls.

Scia Maumausolo, catcher for the Cal State Northridge softball team, will go for the school’s RBI record when the Matadors play host to Iowa State in a nonconference doubleheader at 1:30 p.m. today. Maumausolo, who was named Western Athletic Conference player of the week, needs one RBI to tie the record of 141 held by Beth Calcante.

Things to Do

The sixth-ranked Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (10-5, 5-4) will play host to eighth-ranked USC (5-6, 4-5) in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Thursday at 7 p.m.

Contributing: Fernando Dominguez, Rob Fernas, Jeff Fletcher, Irene Garcia, Steve Henson, John Ortega, Tris Wykes.