COLLEGES:Budget brushback for UCI

Though the UC Irvine baseball program will soon unveil its $2.4 million Newkirk Pavilion, a 6,500-square-foot facility that includes a clubhouse, coaches’ offices and other amenities, budget cuts will create a negative effect on the Anteaters’ 2007 season.

Coach Dave Serrano’s schedule is obviously lacking any marquee baseball powers outside of the typical West Coast foes that annually dot the slate of all Southern California programs.

Serrano said he would have loved to have ventured to a Southeastern Conference, Big 12, or Atlantic Coast Conference opponent for a road series, but budget constraints simply wouldn’t allow it.

The result: Though UCI’s schedule was ranked No. 12 in the nation by Boyd’s World, a website that rates such things, it was No. 8 among the eight Big West programs.

The cutbacks also left members of the community, or players’ families, to have to come up with the cost of the player lockers in the new clubhouse, a bill of $800 per locker.

Serrano said most of the families came through — some likely at no small hardship — while another booster, Gene Crain, wrote a check for the construction of the remainder of the lockers.

Boosters also contributed $4,000 needed to fund radio broadcasts of road games, including broadcaster travel expenses, which had been cut from the budget.

Funding for the travel expenses of a sports information employee has been cut. So, for the first time since baseball resumed at UCI in 2002, information on road games provided to UCI media outlets, like the Daily Pilot, will have to come from the sports information personnel of the opposing schools.

Serrano said boosters also came through with $37,000 to help pay for furnishings for Newkirk Pavilion, named for Jim Newkirk, who spearheaded the funding. Included in that sum was three plasma screen TVs.

NCAA scheduling changes that will restrict West Coast teams from playing more games than programs in regions with a less favorable climate, will increase the financial gap between West Coast schools, particularly those without eight-figure revenue producing sports like (SEC, Big 12 and ACC football and basketball).

This could make it more and more difficult for schools like Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton and UCI to compete annually with baseball programs in power conferences.

And there appears to be no magic elixir in sight.

After playing host to Princeton tonight at Crawford Court, Coach John Speraw’s Anteaters, ranked No. 1 all season until suffering their first loss Saturday against visiting Pepperdine, will visit BYU for back-to-back Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches Friday and Saturday night.

Coach Russ Davis said a decline in Schmidt’s scoring and rebounding numbers the first half of this season (she is averaging 15.2 points and 6.1 rebounds, compared to 20.7 points and 7.3 last season) was merely a byproduct of her willingness to take fewer shots in the name of offensive balance.

Schmidt, a 6-foot forward, had 21 points and 13 rebounds in Saturday’s 92-45 win over visiting Fresno Pacific. She posted 20 points, making all seven field-goal attempts, and had 10 rebounds in Thursday’s 96-40 thrashing of Hope International.

Should Richter follow through and win, she would be the third Vanguard player in the last three years to earn the nation’s top individual accolade.

Lisa Faulkner, now a Vanguard assistant coach, was NAIA Player of the Year for the 2004-05 season.

Among those already committed to Vanguard are Sarah Boyd, the latest point guard at Oregon City High in Oregon (Faulkner and current point guard Tiari Goold both played there, as did Richter), and Ally Lomax, whose father Neil Lomax is a former NFL quarterback.

UCI Coach Dave Serrano said Stowell would likely have filled a rotation spot this season, so he should be an impact performer next season as a sophomore.