COLLEGES / PAUL McLEOD : Time Has Come to Put a Stop to Four-Hour College Baseball Games

How about trying a few new rules to speed up college baseball games?

A game between Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State Los Angeles on Saturday lasted four hours before the Toros won, 11-5.

“It was the longest game I have ever been involved in,” Toro Coach George Wing said.

The longest game played by Loyola Marymount this season lasted 5 hours 33 minutes. It was a 14-inning, 6-5, loss at USC. On Saturday, the Lions played nine innings in 4:10 in a 24-10 victory over Nevada. For the three games, that’s an average of nearly 30 minutes per inning.

Many long games are the result of a lot of runs being scored or coaches making player substitutions, particularly pitchers. But Loyola Coach Chris Smith thinks there is another reason.

“So many coaches are trying to control the game so much by calling all the pitches and that has something to do with why college games are so long,” Smith said.

Wing agrees, but he’s not about to have his pitching coach, John Verhoeven, stop the practice.

“A lot of the (slowness of a game) has to do with coaches that call every pitch,” Wing said. “I know we are guilty of it, too, and it drives me nuts, but I have to say John is doing a good job with it. I don’t think we are slowing the game down that much, but I do know coaches at a lot of schools who think through every pitch and that takes forever.”

In Dominguez Hills’ case, the Toros were 2-5 before Verhoeven started calling pitches. They enter this afternoon’s three-game, season-ending series against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at 27-20-1.

Smith blames two other things for slow collegiate games: Aluminum bats, which have led to inflated batting averages and more scoring, and major league baseball.

“Personally, I’d like to see the strike zone opened up,” he said. “It’s the aluminum bats that make games longer, and the pitchers in college aren’t what you used to get because the pros are signing all of the good ones. Everyone wants to blame the coaches for the slowness of games because they are calling the pitches, but you put an aluminum bat at the plate against a bunch of curveball pitchers and this is what you get.”

For the past two seasons, the Missouri Valley Conference has used a clock to speed up games. Pitchers are allowed 20 seconds between pitches, unless there is a baserunner. If a pitcher violates the rule, a ball is called. A batter must be in the box before 15 seconds have elapsed, or a strike is called. Teams have 90 seconds between the last out of an inning and the first pitch of the next inning.

Still, more could be done to shorten games. Some suggestions:

* Ban coaches from calling pitches. Let the kids play the game. Penalty: Eject a coach.

* Prohibit pitchers from leaving the mound between pitches. Penalty: A balk, or a ball if there is no baserunner.

* Limit coaching visits to the mound to 30 seconds for the first trip and 10 seconds for the second trip.

* Doubleheaders should consist of two seven-inning games.

* Reduce warm-up tosses a relief pitcher is allowed from eight to three, unless he is replacing an injured pitcher.

* Allow pitchers three warm-up pitches between innings instead of eight.

* End the time-honored tradition of throwing the ball around the infield before each half-inning.

It seemed like a bad memory that would fade as the season progressed, but the Feb. 15 brawl between visiting Sonoma State and Dominguez Hills is coming back to haunt the Toros.

Only three teams will participate in the NCAA Division II Western Regional Tournament later this month. Sonoma State will receive an automatic berth because it won the Northern California Athletic Conference title.

The championship of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. will be decided this weekend and the best the Toros can do (with a lot of help from other teams) is tie for the title. If that would happen, than the co-CCAA champions would receive berths to the regional.

If Dominguez Hills finishes second, it more than likely will not get a postseason berth. Cal State Stanislaus (31-17), which finished second behind Sonoma State, would most likely be selected because it has a better overall record than Dominguez Hills. Had Dominguez Hills defeated Sonoma State twice earlier this year, the outlook for the Toros might be different. But with Dominguez Hills leading, 2-1, in the bottom of the seventh inning in the first game of a scheduled doubleheader, a bench-clearing brawl started between the teams. After failing to bring the situation under control, the umpires called the game after 30 minutes.

Sonoma State, saying it was fearful it could not control its players, refused to play the second game of the series the following day.

Toro Athletic Director Dan Guerrero argued that the second game should have been declared a forfeit in favor of Dominguez Hills, but region officials decided otherwise. It was called a non-contest. The interrupted game was declared a tie.

“If we had an opportunity to beat them twice, we could have argued (to the regional selection committee) that ‘we beat your champion twice’ and so we deserve to go over Stanislaus, which lost to Sonoma State,” Wing said.

Loyola Marymount baseball player Rick Mediavilla and volleyball player Kerry House have been named student athletes of the year at the school.

Mediavilla, who holds several Lion records, was an All-West Coast Conference and All-District VIII selection as a junior. He is a psychology major with a grade-point average of 3.22.

House, a first team All-WCC choice last season, led the Lions in numerous statistical categories. She is a liberal studies major with a B average and she plans a career working with handicapped children.

Dominguez Hills senior golfer Enrico Montano has been invited to play in the Division II championship tournament. The four-day event begins Tuesday in Boca Raton, Fla.

“I think he has a very good chance,” interim coach Jeff Manare said. “He has been the only player that I have seen who has been consistently under par in all of the regional tournaments on some highly rated courses.”

Three Division II qualifying regionals were held this spring and Montano finished first, third and sixth. He shot a 69--the lowest score in regional history--at Lake Shastina Country Club two weeks ago to win that tournament.

Manare estimates it will take rounds that are “two to three strokes under par” to have a chance to win the individual title.

Notes

The Washington Bullets have requested statistical information from Cal State Dominguez Hills regarding guard Keith Billingslea. The 6-foot-3 Billingslea was a starter at the University of Northern Arizona, but saw limited playing time last season when he transferred to the Carson school. Bullet scout Chuck Douglas said: “We don’t want to read anything into this, it’s just part of our focus on our free agent camp” in conjunction with the NBA draft. . . . Former Loyola Marymount infielder Chris Donnels was recalled by the New York Mets earlier this week and started two games at third base against the Dodgers. Donnels holds six Lion batting records. . . . Darrel Deak became the ninth Loyola player to be named West Coast Conference baseball player of the week for his efforts in a three-game series at Nevada. He batted .429 last week with three home runs and 12 runs batted in.

Win, lose or draw in its final series this weekend, the Dominguez Hills baseball team will finish above .500 for the first time since 1987. Under Coach George Wing, who is in his third year, the Toros have improved each season. In 1989 the team was 16-29. Last season the Toros were 22-24. They are 27-20-1 going into the three-game series at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Toro softball pitcher Anne Ibarra became the first 20-game winner in school history with a victory in her final game of the season last week at Cal State San Bernardino. She also broke the school record for most victories in the season and holds six other school records. . . . Loyola canceled two softball games this week against Dominguez Hills, abruptly ending the Toros’ season. The games were to be a makeup of a doubleheader that was originally scheduled Feb. 9. . . . Sio Saipaia of Loyola has been voted to the All-Western Invitational Volleyball Assn. second team. Dan Greenbaum (Rolling Hills) and Bryan Ivie (Mira Costa), both from USC, made the first team. Second-team honors also went to UCLA’s Carl Henkel (Mira Costa) and San Diego State’s Mike Schlegal (Rolling Hills). UC Irvine’s Steve Florentine (Redondo) was voted to the third team.

Jason Stimpfig (Mira Costa) was voted to the all-tournament team at the NCAA volleyball championships last week. He helped Cal State Long Beach upset top-ranked USC to win the title. . . . Charles Mattson of Wiamanalo, Hawaii, a 6-foot-3 outside hitter, and Arcadia High’s Jason McEntee, a 6-5 outside hitter, have signed to play volleyball at Loyola next season. . . . The Loyola baseball team plays a doubleheader at U.S. International on Sunday. Loyola trails West Coast Conference leader Pepperdine by two games. The teams end the regular season next weekend with a three-game series. Said Smith about a possible postseason playoff berth: “I think our chances are good. We’ve played 60 Division I teams and played on the road a lot and I would think (we would be selected based on our schedule).”