Fork in the Road

Three friends. Three road trips.

In July of 1999, Chad Sterbens, Matt Mossberg and Brett Young piled into a gassed-up pickup truck and left Southern California in their exhaust, traveling to Oxford, Miss.

They had been teammates, three amigos, on the baseball team at Calvary Chapel and were going to stay that way by going to Mississippi. They frolicked across America on a four-day trip that was part “Road Trip” and part “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”

The following May, the scenes were more like those in “The Road Warrior.” The three cannonballed down the highway on a grueling 29-hour drive that “seemed like it took 10 days,” according to Young. It seemed that way because he was eager to be home, and even more so to be away from Mississippi.

This weekend, Sterbens and Mossberg are on the road again, in New Orleans, where the Rebels lost to Oklahoma State, 5-4, in their opening NCAA regional game Friday.

Both are key members of a team that is ranked 23rd by Collegiate Baseball.

And Young, one of the top pitchers in Southern California two years ago, has spent the year waiting tables at a Costa Mesa restaurant and giving pitching lessons. He took the year off from school to refocus on what he wanted to accomplish as a baseball player.

What a long, strange trip it’s been--for them all.

“Maybe it would have been good to stay,” Young said. “At the same time, it was really good to take this year off and get back the itch for the game. I’m happy for those guys. But I needed this year. I was burned out”

Maybe Mississippi could have used Young this year. The Rebels certainly couldn’t have done without Sterbens, their shortstop and backbone, or Mossberg, a key player off the bench.

Sterbens’ 2000 season ended when he was hit by a pitch that broke his wrist. He spent the summer in Alaska, honing his game while playing for the Kenai Peninsula Oilers. He leads Ole Miss regulars with a .353 average.

Mossberg bides his time during games, waiting for a chance. He is a late-inning defensive replacement, but certainly isn’t lacking offensively. He has a .448 average and has come through in key situations.

They are as down home as grits.

“I really wanted to play in the SEC,” Sterbens said. “Growing up, I wanted to play in the best conference and I always thought the SEC was the best. I couldn’t wait to get here.”

None of them could. Young signed first, after he and Sterbens made a recruiting trip to Mississippi in the fall of 1999. Young then had a fantastic senior season, during which he helped Calvary Chapel win the Southern Section Division V title.

He went 15-0 with a 1.11 earned-run average and 130 strikeouts in 82 2/3 innings. But Young told professional scouts not to bother drafting him, as he was smitten with Mississippi.

Sterbens, who stole 131 bases in 135 tries in high school, also committed early. Mossberg, who hit .483 and was 44 for 44 on stolen base attempts as a senior, signed that spring.

All had fallen for the small-town atmosphere of Oxford, and the big-time feel of the Mississippi baseball program. They left that July, giddy freshmen-to-be.

“That trip was definitely exciting, “ Sterbens said. “We bought a bunch of fireworks in New Mexico and were setting them off late at night at a motel in Amarillo.”

Said Young: “It was all I could do to keep Chad from lighting them and throwing them out the window as we were driving. We stopped everywhere on that trip. We saw this crater in Arizona and some turquoise rock. Chad and Matt are a little crazy in the tourist area.”

When they finally got to Oxford, they found Mississippi burning, and Young had his first doubts.

“It was 103 and the humidity was ridiculous,” he said. “By the time you got out on the mound, you were worn. I was used to coastal weather and nice ocean breezes.”

Young went 2-2 with a 6.70 ERA. Sterbens was hitting .348 in 20 games before his injury. Mossberg hit .273 in 21 games.

Sterbens and Mossberg lapped up their freshman experience.

“Life was a little slower there, but baseball-wise, you can’t beat the environment,” Mossberg said. “We get big crowds, even for midweek games, and huge crowds on the weekends. It’s total mayhem. Nothing like Cal State Fullerton or other California teams draw.”

Yet Young was California dreaming. He hated the weather and the pace in Oxford was too slow. So he wanted out--fast.

He convinced Sterbens, Mossberg and Rebel catcher Charlie Waite, who was from Newport Harbor High, to drive straight through on the way home that May.

“We had just lost two out of three to Arkansas and then got knocked out of the SEC tournament,” Young said. “I had been homesick since Christmas. I wanted to get back here. I told the guys I would do as much driving as I could and they just had to help out a little.”

The four left in two trucks and they stopped for gas, but never lingered long enough to eat meals. At one stop, Sterbens loaded up with eight ice cream bars. It took them only 29 hours to get home.

“Looking back, it was a little foolish,” Mossberg said. “And looking back, that’s how bad Brett wanted out of Mississippi.”

Sterbens and Mossberg took a six-hour bus ride Wednesday, from Oxford to New Orleans. The Rebels (38-21-1) made the NCAA tournament for the second time in three seasons, but only the third time since 1977.

While Young spent the summer deciding what he would do next, Sterbens and Mossberg spent theirs getting ready for their sophomore seasons.

The Rebels opened SEC play by losing two of three to Kentucky at home. The next week, they traveled to Auburn and trailed, 5-0, after the first inning of the first game.

Sterbens’ run-scoring single sparked a four-run second inning, and Mississippi rallied to win, 10-8. The next day, Mossberg doubled and scored in the ninth inning of a 3-2 Rebel victory. In the third game, Sterbens had four hits and scored in the 11th for a 6-5 victory.

“They put up five runs and really took the wind out of our sails that first game,” Mossberg said of Auburn. “But we were not going lie down. That game made our season.”

Young has kept in touch from afar, talking occasionally on the telephone with Mossberg and Sterbens. But he has no regrets about staying home.

“I’m just a California kid,” Young said. “[At Mississippi] I was five hours away from an ocean that didn’t have any waves.

“As much as I love baseball, I have never been the kind of player who ate, drank and slept baseball. I believe it should be fun first. Back there, they kind of beat it into your head. It was a good experience, but I don’t think that’s where I’m supposed to be.”

Just where Young belongs is something he is still searching to find. He said he expects to pitch for a community college next season.

Meanwhile, this weekend, he will keep tabs on his friends and former teammates.

Said Young: “When I watch those guys play, there will be a little bit of the what-if thing going on.”