Rear-view mirror improves the view

Barry Faulkner

With the regular-season schedule dwindling faster than ticket sales

for the now 0-11 Detroit Tigers, the high school baseball teams from

Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa, Estancia and Newport Harbor find themselves

trudging along in the lower half of their respective league standings.

Costa Mesa, two games behind Pacific Coast League tri-leaders

Northwood, University and Laguna Beach, remains within striking distance,

as does defending league champion CdM, one game behind the Mustangs.

But, with only eight PCL games remaining, it’s looking more and more

like the four local programs will not make the postseason. If all four

miss the CIF Southern Section playoffs, it would mark only the third time

since 1985 (as far back as I’ve researched) that no Newport-Mesa squad

competed past the league campaign.

The last Newport-Mesa playoff drought came in 1997, four years after

no locals advanced in 1993.

With such diamond futility (a combined 22-44-1 for the aforementioned

foursome), I figured it was time for an update on some former local

heroes still competing at the college and minor league level.

Former Newport Harbor standout Joe Urban (Class of 1997), will leave

soon for his second season with the River City Rascals, a member of the

independent Frontier League based in the St. Louis suburb of Ofallon.

Urban, whose 19 career home runs in four varsity seasons at Harbor set

a school and district record (the latter has since been broken), hit .278

(70 for 252) with four homers, 38 RBIs and six stolen bases for the

Rascals last season. The team finished 46-38 and just missed one of the

12-team league’s four playoff berths.

After last season, Urban, a 6-foot, 205-pound first baseman, returned

to Iowa State, where he played as a collegian, to finish up work toward

his degree. He obtained that degree in sociology in December.

Ty Harper, who led CdM to the CIF Division IV championship as a senior

in 1999, is a junior first baseman and designated hitter at Pepperdine.

Harper, whose three-year varsity career at CdM included 132 hits, a

.514 average, 24 homers and 99 RBIs, all district records, was hitting

.336 with the Waves through Saturday. He had started all 38 of the team’s

games after transferring from Alabama. This spring, the 6-2, 210-pounder

has 50 hits, one homer and 28 RBIs.

Harper returns to Orange County Tuesday, when the Waves (19-19, 8-4 in

the West Coast Conference) play at Cal State Fullerton at 7 p.m.

Matt Larson, another member of CdM’s 1999 CIF champion, is a junior

pitcher at Cal State Northridge, where he has made 10 appearances and

five starts. Through Saturday, he was 3-2 with a 4.30 ERA. He had allowed

44 hits and fanned 28 in just fewer than 38 innings and opponents were

hitting .282 against him.

A 6-4, 210-pound transfer from Cypress College, Larson was a

28th-round draft pick by the Baltimore Orioles out of high school.

Larson’s Matadors (25-12, 6-2 in the Big West Conference) are moving

toward what could be a Big West title showdown at Cal State Fullerton,

April 26-28. Northridge hosts UC Irvine May 17-19.

Eric Wiethorn, yet another member of the ’99 CIF title team, is a

junior first baseman and designated hitter at LSU. Through Saturday, he

had started 12 games and played in 23 for the Tigers, hitting .349 (22

for 63) with two homers and 11 RBIs. His .508 slugging percentage was

fourth on the 23-13 team, for which he saw limited action last season

after playing one year at Orange Coast College.

Another member of the 1999 All-Newport-Mesa Dream Team is Mississippi

junior catcher Charlie Waite. The 6-1, 185-pound defensive whiz has

thrown out 23 of 40 runners trying to steal on the Rebels (28-8, 9-5 in

the Southeastern Conference and ranked No. 15 in last week’s Baseball

America poll).

Waite, who celebrates his 21st birthday Thursday, has 22 hits, one

homer and 11 RBIs. He is hitting .214 with a .976 fielding percentage.

Waite earned bragging rights over Wiethorn when the Rebels won 2 of 3

from visiting LSU in late March.

Ryan Lewis, a CdM graduate in 1998, is a senior reliever for Wake

Forest, ranked No. 5 by Baseball America. A 6-1, 185-pound left-hander,

Lewis has helped the Demon Deacons post a 28-6 record, 11-3 in the

Atlantic Coast Conference, through Sunday.

Lewis, who began his collegiate career at Providence, transferred to

Winston Salem after the Friars eliminated baseball following the 1999

season.

Lewis had two saves as a sophomore and four wins as a junior. No 2002

statistics were available Sunday.

Ryan Achterberg, a four-year varsity performer who graduated from CdM

in 1998, is listed as a senior outfielder on the Princeton baseball

team’s Web site. Through Saturday, however, he had not played for the

Tigers.

CdM graduate Mark Hatfield, another key senior on the 1999 CIF

championship team, plans to continue collecting hits on the football

field next fall as a walk-on at Hawaii.

Hatfield sat out last season at Saddleback Community College with a

back injury, but has been medically cleared to return and plans to make a

bid for playing time at linebacker for the Warriors.