4 Coaches, 4 Views of Regional Openers

George Horton was taking dead aim at a champion, Dave Snow was holding a reunion with Elliott Avent and Mike Gillespie was listening to Fordham’s tales of woe and local fans who are used to rooting against anything with the initials U,S and C.

Frank Cruz was just glad to be in Palo Alto.

Everybody was putting his own spin on today’s opening games in the NCAA regional baseball tournaments, in which:

* Horton, Cal State Fullerton’s coach, is leaving himself wide open for second-guessing by starting left-handed freshman pitcher Jon Smith against Harvard in the South II Regional at Baton Rouge, La. Smith hasn’t started since March 7, largely because of arm trouble, but he’s going today because Horton is saving left-hander Benito Flores (12-0) for what he thinks will be an inevitable game against two-time defending NCAA champion Louisiana State.

* Snow is coaching Long Beach State against Avent and North Carolina State in the West Regional at Palo Alto. Avent is a friend who was at New Mexico State of the Big West Conference before moving on to Raleigh, N.C.

* Gillespie has the top-seeded Trojans in the East Regional at Clemson, where there will be confusion because folks there are used to USC being hated South Carolina. The Trojans face Fordham, which won a weird Atlantic 10 tournament that had been scheduled for Doylestown, Pa., but was rained out and moved to Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, where it became a one-day, four-team, single-elimination affair that ended at 1:30 on the morning of May 12.

Cruz, Loyola Marymount’s coach, was simply dealing with his own colliding emotions before the Lions collide with Stanford in the West Regional.

His team is playing the Cardinal, No. 1 in most national polls for 14 weeks before falling to No. 2 or No. 3.

“People ask me if I’m surprised to be here, but I’m so dumb, I thought we were going to be here last year,” said Cruz, whose team was 21-39 last season and had not been a winner since 1991 until going 33-21-1 this season.

But then reality set in.

“We don’t know what will happen,” Cruz said. “We can get blown out by 15 or we can pull an upset.”

He sends out cocky, 6-foot-7 freshman Michael Schultz, the West Coast Conference pitcher of the year, against Stanford, and Schultz will be throwing to freshman catcher Scott Walter, the WCC player of the year.

“I kind of like the idea [of pitching against Stanford],” Schultz said. “We can prove that we can compete against anyone. Even though we won the conference, we haven’t even earned the respect of the other teams that we think we deserve. A No. 6 seed?”

Cruz has the answer to that one.

“We’re seeded sixth because that’s what we deserve,” he said. “Hopefully, someday we’ll get better and earn a higher seed.”

That could well happen. The Lions’ starting pitchers are freshmen--Schultz, Brian Felten and Billy Traber.

“We had a great year,” said Walter, who batted .449 in league games, with eight homers and 48 runs batted in. “It’s a great year to build on.”

Especially since it starts anew tonight at Palo Alto against Stanford, the preseason pick to win the College World Series?

“If they get too excited, then more power to them,” Cruz said. “They deserve to be excited. Everybody knows Stanford should whip us. We’re just happy to get a chance to compete.”