Sounding Off:

What county produces the most baseball talent in the United States?

One would be hard-pressed to find a more talent-laden community than our Orange County.

Year after year, Orange County sends more baseball players to Division I schools than any area of America. For the first time since 1967, UCLA last week was ranked No. 1 one by Baseball America after a fabulous 25-3 start. Thirteen players on the Bruins roster hail from the county.

Coach John Savage has done an excellent job recruiting the region, snaring All-American Gerrit Cole out of Orange Lutheran, who’s off to a 6-1 start and a 2.98 earned run average in his sophomore season. Sophomore closer Dan Klein, out of Servite, has been brilliant with a 2-0 record and a 0.36 ERA. Mater Dei’s Tyler Rahmatulla is hitting .383 with four home runs as a sophomore outfielder.

The Bruins lost two of three this weekend to Oregon to fall to 27-5 and likely will be knocked out of the top spot by red-hot Arizona State.

The Sun Devils swept USC this weekend to push their record to 31-3. USC might want to recruit throughout Orange County a little more aggressively as they have only six players from the county and Chad Kreuter’s Trojans are under .500 this year. There are 30 players from Orange County high schools on Pac-10 rosters this season.

Orange County’s two Division I programs, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, are filled with baseball players from O.C.

The Anteaters have 15 players from the county, while the Titans have six. Both schools have been ranked in the top 25 this season. There are 41 players from Orange County high schools on Big West Conference rosters this year.

I don’t know of another county in America that can boast the baseball excellence of O.C.

Phiz notes

 Southern California will be well represented in the NBA playoff matchup that is of interest to most area fans: the Lakers vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers have two players from Southern California in Jordan Farmar from Taft High School and UCLA, and Luke Walton from San Diego.

The Thunder has Russell Westbrook, out of Leuzinger High School and UCLA, and James Harden, out of Artesia High School in Lakewood. Westbrook had a breakout year this season, averaging 16.1 points and 8.0 assists to become one of the best young point guards in the NBA.

The most interesting Orange County note is Thunder Coach Scott Brooks, who had a memorable two years at UCI. Brooks still holds the Anteater school record for free throw percentage in a single season at 88.6% and for a career at 85.9%. I still remember Brooks’ sensational game in 1987 when he scored 43 points on a January night against Utah State, including a school-record 29 in one half.

The 44-year-old Brooks should have a great future with an extremely young and talented Oklahoma City team.

 USC and UCLA are in the middle of spring football and if the early practices are any indication, both should boast high-powered offenses come September. The Trojans’ Matt Barkley could be one of the top five quarterbacks in college football this year. Barkley’s five-touchdown, no-interception game in Saturday’s scrimmage was a glimpse of his potential. Throwing to the likes of Ronald Johnson, Kyle Prater and Brice Butler will only raise his game.

UCLA has shown a solid duo of Kevin Prince and Richard Brehaut this spring throwing to explosive talents in Randall Carroll, Nelson Rosario and Taylor Embree. If both schools can develop strong running games, the Trojans and Bruins should average more than 30 points per game this fall.

 Best of luck to the No. 1 UCLA women’s gymnastics team. The Bruins will be matched up with Oklahoma, Utah, Oregon State, Louisiana State and Nebraska when the NCAA preliminaries begin Thursday. Lake Forest’s Tauny Frattone was named to the All-Pac 10 team this year, and along with former Corona Centennial High standout Brittani McCullough will lead UCLA’s quest for a sixth gymnastics championship in Gainesville, Fla.

 If you’re looking for “inspiring” physical exercise, you might try hiking one of the many beautiful peaks Orange County has to offer. Fox Sports Net graphics guru Mitch Rinehart and I climbed Santiago Peak from Holy Jim Trail on Saturday and the views were awesome.

Nearly 16 miles in six and a half hours. The bugs were annoying at the top but the beauty was just another reminder of how lucky we are to live in Orange County.

As Henry David Thoreau once said, “An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

STEVE PHYSIOC is a professional radio and television broadcaster and Orange County resident.