Camarillo’s Merricks Is Declared Ineligible

The Camarillo A American Legion baseball team will enter the Area 6 championships without pitcher-outfielder Charles Merricks.

Merricks, who recently graduated from Channel Islands High, was ruled ineligible Monday by Legion officials because teams are not allowed to draw from base enrollments of more than 4,000 students.

Camarillo A draws players from Camarillo and Rio Mesa Highs, whose combined enrollments exceed 3,000.

Channel Islands, with an enrollment of more than 2,500 students, pushed the total well beyond the maximum. Legion officials discovered the problem while examining team rosters Monday night.

State Legion Chairman Harold Hall said had an opponent filed a protest against Merricks during the regular season, Camarillo A would have been forced to forfeit any victories in which he participated.

However, because the District 16 season is complete, Camarillo A will be allowed to participate in the area championships without Merricks, who batted .481 and recently signed with UCLA.

Four baseball players have made commitments to Cal State Northridge, provided the program gains funding for the 1998 season.

Senior right-handed pitcher Gabe Zappin is transferring from Nevada, where he was 3-2 with four saves and a 7.11 earned-run average in 44 innings last season. Pitchers Eric Fuller of El Camino College and Jim DiBiase of Pierce are transferring after being academically ineligible last season.

Jeff Elorduy, a power-hitting outfielder, is transferring from Sacramento City College.

The USA Baseball Youth team, which includes Kevin Howard of Westlake and Jesse Kozlowski of Simi Valley, defeated Mexico, 2-0, on Sunday to take fifth place in the International Baseball Assn. AA Youth World Championships at Taipei Municipal Stadium.

The USA team, comprised of players 16 and under, finished the tournament with a 6-2 record.

VOLLEYBALL

John Price, men’s volleyball coach at Cal State Northridge, was contacted Tuesday by Fred Sturm, the U.S. men’s national volleyball coach, regarding an international coaching opportunity.

Price said he was asked by Sturm if he is interested in coaching the men’s junior national team, which leaves Sept. 1 for Croatia and will spend 10 months practicing there and competing in tournaments throughout Europe and Asia.

Price is one of three candidates for the Cal State Bakersfield job. Former Penn State Coach Todd Peterson, who led the Nittany Lions to a men’s NCAA title in 1994, and Kip Yoshimura, women’s coach at Lewis and Clark, an NAIA school, are the other candidates.

Bakersfield is expected to make an offer to a candidate today or Thursday.

“I told Sturm I’d have to hear from Bakersfield either way before I’d get back to him,” said Price, whose Northridge program was eliminated June 11 for budget and gender-equity reasons, but may be resurrected, which would further complicate his plans.

TENNIS

Playing his first match in a professional tournament, Bob Bryan of Camarillo lost in the first round of the Infiniti Open on Tuesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Glenn Weiner of Long Beach defeated Bryan, 6-4, 6-3.

It took Weiner, 21, just 55 minutes to eliminate Bryan, 19, a Stanford freshman and 1996 Rio Mesa High graduate.

Bryan, the Pacific 10 Conference singles champion, held his serve to open the match and had three break-point opportunities when Weiner struggled with his first service. But Weiner eventually held. Bryan never managed to break Weiner, who used three breaks to breeze to victory.

“It seems like he made a lot of first serves,” Bryan said. “I wasn’t returning as well as I could have, but I credit his first serve.”

GOLF

Linda Olsen of Northridge shot a two-over-par 73 Monday at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa to finish fourth in sectional qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

Alicia Um, a recent graduate of Westlake High, shot a 74 and Jody Dulcos of Moorpark shot a 79, both qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which will be played Aug. 4-9 at Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Mass.

Former Alemany standout Cheryl Musser of Pacoima shot an 80 and is the third alternate.

BOXING

Junior-lightweight Robert Garcia, 22, of Oxnard scored a first-round knockout of Fauspino Soto on Saturday in Nashville, Tenn.

Garcia (29-0), the No. 1-ranked contender by the International Boxing Federation, recorded the 23rd knockout of his career at 2:50 of the opening round. The bout was on the undercard of Frankie Liles’ 12-round victory over Zafarou Ballogou to retain his World Boxing Assn. middleweight title.

Oxnard welterweight Fernando Vargas, 5-0 since turning pro in March, will fight an opponent to be determined Aug. 19 in Austin, Texas.

MOTOR SPORTS

M.K. Kanke of Granada Hills drove to victory Saturday in the 100-lap NASCAR Southwest Tour main event at Madera Speedway.

Kanke, who formerly drove at Saugus Speedway, has won seven times in 11 seasons on the Southwest Tour. Kanke moved from ninth to 11th in the points standings.

Greg Bratschie of Lancaster won the 100-lap Late-model Pro-Street Stock main event Saturday at Kern County Raceway.