AREA COLLEGE NOTEBOOK

Forced to twist in the wind after getting swept by Loyola Marymount in a best-of-three series for the West Coast Conference championship, the Pepperdine baseball team learned Monday its season is over.

The Waves (36-23) did not gain an at-large berth in the 64-team NCAA subregionals.

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Catcher Dane Sardinha of Pepperdine and second baseman Anthony Angel of Loyola Marymount are co-West Coast Conference players of the year. Sardinha batted .403 with 13 home runs and 46 runs batted in during conference play.

First-team picks include Gonzaga designated hitter Barry Mathews, who attended Crespi High and Pierce College, and Pepperdine pitcher Dan Haren and outfielder Dan Garcia.

Second-team selections from Pepperdine included first baseman Woody Cliffords, who attended El Camino Real High, outfielder Jeremy Coronado, pitcher Jay Adams and second baseman Damon Katz.

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Steve Hawkins, a former player at Ventura High and Ventura College, has resigned as baseball coach at Division II Quincy (Ill.) University to become an assistant at Western Michigan, a Division I school in Kalamazoo that plays in the Mid-American Conference.

While at Quincy, Hawkins recruited several players from College of the Canyons, including Reggie Bell, David Langley, Rasaan Hall and Mike Posey. Matt Steffe, a Hart High product who is an assistant at Portland State, also played at Quincy.

Western Michigan, 10-18 last season, recently hired Robert McCullum as head coach. One of McCullum’s first moves was to hire Hawkins.

“I plan to continue recruiting hard in Southern California,” Hawkins said. “That’s where I was raised and there is a lot of talent there, both in the high schools and junior colleges.”