Davidson, Morefield Sign With Northridge

Left-handed pitcher Andy Davidson of Hart High and slugging outfielder Tom Morefield of Chatsworth made commitments to attend Cal State Northridge on Wednesday.

Davidson, 8-1 with a 1.42 earned-run average, signed a letter of intent and Morefield, who is batting .475 with eight home runs and 33 runs batted in, said he will sign as soon as he receives his letter.

“We’ve got some very good freshmen coming in,” Northridge Coach Mike Batesole said. “Every one we went after we got.”

The number of players Batesole is bringing in has grown to eight, including six freshmen.

Prime time: ABC News will telecast a feature on the Cal State Northridge baseball team at 5 p.m. Sunday. Reporter John Frankal conducted interviews Monday and will do more Saturday when the Matadors play Cal Lutheran at Northridge.

Northridge (31-19) recently had a 16-game winning streak and was ranked No. 29 by Collegiate Baseball, remarkable achievements for a program that was temporarily cut last summer for budget and gender-equity reasons.

Pitstick is out: First baseman Matt Pitstick of Oxnard College is out for the season because of a broken left hand suffered last week against Ventura.

Pitstick, who was batting .379, was injured while tagging a runner after a bunt.

BASKETBALL

New Webb site: Former Alemany basketball coach Rob Webb has been hired as athletic director at Chaminade, replacing Ed Croson, who resigned to become the Eagles’ football coach.

Webb was an assistant at Pasadena City College last season.

CROSS-COUNTRY

Making the grade: Cal State Northridge was among five Big Sky Conference members selected to the NCAA Division I All-Academic Women’s cross-country team.

Northridge, with a collective grade-point average of 3.22, ranked 50th among 83 teams named to the cross-country academic list. Other Big Sky representatives were Northern Arizona, Weber State, Montana State and Idaho State.

Northern Arizona (3.39) had the highest GPA among Big Sky teams and ranked 15th nationally.

To make the all-academic list, teams must average at least a 3.00 GPA by each runner who used a season of eligibility.

GOLF

Making the cut: Cal State Northridge women’s Coach Carrie Leary is among 12 college coaches selected to be instructors at an NCAA-sponsored clinic by the University of Wisconsin on May 17 at Cherokee Country Club in Madison, Wis. The free clinic, for youngsters 10 through 18, is part of the NCAA’s Youth Education through Sports (YES) program.

Information: Terry Gawlik, at (608) 265-4987 or Sharon Cessna, at (913) 339-1906.

HOCKEY

Big Squirts: The West Valley Wolves Squirt youth team won the state championship in Lakewood.

The Wolves, ages 9-11, defeated the San Jose Blades in overtime.

GYMNASTICS

Junior Olympians: Five athletes from the World Stars Gymnastics Training Center in Camarillo qualified for the U.S. Junior Olympics national championships May 8-10 in Battle Creek, Mich.

Johnny Cano, Vic Carreiro, Matt Cohen, Erik Garnett and Justin Berkman qualified as a result of performances in their age groups and skill-level divisions at Southern California regional competition April 18-19.

Cano, a Newbury Park High sophomore, qualified for nationals with a second-place finish in the floor exercise, a third-place on still rings and the parallel bars, and he finished third in all-around competition in the Junior Elite Class II competition for 14- and 15-year-olds.

In the same competition, Garnett came in second on still rings and was sixth all-around.

Competing in Junior Elite Class II for 16- and 17-year-olds, Berkman also wound up sixth in all-around competition.

Carreiro was fourth on parallel bars and sixth all-around in the Class III Division for 12- and 13-year-olds. Cohen won the still-rings competition in the same division and age group.

AUTO RACING

Back on track: After three rainouts in five weeks, Ventura Raceway has adjusted its schedule to allow for a full season of racing.

United States Auto Club Midgets and TQs will share the bill with International Motor Contest Assn. Sprint Cars Saturday on the one-quarter-mile clay oval.

IMCA Modifieds and I-4 Modifieds originally scheduled to race this weekend with the Sprint Cars have been added to the July 25 and Aug. 1 programs.

MISCELLANY

Tideback dies: George Tideback, former Poly High athletic director, died Friday at his Burbank home. He was 70.

Tideback served as athletic director at the Sun Valley campus during the 1980s and early 1990s. He died of complications from diabetes.