The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 53

EosAnrjeteaSfttneo Sunday, April 23, 1989 Part III 1 9 SOUTH BAY SPORTS DEVILS with a .505 batting average and 46 RBIs at Torrance High, then moved on to Harbor, where he earned all -state honors and set school records for hits and RBIs. At Arizona State, he's been phenomenal. A line-drive hitter with fence-clearing power, Higgins hit 10 home runs last year en route to being named a first-team Ail-American by Baseball America magazine. He was Arizona State's first All-American at second base since Bob Horner (1978). "Kevin has the knowledge of the game of baseball of a guy who has played in the big leagues for 10 or 15 years," Brock said.

"He's got an incredible baseball mind." Brock said Higgins and shortstop Anthony Manahan turn the double play as well as any college infield combination in the nation. Higgins' infield skills have earned him plenty of attention from professional scouts he was drafted in 1986 by the Detroit Tigers and almost passed up his senior year at Arizona State to sign with Tigers' scout Rick Arnold. He's likely to be drafted again in the upcoming June draft, and he'll probably go high. "I'm not worrying about that," Higgins said. "I'll just spill my guts 110 on the field and let the scouts worry about where I get drafted.

Whether I'm picked first or 800th, I've still got to go to the same place to make it to the major leagues." The 5-11, 170-pound senior admitted, however, that he put a little too much pressure on himself at the beginning of the season. "I was trying to do too much," Higgins said. "We've got a young team. I was trying to carry the load a little too much." He picked a good time to get hot. Two weeks ago he dismantled Stanford, last year's College World Series champions, with a 5-for-5 performance on national television, and has raised his Pac-10 batting average to .344.

Brock said he doesn't doubt that Higgins and Rutherford will get married on the baseball field. "He probably will do that," he said. "He like Kevin, so I asked him what was wrong. "He told me he was down because it was gonna be two months before we'd get to play again." Higgins loves to play the game of baseball. Sometimes to the extreme.

Higgins recently proposed to Debbie Rutherford his girlfriend of seven years in between games at the Riverside Baseball Invitational. He popped the question after Arizona State beat Oregon State, 4-2, to advance to the final against Brigham Young. "It was no surprise to her or anybody else," Higgins said. "Baseball's been my entire life, and for seven years part of hers, so sometimes we joke that we're going to get married on the baseball field. She's probably sat through more baseball games than any female alive." Higgins loves the game so much that he moved with his father to Torrance from his native Idaho so that he could hone his baseball skills in California the hotbed of prep talent.

He set school records is absolutely so crazy about playing the game of baseball." Higgins already has plans for his baseball future. He and his fiancee will get married in September; then they'll move to Boise, where the entire Higgins clan is building houses on an improved lot. "It's nice and open there," he said. "It's not as congested as the South Bay. In Idaho, you can just walk 100 yards with your fishing pole and pull a trout out of the Boise River.

You can just walk up the mountain and go pheasant hunting, or skiing. It's country." Higgins once went with Alexander to a country-Western bar in Tempe called Denim Diamonds, but the relief pitcher didn't like it much. But then again, Higgins conceded that there were times during his four-year stay in California when he wasn't quite in step with the rest of the South Bay. "I listen to country music," Higgins said. "I wear boots, a belt with a big buckle, and a hat.

It's tough to do that in Southern California. You'd take a lot of ribbing." hard-throwing mold that most pro scouts look for. "Undoubtedly, he'll get drafted and go into Class-A ball as a short reliever," Brock said. "But he'll face the same battle as he faced with us as far as proving himself." Brock once said the same sort of thing about Alvin Davis, who was a slow-footed first baseman at Arizona State, but is now a power-hitting star with the Seattle Mariners. "I said that Alvin isn't really a good first baseman, that he has no power, and that he can't run," Brock said.

"So how do you ever know?" It never was any problem to get Kevin Higgins onto the field at Arizona State. The problem sometimes is finding a way to get him off the field. Brock remembered one day last fall, after the tournament victory over Arizona, when Higgins came into his office. "He had a real down look on his face," he said. "He looked really upset, and that's not SOUTH BAY CALENDAR OF EVENTS Tin TT Items for Calendar of Events may be mailed to 23133 Hawthorne Suite 200.

Torrance. 90505. Please address the outside of envelopes with ATTENTION: Sports Calendar. Publicity notices must contain time, day, date, place, name of sponsoring organization, if an admission fee will be charged and a telephone number where someone can be reached for additional information. Continued from Page 18 it's up to me to get us out of a jam," Alexander said.

"I like to try to get us in there so we can score runs." Alexander's fastball is in the range of 82-83 miles per hour, but his best pitch is his hard slider. Alexander throws it as hard as his fastball, and he's used it to strike out 44 batters in 54 innings this year. "He's been just like a dream," Brock said. "You always hope that every couple of years you'll get a walk-on that contributes somehow. But Dave has been something very rare.

Especially the extent of his success." Alexander has made a believer of his coach. Brock, in 17 years at Arizona State, has seen 125 of his former players go on to professional baseball 39 of them to the major leagues. He thinks Alexander can go the way of the others, even though he's not 6-4 or cast in the PREPS Continued from Page 18 In his sixth year as coach, he has built a winning program at a school primarily known for its losers. The football team has lost 22 consecutive games dating back to the 1986 season, and the basketball team has been a league doormat for several years. McQueen said the track program wasn't much better when he took over, but he's been able to turn things around with enthusiasm and conveying the power of positive thinking to his athletes.

"I'm so tired of Narbonne being associated with losing," he said. "I take a lot of pride in the track team, but sometimes I almost have to play cheerleader. When I took over at Narbonne the kids were so used to losing, when we won they thought it was a fluke. We were working with such a mental block at first. "I love my kids, but I push them to death.

They know they're either going to win or go down fighting. I don't accept complacency." McQueen said he learned his hard-nosed tactics as an assistant coach under Fred Petersen at West Torrance High. "He taught me how to win and what it takes," he said. "My first year at Narbonne, I told everyone: 'Hey, we're going to I projected that kind of attitude. If you expect that out of people, they will come through." McQueen said the football and basketball programs suffer because Narbonne loses many of its best athletes in those sports to Carson and Banning.

"It's tough to go against teams with bigger people and more talent," he said. "It's funny, but in track we can hang with any of them. But if we keep losing athletes, it's eventually going to kill the track team, too." The track season has been a welcome relief for two of McQueen's assistant coaches. Weight coach Lynn Hughes was the coach of the winless football team, and jump coach Bob Hoppes headed the basketball team. Mary Star took a big step toward 11 PREP BASEBALL (All games at 3 p.m.

unless otherwise indicated): St. Paul vs. Bishop Montgomery at Torrance Park. 6:30 p.m.. West Torrance at Centennial, Redondo at Morning-side.

North Torrance at Culver City. Verbum Dei at St. Bernard, 3:45 p.m., Bosco Tech at El Segundo. 7 p.m., Pius at Serra, 3:45 p.m. PREP SOFTBALL (All games at 2:30 p.m.

unless otherwise indicated): Carson vs. Banning at Dolphin Park. Carson: Narbonne at San Pedro, Gardena at Washington. PREP VOLLEYBALL Boys (All games at 2:30 p.m. unless otherwise indicated): University at Westchester, Banning at Gardena.

Dorsey at Narbonne. San Pedro at Carson. THURSDAY: AUTO RACING USAC Jolly Rancher Western States Series: Midgets (ESPN Thunder Series), and USAC T-Q midgets, at Ascot Park, Gardena, 5:30 p.m. COLLEGE BASEBALL Chapman College at Cal State Dominguez Hills, 3 p.m. COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL Men Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.

Regional Selection Tournament: First round matches, at Loyola Marymount, 6 and 8 p.m. CC BASEBALL Los Angeles City at Harbor, 2:30 p.m. MOTORCYCLE RACING American Motorcycle Speedway, at Ascot South Bay Stadium, 8 p.m. PREP BASEBALL Southern Section (All games at 3 p.m. unless otherwise indicated): Santa Monica at Rolling Hills, Torrance at Leuzinger, Hawthorne at Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes at Inglewood.

City Section (All games at 3 p.m. unless otherwise indicated): Narbonne at Banning, Carson at Washington. Gardena at Crenshaw, San Pedro vs. Dorsey at Rancho Cienega Playground. 2:30 p.m..

Westchester at Hamilton. PREP SOFTBALL Rolling Hills at Inglewood, 3 p.m. PREP SWIMMING Rolling Hills at Muir. 3:15 p.m. PREP TRACK AND FIELD Rolling Hills and Inglewood at Palos Verdes, 2:30 p.m.

PREP VOLLEYBALL Boys: Mira Costa at Redondo. 7:30 p.m.. Santa Monica at Rolling Hills. 3 p.m. FRIDAY: COLLEGE BASEBALL Santa Clara University at Loyola Marymount.

2:30 p.m., Cal State Dominguez Hills at Chapman College, 3 p.m. COLLEGE SOFTBALL UC San Diego at Loyola Marymount (doubleheader), 1 p.m. CC BASEBALL Harbor at Los Angeles City, 2:30 p.m. CC SOFTBALL Long Beach City at El Camino, 3 p.m. MOTORCYCLE RACING CMC: Moto- TODAY: AUTO RACING Curb Motorsports NASCAR Winston Racing Series: Pro stocks, bomber, figure 8, oval and hobby stocks, at Ascot Park, Gardena.

6 p.m. COLLEGE BASEBALL Nevada Reno at Loyola Marymount, 1 p.m. SOCCER Greater Los Angeles Soccer League: Chivas vs. San Pedro Croat, 11 a.m.. Los Angeles Cosmos vs.

FAS Pilsener. 1 p.m.; Los Angeles Guanajuato vs. San Pedro Yugoslavs, 3 p.m., at Daniels Field, San Pedro. Western Soccer League: Los Angeles Heat vs. San Diego Nomads at San Diego Balboa Stadium.

7:30 p.m. MONDAY: PREP SOFTBALL (All games at 2:30 p.m. unless otherwise indicated): Narbonne vs. Banning at Dolphin Park, Carson: San Pedro at Carson. Gardena at Crenshaw, Westchester at Palisades.

PREP SWIMMING Carson at Banning. 2:30 p.m. San Pedro at Venice, 2:30 p.m. PREP VOLLEYBALL Boys (All games at 2:30 p.m. unless otherwise indicated): Westchester at Palisades, Banning at Narbonne.

Gardena at San Pedro, Carson at Dorsey. TUESDAY: COLLEGE BASEBALL Cal State Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount, 2:30 p.m.. Cal State Dominguez Hills at UC Riverside. 7:30 p.m. COLLEGE SOFTBALL UC Riverside at Loyola Marymount (doubleheader).

1:30 p.m., Cal State Dominguez Hills at Cal State San Bernardino (doubleheader), 2 p.m. CC BASEBALL East Los Angeles at Harbor, 2:30 p.m.. El Camino at Pasadena. 2:30 p.m. PREP BASEBALL Southern Section (All games at 3 p.m.

unless otherwise indicated): Rolling Hills at Santa Monica. Leuzinger at Torrance, Beverly Hills at Hawthorne, Inglewood at Palos Verdes, Mira Costa at South Torrance. Miraleste at Murphy, Coast Christian at Ribet Christian. Flintridge Prep at Chadwick School, Clearview at South Bay Lutheran. City Section (All games at 3 p.m.

unless otherwise indicated): Banning at Narbonne, Washington at Carson. Crenshaw at Gardena. Dorsey at San Pedro, Hamilton at Westchester. PREP SOFTBALL Leuzinger at Rolling Hills, 3 p.m. PREP TENNIS Boys: Santa Monica at Rolling Hills.

2:30 p.m. PREP VOLLEYBALL Boys: Culver City at Mira Costa, 3 Rolling Hills at Hawthorne, 3 p.m. WEDNESDAY: CC SOFTBALL- 3 p.m. -Pasadena at El Camino, Narbonne's Jonathan DeVeaux Friday with Banning. He also won the Santa Fe League baseball title Friday with a dramatic 6-3 victory over Miraleste at Fromhold Field in San Pedro.

George Pisano capped a five -run rally in the seventh inning by hitting a two-out grand slam to left-center field, sending the Stars (13-5 overall, 5-0 in league play) to their 10th consecutive victory. Until the seventh, however, it was a frustrating day for Mary Star. The Stars trailed 3-1 and had stranded six runners. The first two batters reached base in both the first and fourth innings, but the Stars failed to score each time. "We have a saying: 'Good things are going to said Mary Star Coach Frank Ponce De Leon.

"We believe that, and it happened." Perhaps the best thing that happened to Mary Star, aside from Pisano's homer, was Miguel Galaz's bad-hop single with one out in the seventh. The grounder was headed for Miraleste shortstop Scott Lai when it suddenly shot into the air and sailed well over Lai's head into left field. Three batters later, Pisano hammered a fastball from Mirlaste right-hander Jason Mavar over the fence. "Mary Star had a little bit of DEBORA GOODIER Loa Angeles Times won the 400 meters in meet the 100 meters and 440 relay. help, but give them credit," Miraleste Coach Ken Russell said.

"We didn't give it away. We got beat." II was the second straight loss for the Marauders, who fell two games off the pace in the league at 4-2 and dropped to 11-7 overall. "We'll find out what we're made of now," Russell said. "Realistically we had a shot at first place, but now it's out of our hands." Mary Star has not won a league title since 1985 and last won the Santa Fe League crown in 1979, when Ponce De Leon played catcher for the Stars. Mary Star resumes league play with two games at Fromhold Field this week, facing Pater Noster in a make-up game Wednesday and Cantwell on Friday.

North Torrance's baseball team continued its comeback Friday by routing Morningside, 14-0, for its sixth consecutive win. Third baseman John Clem drove in three runs for the second straight game as the Saxons pulled into a second-place tie with Mira Costa in the Ocean League at 5-3 and improved to 9-8-1 overall. North meets first-place Culver City on Wednesday and Redondo on Friday night. cross. at Ascot Park.

Gardena. 7:30 p.m. PREP BASEBALL (All games at 3 m. unless otherwise indicated): Culver City at South Torrance, North Torrance at Redondo, Centennial at Mira Costa, Morningside at West Torrance, Verbum Dei at El Segundo, 7:30 p.m., Serra vs. St.

Monica at Marine Park, 7:30 p.m., Miraleste at Salesian. Cantwell at Mary Star, Webb at Chadwick School. Grace Community at South Bay Lutheran. SATURDAY: AUTO RACING Parnelli Jones Firestone CRA Series: Sprint cars. 40-lap main event, at Ascot Park.

Gardena. 8 p.m. COLLEGE BASEBALL Santa Clara University at Loyola Marymount (doubleheader), noon. Chapman College at Cal State Dominguez Hills. 1 p.m.

COLLEGE SOFTBALL Loyola Marymount at Cal Lutheran (doubleheader), noon. COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL Men Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. Regional Selection Tournament: Championship match, at Loyola Marymount. 7:30 p.m. CC BASEBALL Mt.

San Antonio at El Camino. 1 p.m. PREP BASEBALL (All games at 1 1 a.m. unless otherwise indicated): Bishop Montgomery vs. St.

Paul at Lake Center Park, 6:30 p.m., Pius at St. Bernard. Palos Verdes Redondo Tournament: Championship game, pairing to be determined, at Redondo High School, 7 p.m. PREP VOLLEYBALL Boys: Redondo Mira Costa Classic, at Mira Costa and Redondo High Schools, all day. 1086 till SBINZ 6 To Chcose 86-'88 AS LOW AS STILL UNDER BALANCE OF FACTORY WARRANTY.

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