Succeeding at First

NORTHRIDGE —  In his first season as a head baseball coach at any level, Mike Batesole collects victories the way he scoops balls into a bucket during batting practice--quickly and without fanfare.

His understated, unhurried manner has produced breathlessly rapid results.

Only one major college baseball team has won more often than

Batesole’s Cal State Northridge Matadors (49-16), who open play in the NCAA Division I West Regional tonight against Stanford.

And there is no end in sight for a coach who at age 32 is among the youngest in the nation.

“I see him doing this forever,” said Susie Batesole, his wife of 10 years and sweetheart since junior high. “If he didn’t have us to come home to, he’d sleep in the clubhouse.”

The Batesoles have four children, ages 7 years to 3 months. Again, no end in sight.

“Susie is from a family of 10 kids and she likes having them around, so I’ll give her as many as she wants,” he said.

Funny who becomes the budding leader and fledgling patriarch, too far into it to turn back. Batesole is not loud, fiery or particularly charismatic. As a player, nobody called him a coach on the field. He was a slugging third baseman with a slow walk, soft talk, big stick.

“He has the poker face and poker demeanor, but his mind is going a mile a minute and his fires run deep,” said Mike Mayne, former Orange Coast College coach and a friend of Batesole’s for 17 years.

Batesole soaked up all he could from a succession of top coaches, first at Garden Grove High, then for one summer at Orange Coast, for three years at Oral Roberts, during a stint with Team USA, and for three seasons in the Dodgers’ farm system.

“I don’t think he ever saw anything outside of baseball,” Susie said.

More than once, he and a few Garden Grove teammates--including good pal Lenny Dykstra--sneaked into Anaheim Stadium when the Angels were on the road and hit until their hands bled. On Easter Sunday, 1981, police helicopters zeroed in and busted them.

“The desk sergeant that night had been my brother’s Colt League coach, so he just sent us home,” Batesole said.

Batesole’s brother, Bob, and father, Gary, spent summers hitting at the elementary school across the street from their home. From the time Mike was 15, they spent summer evenings hitting at Orange Coast, where Mayne was only too glad to keep the wheels turning on the pitching machine.

“The Batesole boys were talented, very talented, so I had an ulterior motive,” Mayne said.

Too talented for Orange Coast, it turned out. Despite developing a lasting friendship with Mayne, Bob went to USC as a middle infielder and Mike earned a scholarship to Oral Roberts in 1982 after playing on the Orange Coast summer team.

Batesole toured with Team USA after his sophomore season and a year later signed with the Dodgers after being drafted in the 14th round. He left Oral Roberts as the school’s career leader in home runs.

Three operations on his arm and one on his knee prompted the Dodgers to release him in 1988. He phoned Mayne, who suggested he get his degree and offered him a job as Orange Coast’s batting coach.

Batesole had a new purpose, one that could last the rest of his life. He enrolled at Cal State Fullerton and by 1992 earned a master’s degree in kinesiology.

Batesole was an assistant at Cypress College in 1993 and Mayne helped him gain his big break the next year by recommending him to Bill Kernen, the Northridge coach and a former Mayne assistant.

For two seasons Batesole was Kernen’s only paid assistant, and his responsibilities increased to the point that when Kernen resigned to pursue a career as a playwright, Batesole was ready to take over.

“I thought a lot about all the coaches I’d had and realized that I’m a collection of all those influences,” he said.

Besides Mayne and Kernen, Batesole reflected on his time spent under Dan Drake at Garden Grove, Jim Brewer and Pat Harrison at Oral Roberts, and Kevin Kennedy in the minor leagues.

“There are so many things those coaches said that woke me up,” he said. “They were all willing to take their time, instead of going fishing, to help me do things.”

When this season began, Batesole looked into opposing dugouts for more sage sources. Four of his rivals in the Western Athletic Conference--Fresno State’s Bob Bennett, San Diego State’s Jim Dietz, Hawaii’s Les Murakami and Sacramento State’s Jim Smith--have combined coaching experience of nearly 100 years.

“I’ve learned a lot in the last nine months from the guys I’ve coached against,” Batesole said. “I’m a lot behind those guys.”

But his team finished ahead of them all, something totally unexpected. Coming off two losing seasons and unranked in preseason polls, Northridge won the conference title.

The Matadors are ranked No. 10 in the nation by Baseball America.

“Coach Batesole is intense but he allows us to play loose,” said third baseman Eric Gillespie. “He played pro and college ball recently, so he knows what works and what doesn’t. He doesn’t get in your face. He works with you rather than chew you out.”

There was enough chewing out during fall practice when Batesole and assistants Dan Cowgill and Chris Stevens forced the team to make a full commitment.

“I was as tough as I could be without breaking them,” Batesole said. “As the season goes on, I back off. If I’ve done my job correctly, they’ll handle the job once ballgames start.”

The cornerstones of Batesole’s approach are respect and trust. He respects the players for their commitment and trusts them to carry out his plan.

“I coach as much as I can in practice, then on game day I trust them to use their instincts and feel themselves through the game,” he said. “They are the ones doing it. Mike Batesole hasn’t won a single game.”

Paul Bubb, Northridge athletic director, doesn’t necessarily see it that way, a plus for Batesole, who is an interim coach.

Bubb will decide whether to hire him on a permanent basis after taking applications for two weeks once the season ends.

“I don’t see how he could have done a better job,” Bubb said. “Mike’s shown great maturity and he has grown in the job. He’s recruited well and the players like him.”

Nevertheless, Bubb has not told Batesole that the job is his, leaving the coach to explore his options. Batesole said he has applied for several openings at four-year and junior colleges.

“I’ve put my heart and soul into this program for three years and I would really like to build something here like I see at Fresno State and other established programs, but we’ve got to wait and see,” Batesole said.

“It’s getting to the point with my family that I’ve got to have some job security.”

Those thoughts are momentary distractions from Batesole’s primary focus--getting the Matadors to the College World Series.

Along the way his continues unabated. And as he learns, so do his players.

“I think he wants us to leave this program knowing everything he knows,” Gillespie said. “He hasn’t stopped learning, so I guess that means we haven’t either.”