COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP: TROJANS, METROPOULOS GET HEALTHY WITH SWEEP OF CAL.

Byline: Daily News

Joey Metropoulos epitomized USC's sweep of California to open the Pacific-10 Conference baseball season.

The Trojans limped into conference play with a losing record, a situation unheard of this deep into March. Metropoulos literally was hobbling on his sprained right ankle.

Listed as out for the week because of his injury, Metropoulos started all three games and continued a torrid hitting pace in Saturday's 13-9 victory over the Golden Bears at Dedeaux Field.

USC (15-13, 3-0) had at least one hit from every starter in a 16-hit barrage against Cal (19-14, 3-3). Michael Moon went 4 for 5 and Metropoulos 3 for 5, including a two-run homer that snapped an 8-8 tie in the sixth.

For the series, the freshman designated hitter was 6 for 13 with a home run, a double and four RBI. Not bad given his gimpy state early in the week.

Metropoulos, a plum recruit from Monte Vista High in Spring Valley near San Diego, originally was declared out for one to two weeks after tweaking his ankle against Stanford.

``It got better a lot quicker than anybody expected. I went to the trainer's room every day and iced it,'' said Metropoulos, a 17th-round pick of the Detroit Tigers who never considered signing a pro contract at that slot in the draft.

If Trojans coach Mike Gillespie's projections are accurate, Metropoulos is headed for the high rounds the next time he's draft-eligible in 2004.

After a slow start, his average has jumped to .378 with four homers and 20 RBI.

``Shame on us if we don't foster his development into a great hitter. Because that's what he should be. He should be in the mix of the best guys that we've ever had,'' Gillespie said.

Now whether he can just avoid another injury. He frightened Gillespie again after Saturday night's game, complaining of right-knee soreness.

``I sort of couldn't listen (to the trainer),'' Gillespie said. ``The question was, `Can you hit or not?' `Yeah, I just can't run.' I said, `If you hit one far enough, you won't have to run.' ''

His laser-shot home run ensured a slow trot around the bases in addition to propelling the Trojans to some much-needed momentum a weekend after being swept by Pac-10 favorite Stanford in a nonconference series.

``Sweeping Cal is huge. Who would have expected that?'' first baseman Bill Peavey said. ``In the locker room and the dugout, we believe what type of team we have.''

Trojans junior reliever Jordan Olson (Crescenta Valley High) tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn his first save.

Cal first baseman Conor Jackson, a sophomore from Woodland Hills, went 1 for 3 with two RBI and is hitting .424 with 11 home runs and a Pac-10-leading 42 RBI.

--CS Northridge 15, UC Santa Barbara 9: Ryan Haag and Shaun Larkin had three hits apiece and Erik Verbryke drove in four runs as the visiting Matadors won the rubber game of a three-game Big West Conference-opening series.

Starter and winner Andy Davidson and reliever Matt Larson yielded a combined 16 hits. But the host Gauchos (14-17, 1-2) could score no more than three runs in any inning and never led after a three-run CSUN fifth gave the Matadors (20-11, 2-1) a 7-5 advantage.

--Pepperdine 4, Santa Clara 3: Rock Mills had two hits for the host Waves, who improved to 15-16, 5-2 with the West Coast Conference win over the Broncos (12-18, 3-5).

--LMU 5-5, San Diego 1-2: The visiting Lions (13-7, 6-2) totaled 23 hits in the West Coast Conference doubleheader sweep of the Toreros (25-8, 8-4).