Nichols Signs at USC for Baseball

Outfielder Jay Nichols from University High has signed to play baseball at USC, Trojan Coach Mike Gillespie said Wednesday.

Nichols hit .558 and had a batting average that surged over .600 for much of last season. A Times’ first-team all-county selection, his 43 runs batted in were the third-highest total in the county and helped the Trojans win the Pacific Coast League title.

Nichols is also the quarterback for University’s football team, which plays La Habra Friday in a Division IX second-round game.

TENNIS

Anne Yelsey, the Pacific Coast League singles champion and the fourth-ranked girls’ 16 division player in Southern California, would have been one of the favorites to win the Southern Section individual singles tournament. But Yelsey will not play in the tournament after she was defaulted for missing her 5:45 p.m. starting time Saturday in the third round of the preliminaries at Old Ranch Tennis Club.

Yelsey missed her match with Troy’s Aya Sakoda because she was attending her sister Rachael’s bat mitzvah. Karen Yelsey, Anne’s mother, said she notified assistant section commissioner Paul Castillo and site coordinator Tracy Brennan months beforehand that her daughter would not be able to play until 6 p.m.

“We planned this bat mitzvah two years ago and Paul and Tracy both understood the situation,” Karen Yelsey said. “She was doing this for her sister and we thought they could accommodate her. Anne is just devastated that she can’t play. She had been playing really well and gave herself a chance to win the tournament.”

Castillo said the section tried its best to work around Yelsey’s schedule.

“They waited for over two hours, but we had no communication to the site from the family,” Castillo said. “Our folks were waiting, but they couldn’t wait all night.”

Karen Yelsey tried to put a positive spin on the situation: “She’s only a sophomore. Maybe there’s another year.”

Yelsey is the third highly ranked player who will miss the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 tournament at the Claremont Club. Beverly Hills freshman Iris Ichim is playing in a tournament in Florida and San Marino’s Luana Magnani, the defending champion who has signed with USC, is injured.