USIU Pitcher Puts on Show, Earns a Ride

Jeff Matranga pitched for U.S. International’s baseball team this spring. There were not a lot of rewards in that. USIU finished 16-44, and Matranga characterized the Gulls as some sort of traveling tryout squad. He said the players were more concerned with showcasing themselves, hoping to get picked up on scholarship for next year.

Who can blame them? USIU’s is a condemned program--a victim of budget cuts--and the 1991 season was more of a barnstorming tour than anything else.

As the Gulls were making their second-to-last tour stop Friday at Arizona State, a nice thing happened to Matranga. After the game--a 4-3 ASU victory--Sun Devil Coach Jim Brock walked up to the former Santana High pitcher and offered him a scholarship.

On Sunday, Brock flew to California, knocked on the front door of the Matranga family’s new home in Temecula and signed him to a letter of intent.

“I went from the worst program ever to the best thing in my life,” said Matranga, a junior right-hander who was not recruited out of high school. “Arizona State is that team you look at when you’re in high school and say ‘Wooo.’ I guess timing is everything, and being at the right place at the right time . . . and making the right pitches.”

He was making the right pitches against ASU, but he wasn’t getting any support from his defense. The Gulls committed four errors that resulted in two unearned runs for the Sun Devils. Matranga went all eight innings, striking out eight. He finished the season 6-11 with a 3.70 ERA and 125 strikeouts and 44 walks in 125 innings. Next year, Matranga likely will be penciled in as a starter as he plays his final season in Tempe.

“He pitched very well against all the Pac-10 teams,” USIU Coach George Kachigian said. “They loved him and romanced him. He didn’t know where the hell to go. And I said, ‘If you’re thinking about baseball, grab that offer.’ ”

Twelve USIU players will go elsewhere next year on scholarships. But as Kachigian puts it: “Matranga got the big prize.”

Feeling a draft: Kachigian said he expects three or four of his players to be drafted by big-league clubs in June. Who will be the happiest among them? Left-handed pitcher Mike Whisonant, no doubt. Whisonant’s record was 1-10 with a 4.80 ERA this season. His four-year record is 13-30. The 30 losses is one short of the NCAA record for most losses in a career.

With USIU going so badly, the 6-foot, 185-pound pitcher looked like a shoo-in to at least tie the record when he picked up loss No. 30 in a 10-1 defeat to Cal State Northridge on April 19. The Gulls had 19 games left. But Whisonant didn’t get a decision in his final four starts.

Despite his dubious success ratio, Whisonant has a live arm. He arrived from Albuquerque with no pitching experience and few credentials. One of them, however, was an 85 m.p.h. fastball.

“I remember the first time he pitched, he walked the first three guys,” Kachigian said. “Then he tried to pick the guy off first and threw the ball into right field. All three runners scored.

“He throws the ball pretty well now, and left-handers are at a premium. He’s developed a pretty good slider and improved his control. He won’t go real high, but he’s learned how to pitch. With a decent team behind him, he’ll be all right.”

Aloha, indeed: The shock waves of San Diego State’s improbable championship in the Western Athletic Conference tournament were certainly felt back home. The Aztecs hardly were the toast of the town during the regular season. They lost a game to Division III UC San Diego, they had to rally for four runs in the ninth to defeat Point Loma Nazarene and lost three of four games to USIU.

SDSU’s losses to the Gulls came May 6, May 7 and May 13. They were three of the Aztecs’ final five regular-season games before the tournament, which they opened with a 19-1 loss to Brigham Young.

Kachigian’s observation of the Aztecs: “They weren’t playing well. The hitting wasn’t that well at all, and the pitching was so-so. I really don’t know what happened over there (in Hawaii). All I can say is, God bless them.”

Said Matranga, who pitched the Gulls to a 7-1 victory May 6 over the Aztecs: “I’m really surprised by that. I didn’t think they were that caliber.”

San Diego finish: When former Poway High hurdler Kim Dill broke the Weber State record in the 100-meter high hurdles in a recent meet, she found herself chasing former Orange Glen standout Ada Alger. Alger won the race for Boise State in a photo finish. But Dill, clocking 14.35 seconds, set her second school mark in the hurdles. The other was an 8.23 in the indoor 55 high hurdles. She did both while competing with a thigh injury that has plagued her since February.

Hotline, hot phone: Who says sports aren’t big stuff at little Point Loma Nazarene (enrollment 2,200)? It’s sports information department, tired of fielding phone calls and chasing down scores on a nightly basis, started a sports hotline. No other college in town does it, though maybe they should consider it.

“We’ve had weekends where we’ve had 170-plus calls on that thing,” said Dan Van Ommen, Crusader sports information director. “But before we started the hotline, the guard shack on campus was getting calls. Even the president (of the university) was getting calls.”