SportsScope : Wave Hurlers to Face Strong Sooner Bats in NCAA Opener

Pepperdine’s good pitching will be tested by the strong hitting of Oklahoma when the teams meet Friday at 9 p.m. in an opening game of the NCAA West II Regional tournament at Arizona State. In Friday’s other game in Tempe, top-seeded Arizona State (52-10), the Pacific 10 Conference champion, will meet No. 6 Evansville at 6 p.m.

No. 5 Pepperdine (34-22-1), the West Coast Athletic Conference titlist, making its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA, will send either senior left-hander Doug Simons or freshman right-hander Dennis Burbank to the mound against No. 2 Oklahoma (45-19), which finished second to Oklahoma State in the Big Eight Conference.

Simons finished the regular season with a 9-2 overall record and an earned run average of 2.53. Burbank, who picked up the team after finishing the basketball season with the Waves, was 10-1, with a 3.19 ERA.

Oklahoma, with a team batting average of .310, is led by right fielder Chris Ebright, batting .408 with 18 home runs, 16 doubles and 87 runs batted in. Other top hitters for the Sooners are center fielder Todd Butler (.351, 5 home runs, 15 doubles, 55 RBIs) and shortstop Mark Cole (.347, 6 home runs, 13 doubles, 54 RBIs). Butler has also stolen 46 bases in 50 attempts, and Cole has 27 stolen bases in 29 attempts.

Top hitters for the Waves are sophomore shortstop Chris Martin (.324, 2 home runs, 10 doubles, 21 RBIs), junior center fielder Rick Hirtensteiner (.324, 2 home runs, 16 doubles, 41 RBIs) and junior first baseman Scott Shockey (.320, 9 home runs, 15 doubles, 52 RBIs).

Simons was named the WCAC’s pitcher of the year and Burbank, the conference’s outstanding freshman. Hirtensteiner and Shockey made the all-conference team for the second straight year.

All of Pepperdine’s playoff games will be broadcast on KWNK (670 AM), and Tim Wilhelm, the school’s associate athletic director, will do the play-by-play.

If the Waves defeat Oklahoma, they will not play again until Saturday, and their opponent will be one of the teams from the losers’ bracket. If Pepperdine loses its opener, it will play Friday at 9 p.m. against the loser of the ASU-Evansville game.

The other teams in the regional, No. 3 Central Michigan (37-14) and No. 4 Nevada Las Vegas (39-20), will open against each other at 9 p.m. Friday.

The CIF-Southern Section 5-A tennis playoffs have proceeded exactly according to form.

In today’s semifinals, top-seeded Beverly Hills (18-0) will play host to No. 4 Corona del Mar at 3 p.m., and No. 2 Santa Barbara (21-1) will entertain No. 3 Newport Harbor (21-1) at 3:15 p.m. The finals will be Wednesday at a site to be determined.

The top singles players for Beverly Hills Coach Jason Newman are Michael Roberts, Kent Seton and Lev Shvarts. Doubles teams for the Normans are Danny Rubins-Danny Roberts, Billy Wright-Bob Barvarian and Michael Klein-Thomas Bao.

Ten members of the UCLA women’s track team, which won its second straight Pac-10 Conference championship last week, have qualified for the NCAA meet, June 1-4 at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The Bruins have two more meets before the nationals to add more qualifiers.

Qualifiers and their events are:

Gail Devers (100 and 200 meters, 100 hurdles, long jump, 400 and 1,600 relays), Janeene Vickers (400, 400 hurdles, both relays), Laura Chapel (1,500), Tonya Sedwick (long jump, 400 relay), Caryl Smith (400 relay), Monica Phillips (both relays), Sara Parros (both relays), Choo Choo Knighten (1,600 relay), Kris Larson (discus) and Tracie Millett (discus).