2003 PREVIEW BASEBALL: KNOWING ADVERSITY MASTER'S TOUGHNESS SHOULD GET EARLY TEST.Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer NEWHALL - Last season's memories are vivid: The Master's College History The Master's College was founded as Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary on May 25, 1927 to meet the need for a fundamental Baptist school on the West Coast. baseball team scrapping its way through the loser's bracket at the NAIA NAIA abbr. National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes Region II championships. Finally, after upsetting top-seeded Azusa Pacific and staging a remarkable four-run rally in the ninth inning to eliminate Point Loma Point Loma is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, the east by the San Diego Bay and Old Town and the north by the San Diego River. Nazarene, the grind of playing five games in four days proved devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. . ``We ran out of pitching in the final game,'' Mustangs catcher Matt Wagner said of a 19-5 defeat to the same team Vanguard club they'd whipped 7-1 a day before. ``We had a good team.'' The Master's finished a respectable 28-22 overall, and 16-12 and third place in the Golden State Athletic Conference The Golden State Athletic Conference is a college athletics conference in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference commissioner is Dr. Cliff Hamlow of Azusa Pacific University. Conference leadership is shared among the member institutions. . Coupled with the school's first appearance in the NAIA World Series two years earlier, the Mustangs are building something special. But there are holes to replace this spring. Gone are standouts Brandon Tisher, Tyler Dersom and Brad Hackworth. The middle-infield starters are both freshmen. The team's top two returnees are recovering from broken hands. Another difficult nonconference schedule beckons, and the GSAC GSAC Golden State Athletic Conference GSAC Governance Structural Adjustment Credit (World Bank) GSAC Greater San Antonio Chapter (of the National Contract Management Association) again is one of the nation's toughest. ``We have a formidable challenge ahead of us, very formidable,'' seventh-year head coach Monte Brooks said. ``The bottom line is this: Tests don't test your character, they reveal it. These challenges reveal your character. We can preach all we want, we can speak all we want. But are we going to speak with a forked tongue A forked tongue is a tongue split into two distinct ends at the tip. This is a feature common to many species of reptiles. Reptiles smell using the tip of their tongue, and a forked tongue allows them to tell which direction a smell is coming from. or are we going to make it happen? That's what lies before us.'' But the Mustangs proved they can overcome fatigue and weary pitching depth in a postseason situation. Wagner and fellow broken-hand casualty Tyler Hergenrader in center field said they felt grateful they were injured during offseason workouts. They'll be back within two weeks. The all-important double-play combination of Tim Murphy at second base and Brady Schenk at shortstop look like keepers. Designated hitter designated hitter n. Baseball Abbr. DH A player designated at the start of a game to bat instead of the pitcher in the lineup. Noun 1. Brett Jaime and first baseman Kevin James were somewhat overlooked last season playing alongside Tisher and Dersom. Jaime hit nine homers and drove in 41 runs as a freshman. James hit .331 and also contributed 41 RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in . Once Hergenrader (.360, 52 runs scored) comes back from his injury and can play center field again, the Mustangs' outfield could be one of the finest around. Flanking him are former Hart High standout and UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX football player Jerry Owens (.317, 41 runs scored) and Josh Miranda (.327, 33 RBI). ``I think our offense is our biggest strength,'' Hergenrader said. ``But like any other baseball team, pitching is the biggest key. We don't really know how our pitching is going to do right now.'' Senior Chad Spencer is the one constant of the staff. The rest are mostly inexperienced or logged modest innings last season. But Brooks hopes to find innings-eaters among sophomore Jeremy Seuss and Mike Conroy and freshmen Luke Clubb, Stephen Stead and Noah Heinz. ``He's the grandpa of the staff,'' Brooks said of Spencer, the Quartz Hill High product who posted five wins and a save last season. ``He's going to have to produce.'' Such inexperience on the mound makes for an uneasy feeling entering a season full of tough games. So does something unexpected like the injuries. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: The Master's Jerry Owens is a former Hart High and UCLA star who batted .317 last season for the Mustangs, with 41 runs scored. Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer |
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