AN ODD COUPLE'S WINNING PITCH.

Byline: Evan Henerson

Theater Critic

The definitive tome on Little League coaching gone mad has already been written, and nobody is idiot enough to try to make Bill Lancaster's script for "The Bad News Bears" into a play.

Ronald Dresser, a pretty smart playwright and a baseball fan (of Red Sox nation, the subject of a future play), has gone in a slightly different direction. No children appear in his Little League play "Rounding Third." The two philosophically opposed coaches -- one who wants to win, the other who wants the kids to just have fun, score be damned -- are coaches on the same team.

The potential for such a scenario is pretty juicy, and, despite Dresser allowing things to sillify late in the game, "Rounding Third" is -- if not a home run -- certainly a ground-rule double.

Patching this two-hander into the Colony Theatre, director Andrew Barnicle has actor Kevin Symons back from the production he mounted for the Laguna Playhouse in 2003. Symons' sensitive, enlightened Michael is a more-than-appropriate foil to sloppy guy's-guy coach Don, played by Jerry Kernion. We're just waiting for the two civilized coaches to take Louisville Sluggers to each other's noggins.

Michael has voluntarily enlisted as Don's new assistant. By coaching the Little League team, Michael hopes to spend some quality time with his son. Don only has an opening on his bench because his last assistant coach graduated to the Pony Leagues. And he'd rather have any person other than Michael.

The vaguely "Odd Couple"-ish pairing is "Rounding Third's" draw, not any peripheral "ode to baseball" mawkishness. We hear about Don's star athlete son (who leaves the team under fittingly hilarious circumstances) and about Michael's kid, who couldn't catch a Nerf ball at three paces. But we can't really picture either boy. This is a play about different forms of male ego, not fatherhood.

Which is not to say that Barnicle and the design team haven't supplied the Colony production with all the necessary baseball trimmings. David Potts' chain-link fencing and blue- sky backdrop supply all the necessary wide-open space.

Of course, there's the obligatory organ playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as a precurtain introduction.

A. Jeffrey Schoenberg's costumes are on the money. Coach Michael doesn't really know how to dress for the field, while Coach Don likely doesn't own a pair of pants that aren't paint-splattered.

Dresser checks in at various points during the season. The team's ups and downs parallel those of the coaches. Don, in particular, starts to spiral out of control just as Michael -- thrust into a position of authority -- realizes that he does indeed want to win.

Which should give the two men common ground. That it doesn't make them friends is a measure of the playwright's honesty. These two fellas

are more fun as combatants anyway.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

[e-mail]

ROUNDING THIRD - Three stars

Where: Colony Theatre Company, 555 N. Third St., Burbank.

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; through May 13.

Tickets: $37 to $42. [phone], Ext. 15.

In a nutshell: Eat your heart out, Morris Buttermaker.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Jerry Kernion, left, and Kevin Symons are two Little League coaches with different philosophies about the game.