Chapman Men on Outside Looking In

There are mixed emotions at Chapman this week.

Despite a 20-5 record, its best mark in 17 seasons, the men’s basketball team was passed over for an NCAA Division III at-large playoff berth.

But the Panther women (17-8), only 6-6 in late December, earned their second playoff berth in four years. They open today, against Wartburg of Iowa.

“We’re disappointed. We thought we deserved to go,” said Mike Bokosky, the Chapman men’s coach.

Bokosky pointed out that the women’s playoff bracket has 50 teams. The men’s bracket has 48 and the difference was a big factor for schools on the bubble. Five at-large berths were available for men and eight for the women.

Cal Lutheran received the Southland’s only men’s bid, an automatic one for winning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Mary Hegarty, the Chapman women’s coach, said that the women’s selection committee took into consideration how her team finished. The Panthers won 13 of their final 16 games.

“I think they looked at us and what we did in the last two months,” Hegarty said. “We took most of our hits early. But I think the committee saw a lot of growth in our team. We had some good wins against solid teams.”

Bokosky believes a number of factors may have led to his team being snubbed.

The rest of the country has a negative opinion of West Coast basketball, he said, and that figures into playoff voting.

In addition, Chapman, as an independent, has no advocate in attendance at postseason seeding meetings, according to Bokosky. And the SCIAC does not have a commissioner, leaving no one from the Southland to lobby on behalf of the West.

Bokosky pointed to the 2-year-old Northwest Conference, which does have a commissioner. It placed its top two teams, champion Lewis and Clark and runner-up Linfield, both of Oregon, into the men’s bracket.

“The whole process is a subjective thing,” Bokosky said. “In Division III there is not a lot of intersectional play for people to judge us by.”

Wartburg (23-4) is the women’s champion of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Knights have won 18 in a row and are 13-1 at home, where tonight’s game against Chapman will be played.

Guard Missy Bynon leads Chapman in scoring (15.1 points), three-pointers (59) and assists (120). Senior Shamekia Perkins is second on the team in scoring (12 points) and ranks No. 8 in career scoring (895 points).

FIT TO BE TIED

Cal State Fullerton appears to have the edge in the tiebreaker that would decide the final two seedings at the Big West Conference men’s basketball tournament.

Fullerton, which ends its conference schedule Thursday with a game at first-place UC Irvine, is in ninth, a half game behind both Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Idaho. Only eight teams advance to the tournament March 8-10 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

If none of the three win this week, Fullerton will get the No. 7 seeding because it swept its series with Idaho, according to information released by the Big West.

Fullerton would be eliminated if both San Luis Obispo and Idaho win at least once and Fullerton loses to Irvine. The Titans would also be out if Idaho wins a game and Fullerton and San Luis Obispo tie, because of the Mustangs’ 103-88 victory over Long Beach State on Feb. 8.

PLAY BALL

The Cal State Fullerton softball team, ranked 11th in the nation, plays host to nine schools in the Worth Softball Invitational Friday through Sunday.

The round-robin tournament begins at 10 a.m. Friday and concludes with games at 5 p.m. Sunday. Included in the field are California and Oregon, ranked fifth and 20th in the latest USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Assn.’s top-25 poll.

The Titans (14-5) are coming off a third-place finish at the Texas Invitational last weekend.

DISAPPOINTING

Sluggish hitting and costly errors have hurt the Cal State Fullerton baseball team’s hopes for a strong start this season.

“It’s been disappointing,” Titan Coach George Horton said.

Fullerton (6-7) is batting only .249 and has left 104 runners on base. The Titans have committed 26 errors--eight more than their opponents. Pitching has been the lone bright spot. Opponents are batting only .232, and the Titan staff has a 2.65 earned-run average.

Right-hander Kirk Saarloos (2-2) leads the way with two consecutive shutouts and a streak of 20 consecutive scoreless innings, during which he has given up only four hits.

Left-hander Jon Smith (2-0) has a 1.41 ERA. Freshman Darric Merrell (0-1) has an 0.98 ERA in five appearances, two of them starts.

Staff writer Lon Eubanks contributed to this story.