Rain Whets Chapman’s Appetite to Play Softball

Rain has been mucking up many collegiate athletic schedules, but the Chapman softball team might have gotten the worst of it.

The Panthers had only one or two doubleheaders scheduled each week in the early part of the season and lately the rain has been falling when they are supposed to be playing. Chapman hasn’t had a game played in nearly two weeks.

“Doggone wet weather is killing us,” Chapman co-Coach Lisle Lloyd said. “I kind of pity the first team we play because the girls are ready to go. There’s nothing they’d like better than to go out and tromp somebody.”

Chapman, 6-1 and the top-ranked team in the NCAA Division III coaches poll, is scheduled to play Fontbonne College from St. Louis on Friday at Hart Park--weather and field conditions permitting.

The Fontbonne doubleheader was originally scheduled for Tuesday. Last week a game with Division II Regis (Colo.) had to be canceled.

The Panthers have a remedy for the bad Southern California weather, however. They are leaving Saturday for Orlando, Fla., to play in the Rebel Springs Games and are scheduled to play 10 games in six days against some of the best Division III teams in the nation.

Included in the Panthers’ schedule are games against second-ranked Trenton State (N.J.), which the Panthers beat for the national title last season, No. 3 Allegheny (Pa.), No. 8 Illinois Wesleyan, No. 9 Rowan (N.J.) and No. 14 North Adams (Mass.) State. They also have a game with Division II Mankato (Minn.) State.

Last season, Chapman went 9-0 at the spring games, but a game against Trenton State was rained out.

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Add softball: The Panthers are picking up where they left off last season statistically. The team is batting .341 and opponents are batting .167 against Chapman pitching.

All-American pitcher Christy Guidorizzi is 5-0 with a 5-0 earned-run average and 43 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings. She is batting .400 with eight runs batted in.

Jessamine Maiben, an outfielder who is the second pitcher, has seen limited action and is 1-1 with a 2.21 ERA in 6 1/3 innings. She is contributing at the plate, however, leading the team with a .650 batting average and seven RBIs.

Leadoff hitter and shortstop Lisa Cancilla is batting .421 with a .625 on-base percentage.

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Chapman head trainer Jack Bauerle had a third tryout with the Piranhas, Anaheim’s Arena Football League team and is now waiting to hear whether he will be invited to training camp.

The tryout, two hours of one-on-one drills with about 14 other linemen, took place Sunday at Corona del Mar High, and Bauerle said he thinks it went well for him.

“Afterward, I was standing around the circle looking at the others,” Bauerle said, “and I ranked myself as No. 7 or No. 8 among the 15, but that’s me. I’m usually critical of myself. I have no idea what the coaches think.”

Bauerle played football at Servite without distinction (he was a 5-foot-10, 170-pound tight end) in the early 1980s, but helped in his role as Chapman’s trainer and strength coach. He is now 6 feet 2, 265 pounds.

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The Chapman baseball team spent a wild few days in Georgetown, Texas, this week. The Panthers split six games at the Southwestern University round-robin tournament, losing to NAIA Sul Ross (Texas) State, 15-0, 13-11 and 13-3, and beating fellow NCAA Division III program Southwestern, 12-9, 8-6 and 17-6.

Chapman gave up five home runs and hit six, four by Cale Shepherd. Shepherd had 13 RBIs on the trip, only three fewer than he had in the Panthers’ first 14 games.

“I’ve never seen a ball jump off a bat like it did on this trip,” Chapman Coach Rex Peters said.

Peters said the Panthers (12-8) got the victories they needed because they won the Division III games.

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No Orange County teams made the NAIA national basketball tournament--men’s in Tulsa, Okla., or women’s in Jackson, Tenn.--this week, but a couple of recent county players are coaching tournament teams.

Julie Workman, who played at Fountain Valley High and Concordia University is a first-year assistant on the Biola women’s team, which upset top-seeded Fresno Pacific to win the Golden State Athletic Conference title.

Brian Kenney, who played at Servite, Cypress College and Chapman, is a first year-assistant at Westmont, which upset top-seeded Azusa Pacific for the conference title. Westmont Coach John Moore played for Los Alamitos High and Cypress College in the 1970s.