Dominguez Hills’ Magic Numbers Are 35 and 1992 : Baseball: After disappointing finish, Wing sets goal of 35 victories for next season’s team.

The scene on May 11 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo won’t be forgotten next season by returning Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball players.

Coach George Wing calls those 18 returnees “the Toros of the future.” They watched Mustang players celebrate a three-game sweep of Toros that clinched a three-way tie for the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship. Dominguez Hills finished fourth at 14-16.

“We watched the opposition in jubilation across the field from us,” Wing said. “Everyone of (our guys) soaked it in. We told our returning players to remember that for next year.”

With an improved bullpen and the acquisition of a couple of power hitters, Dominguez Hills could the team doing the celebrating next season. Six starters, two key utility players and two starting pitchers are expected back from a team that was ranked fifth in the nation when it led the CCAA by a game midway through the season.

Although Dominguez Hills lost nine of its last 11 conference games, the Toros (27-23-1 overall) finished above .500 for the first time since 1987 when the team was coached by Andy Lopez, who is now the coach at Pepperdine.

Dominguez Hills has improved every season under Wing, who had little time to recruit when hired in July of 1988.

Lopez’s final season was an injury-riddled disaster that saw the Toros fall to 19-30. When Lopez went to Pepperdine in June of 1988, Toro Athletic Director Dan Guerrero hired Wing from Cosumnes River College, a community college in Sacramento.

But Wing didn’t start working at the job until August and had missed much of the recruiting season. He scraped together a team of returning players and walk-ons and finished 16-29-1.

In 1990 Dominguez Hills was 22-24-2 overall and 14-16 in CCAA play. The fifth-place CCAA finish was the Toros’ best conference record in four seasons.

Wing has lofty goals for 1992, when the team will play a 56-game schedule.

“I have set a number of 35 wins,” he said. “With the nucleus we have coming back, and the leadership they had (from the seniors) I think that’s realistic.”

The Toros lose first baseman Darrell Connor and third baseman Cory Windes, but Wing expects other players to step into the leadership role, most notably, center fielder John Otte.

“We are looking at Johnny to fill that role for us next year,” Wing said. “If he is capable of doing something like the same thing that Darrell did, than, who knows.”

Connor needed to drive in four runs in the series against San Luis Obispo to set a school record for runs batted in for a season, but he was slowed because of a thumb injury and he drove in only one run. He finished with a .386 batting average and 58 RBIs and shared the CCAA most-valuable-player award with Cal Poly Pomona outfielder Ramiro Garcia.

Wing is also looking for another catcher and at least one starting pitcher to replace senior Vince Aguilar (4-4), who pitched the first perfect game in Toro history against Chapman College on April 13.

But if right-hander Mark Tranberg, who finished with an 11-3 record and 103 strikeouts, decides to forgo his senior year and sign with a major league club, Wing will need two pitchers.

Wing has already signed two players and has unwritten commitments from eight more. Seven of the new players are from high schools, keeping with his philosophy of building a team around young players rather than community college transfers.

Although Toro Field is not conducive to hitting home runs, Wing is searching for a couple of power hitters. Left-handed power hitters have been particularly difficult to recruit because winds at Toro Field often blow in from right field.

“We only play one half of our games at home,” Wing said. “If we get a left-handed guy he can learn to hit the other way. We teach the inside out game here.”

CCAA Standings

Team Overall CCAA W L T W L UC Riverside 32 23 1 18 12 Cal Poly SLO 26 21 0 18 12 Cal Poly Pomona 27 26 0 18 12 CS Dominguez Hills 27 23 1 14 16 CS Los Angeles 21 34 0 12 18 Chapman 15 36 2 10 20