Local products help teams reach NCAA postseason

BARRY FAULKNER

While the UC Irvine baseball team missed its chance to finish in the

top three in the Big West Conference, making it a longshot to reach

postseason play, a pair of Costa Mesa High products were helping

their teams navigate NCAA regional playoff contests in baseball and

softball over the weekend.

Ann Marie Topps, a freshman at Oregon, helped the Ducks reach the

championship game of the NCAA No. 4 softball regional Sunday at

Tallahasse, Fla. The Ducks, however, lost, 2-0, to host Florida State

to fall short in their bid to reach the Women’s College World Series

for the first time since 1989.

Topps, the Newport-Mesa Player of the Year last year at Costa

Mesa, went 2 for 2 and drove in the game’s only run in a 1-0

regional-opening win over Bethune-Cookman Thursday. Her RBI single

opened the scoring in the second inning and she later added a double.

Topps, used as a designated hitter and designated player in four

of the Ducks’ six games in the regional, went 2 for 9.

Oregon defeated FSU, 1-0, early Sunday to force a second

championship game in the double-elimination tournament. That victory

ended the Seminoles’ 27-game home winning streak.

Topps entered the postseason with four home runs and 12 RBIs for

the Ducks, who finished 42-21 after Sunday’s action. Topps had 19

hits in 48 regular-season games to post a .224 batting average.

Oregon finished the regular season ranked No. 22 in the nation.

*

Al Lambert, another former Mustang, saw his Chapman University

baseball team eliminated Saturday in the NCAA Division III West

regional at Hart Park in Orange.

Lambert, a 6-foot-2 senior right-handed pitcher, finished his

final collegiate campaign 1-1 with a 2.40 ERA. He pitched 15 innings,

yielding 16 hits and four walks, while striking out six. He made four

appearances, including two starts.

Lambert, who also played at Orange Coast College, where he was a

team captain in 2002, was 2-0 with one save and a 1.45 ERA at Chapman

in 2003, when the Panthers won the NCAA Division III title.

He pitched in 11 games that season, including two starts, and was

the winning pitcher in the regional-opening victory over St. Norbert

of Minnesota.

*

Athena Vasquez, a 2003 graduate of Newport Harbor High, was named

Defensive Player of the Year at the recent Wisconsin University

softball banquet.

Vasquez, a All-Newport-Mesa Dream Team performer as a shortstop in

high school, started all 57 games at third base for the Badgers.

She finished with 185 assists, believed to be tops among Division

I third basemen during the regular season.

Vasquez had two home runs and 17 RBIs and scored 21 runs for the

Big Ten program, which finished 29-28, 6-14 in conference. One of her

home runs was the game-winner in a March 28 triumph over Iowa in the

Hawkeye Classic.

She collected 33 hits and was successful on both of her

stolen-base attempts, while posting a .190 batting average.

*

Yet another area product earned honors for her defensive duty on

the softball diamond.

Lisa Huntington, who starred at Newport Harbor High, was recently

named the team’s Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight

season at Army.

Huntington, a junior a first baseman who garnered Patriot League

All-Star recognition for a third straight season, was the only Black

Knight to play in all 49 games this spring.

She made just one error in 189 chances in Patriot League play,

good for a .995 fielding percentage, and finished with a .252 batting

average with four homers and 13 RBIs.

Army began the season 3-11, but won 20 of its final 26 and

finished 27-22, after falling to Lehigh, 3-1, in 11 innings, in the

Patriot League tournament title game May 2 at West Point.

*

Injuries, which plagued the UC Irvine baseball team during a

disappointing 21-35 season in 2003, have had a lot to do with the

team’s inability to crack the top three in the Big West Conference

standings this spring.

With junior first baseman-designated hitter Jaime Martinez the

latest casualty, missing last week after aggravating a back problem

that sidelined him for all but a handful of at-bats last spring, UCI

Coach John Savage has been forced to insert replacements at several

positions.

Sophomore outfielder Erik Johnson sprained his wrist while trying

to make a diving catch in the outfield April 13 at the University of

San Diego and Savage said Friday that he would not play again this

season.

Johnson, who has missed the last 22 games, had four home runs and

31 RBIs when he went down. His RBI total still ranks third on the

team behind the 39 posted by both Matt Anderson and Matt Fisher. And

his four dingers have been topped only by Anderson and Martinez, who

both have six.

Junior catcher Jeff Werhun sustained a facial fracture when he

fouled a pitch off his face while batting in the April 24 game

against the University of the Pacific.

He has not returned, leaving sophomore Mark Wagner to catch every

inning since. While Wagner has been a consistent offensive catalyst,

the fatigue created by such a workload likely factored into the

passed ball that produced the only run in Saturday’s loss to UC

Riverside.