Fresno State’s Parker Mopping Up After Messy First Outing

Lindsay Parker, a freshman from La Canada High, returns home today to play for Fresno State in a 1:30 p.m. Western Athletic Conference softball showdown against Cal State Northridge at Northridge.

And she brings some impressive numbers.

Parker, the only undefeated pitcher on the Bulldogs’ staff, has a 9-0 record and an 0.78 earned-run average. Among her victories have been decisions over fifth-ranked Northridge, No. 10 California, No. 17 Minnesota, No. 23 Cal State Sacramento and No. 24 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

But Parker, The Times’ 1995 Valley pitcher of the year, did have one bad outing--her first.

In the Bulldogs’ 1996 home opener, before an NCAA-record crowd of 5,427 at Fresno State’s new state-of-the-art softball complex, Parker took a pounding at the hands of eight-time national champion UCLA.

After facing nine batters and surrendering four hits and four runs--three of them earned--the freshman right-hander was removed before getting an out in the second inning. She escaped defeat when the Bulldogs rallied to win, 5-4.

“It was kind of my introduction to Division I and I was like, ‘Oh, wow,’ ” she said.

That was nearly seven weeks ago. Parker has grown up in a hurry since then.

On Wednesday, Parker was recognized as national player of the week for three shutout performances, including a perfect game against California.

Comeback kid: Although Jim Whalen is retiring as Ventura College men’s tennis coach after this season, he might be back with the team sometime soon.

As a player.

That’s right. Whalen, 60, says he has thought about playing in a couple of years.

Whalen plans to teach physical education at Ventura the next school year. That would give him 33 years at the college, where he had two stints in the 1970s coaching the men’s basketball team.

In 38 years of coaching, including handling some of the junior varsity teams at Sylmar High in 1963-64, Whalen figures he has coached about 50 teams.

But after traveling a bit once he’s done teaching, Whalen might take to the court, perhaps at Ventura or at a junior college in Northern California.

“I wouldn’t mind going back to school and go out for the tennis team,” he said. “I never played tennis in college.”

Twice as talented: It looks as if UC Riverside got two players for the price of one when Jerome Payton recently committed to play for the Highlanders.

He will be on the basketball and baseball teams.

Payton says that Riverside basketball Coach John Masi and baseball Coach Jack Smitheran agreed to let him play both sports.

Last season, Payton played point guard at Antelope Valley College and led the Marauders in scoring with an 18.7-point average.

He played shortstop in nine games for the Marauders in 1995 but did not return to the team this season. He was, however, an All-Southern Section selection at Palmdale High two years ago.

“Baseball has always been my first love,” Payton said. “When they told me I could play baseball, I was really happy.”

Stats

The Cal State Northridge volleyball team ranks among the top seven in the powerful Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in several categories. The Matadors have the highest hitting percentage in a match this season (.513 against UC San Diego) and most block solos in a match (12 against Loyola Marymount). Northridge ranks seventh in the MPSF with a .301 hitting percentage. . . .

Sophomore Chad Strickland ranks second in the MPSF in digs per game (2.86), junior Collin Smith is seventh in dig average (2.38) and junior setter Dan Nash is sixth among national assist leaders (16.26).

Quarter-miler Chris Brown and hurdler Elinor Tolson of Northridge moved into the top 10 on the all-time Matador lists in their respective events in last Saturday’s four-team meet against Mt. San Antonio College, UC Davis and host Fresno State.

Brown won the men’s 400 meters in 47.73 seconds to move to ninth in that event and Tolson’s second-place time of 14.10 in the women’s 100 high hurdles advanced her to seventh.

Things to Do

Northridge’s fifth-ranked men’s volleyball team (13-8, 9-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will play second-ranked UCLA (17-3, 12-2) today at 4:30 p.m. in the opener of the UCLA tournament in Westwood. The match will be televised live by Prime Sports. The Matadors will face either USC (7-10, 6-9) or Loyola Marymount (6-17, 3-13) on Saturday.

The 12th-ranked Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (12-10, 7-9) will host a pair of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches against No. 13 Brigham Young (8-10, 7-8) today and Saturday at 7 p.m.

Contributing: Fernando Dominguez, Irene Garcia, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega.