Long Beach Reopens Closer’s Career

Only a season ago, Ryan Brannan was a seldom-used middle reliever at the University of Miami who had apparently lost his fastball. Today, he is the closer at Long Beach State and being told he might go in the first few rounds of May’s amateur draft.

The transformation came so swiftly that it surprised both Brannan and Long Beach State Coach Dave Snow, to whom Brannan gives most of the credit for his improved play.

The former Huntington Beach standout was one of the most highly recruited prep players in 1993, when he was a raw talent with a 6-foot-3 frame and a fastball in the 90-mph range. But in two seasons at Miami, he rarely played.

Coaches at Miami insisted that Brannan throw over the top, instead of from the three-quarter angle as he had in high school, and he lost both his velocity and his confidence.

“I think halfway through last season I knew it,” Brannan said. “I wasn’t improving, and I wasn’t happy. I needed a change.”

He got his release from Miami and transferred to Long Beach State, but it wasn’t until last summer in the Cape Cod League that Snow solved Brannan’s problems.

“I could see that he wasn’t comfortable,” Snow said. “There wasn’t enough coming out of his hand. We just decided to try something because we had nothing to lose.”

Snow suggested Brannan move back to the three-quarter arm style he used in high school, and a few weeks into fall practice, Brannan began to feel comfortable. His fastball reached as high as 94 mph and was consistently in the 90s, and his slider and fastball were moving more then ever.

Having a number of proven starters already, Snow tagged Brannan as the team’s closer.

“He responded to work,” Snow said. “He wanted to get on the mound a lot, and his arm bounced back after an outing.”

Brannan, 4-1 with nine saves, has starred from the start. He picked up his first three saves in consecutive victories over California and Washington (twice) in February. He leads the team with a 1.75 earned-run average and has 47 strikeouts in 36 innings, with only nine walks. Opposing batters are hitting only .200 against him.

He is one reason the 49ers, 26-16 and 9-3 in the Big West Conference, are within striking distance of No. 1 Cal State Fullerton.

Brannan has also been told by scouts that he will be picked within the first four rounds of the draft.

“I couldn’t even have imagined that last season,” Brannan said. “I didn’t think I was going to get drafted at all.

a”I try not to think what could have been if I would have gone to Long Beach from the start, because I had a good time at Miami and got to go to two College World Series, but I am just really happy now, my parents can come see me play and I am pitching really well.”

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Another transfer who has prospered is USC’s Mike Inglin. After coming over from Marin College in Kentfield, Calif., the junior outfielder has batted .418 and leads the Trojans with 27 runs batted in and seven home runs. He hit safely in USC’s first 12 games, and in the team’s season opener hit home runs in his first three at-bats. In that game, an 11-5 victory over Loyola Marymount, Inglin became the first player in 17 years to hit three home runs in a game at Dedeaux Field.

Inglin was one for four and scored a run during the No. 2 Trojans’ 5-4 loss to Fullerton on Wednesday. That game, although billed as nonconference game with little meaning, meant a great deal.

Fullerton needed to prove itself again, having not played a top-ranked team in some time, and having dropped two of three to New Mexico State two weekends ago. And USC needed to show that its bullpen could come through against a tough-hitting team.

Both were achieved. The Titans got the victory, proving their point, and the Trojans’ staff kept it close. Freshman pitcher Steve Immel retired seven in a row in the final three innings, including three strikeouts--one against Fullerton All-American Mark Kotsay to end the eighth. Also, reliever Brian Ponchak pitched out of jams in the fifth and sixth innings.

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Before last weekend, it looked as if UCLA, second to USC in the Pacific 10 Conference’s Southern Division, could erase the one-game difference between itself and the first-place Trojans. But USC swept third-place Stanford, while the Bruins dropped two of three to last-place Arizona. UCLA now stands three games behind with nine conference games remaining and must travel to Stanford this weekend, while USC visits fourth-place California.

UCLA and USC will end the conference season with a series May 11-13, but USC might have the division title in hand by then.

College Baseball Notes

Cal State Northridge catcher Robert Fick, the team’s leading hitter, was suspended for the team’s nonconference game against Long Beach State on Wednesday night. Fick had bumped an umpire during an 11-9 Western Athletic Conference victory over Hawaii on Sunday. . . . UCLA sophomore left-hander Jim Parque improved to 8-0 with last Friday’s victory at Arizona.