SPORTSCOPE : Claremont Travels to San Diego for Tournament

The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s basketball team will make an appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament for the second season in a row Saturday when the Stags visit UC San Diego in a second-round game of the West Regional at 7:30 p.m. in La Jolla.

Both teams received first-round byes in the tournament. Claremont is 22-4 overall and San Diego, ranked No. 7 in Division III, is 22-3.

Claremont tied La Verne for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and defeated the Leopards, 84-81, in a playoff last week for the conference’s automatic NCAA tournament bid.

The Stags, who tied La Verne and Redlands for the SCIAC title last season but advanced to the NCAA playoffs through a conference tiebreaker procedure, have been led by guard Chris Greene, center Henry Albrecht and forwards John Gilliland and Dominic Nappi.

Greene, a junior, was the leading scorer in the SCIAC with a 22.7 average. Albrecht averaged 16.7. Gilliland and Albrecht were among the SCIAC’s top rebounders.

The Stags lost to Dubuque (Iowa) in the first round of the playoffs last season. San Diego is seeded No. 1 in the region. One of its three losses was to Washington State, a Division I team that is battling for second place in the Pacific 10 Conference.

* After struggling through most of its early season nonconference games, the Cal Poly Pomona baseball team won its first California Collegiate Athletic Assn. series of the season against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last week.

The Broncos (6-9 overall, 2-1 in CCAA play) will play conference rival Cal State Dominguez Hills in a three-game series Friday and Saturday. The teams meet for a single game at 2:30 p.m. Friday in Pomona and a double-header at noon Saturday in Carson.

Against San Luis Obispo, the Broncos were led by the one-two pitching combination of Erick Gomez and Wayne Koklys. Gomez pitched the Broncos to a 5-2 complete-game victory in the first game of the series and Koklys recorded the decision in Pomona’s 6-3 win over San Luis Obispo in the second game.

Gomez, a senior left-hander from Damien High in La Verne, leads the Bronco pitching staff with a 2-1 record and 1.82 earned-run average. Koklys, a senior right-hander, is 1-2.

Sophomore infielder Grant Stephens is batting .434 and senior outfielder Ramiro Garcia is second at .393.

* The Azusa Pacific men’s team will be among the favorites when it competes in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics Indoor National Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday at Kansas City.

The Cougars will send 16 men and five women to the meet. Topping the list are junior Benjamin Koech in the long and triple jumps and sophomore Davidson Enzinwa in the 60-yard dash. Enzinwa, a Nigerian who transferred from Mt. San Antonio College, is world junior record-holder in the 100 meters.

Azusa Pacific, which has won seven of eight NAIA outdoor championships, has yet to win an indoor championship. The Cougars finished second last year.

The top participant for the women’s team is expected to be high jumper Latrese Johnson, who is two-time defending national champion in the event.