1996_05 The Daily Collegian May 1996

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Thursday, May 2,1996
Sports
Sports Editor: Brian R. Fisher
Telephone: (209) 278-5733
1        SCHEDULE |
Today's Games
• #30 Baseball vs. University of
Hawaii @ Beiden Field, 7 p.m;
• Golf—Western Athletic Confer¬
ence Championships—hosted by the
University of Wyoming @ Chey¬
enne Country Club. All day.
Tomorrow's Games
• Softball vs. San Diego State @
Softball Stadium, 5 p.m.
• #30 Baseball vs. University of
Hawaii @ Beiden Field, 7 p.m.
• #30 Women's Tennis—First round
of NCAA West Regionals—vs. #19
USC @ Pepperdine. University, 9
• Golf—Western Athletic Confer¬
ence Championships—hosted by the
*"*£. University of Wyoming @ Chey¬
enne Country Club, All day.
Saturday, May 4
• Football—annual spring game—
intersquad scrimmage @ Bulldog
Stadium, 9:30 a.m.
• Softball vs. Northridge @ Softball
Stadium, 1 p.m.
• #30 Baseball vs. University of
Hawaii @ Beiden Field, 1 p.m.
Lindenberg honored as
WAC Player of the Week
for third time
For the third time this season,
sophomore infielder Nina
Lindenberg was named the Western
Athletic Conference Player of the
Week on Monday.
Lindenberg, who was honored as
the WAC Player of the Week two
weeks ago, batted .667 (10-15) with
10 hits, four runs, a double, two
home runs a stolen base and five
RBI in league play on the road at
Colorado State and New Mexico.
Lindenberg leads the team in
eight offensive categories and the
WAC in 10. She currently has a 10-
game hitting streak.
—Sports Information
Collegian seeking to employ
sports writers for f al I
semester
The Daily Collegian Sports x
Department is accepting applications
for full and part-time writers for the
fall semester.
All majors are encouraged to
apply. Some knowledge of Fresno
State athletics and decent writing
skills are recommended.
These are paid positions.
For more information stop by
The Daily Collegian or call Sports
Editor Brian R. Fisher at 278-5733.
Sports Information
Head Coach Mike Watney believes Danny Paniccia's improvement is a big reason for the golf
team's dramatic turnaround this season.
Golf team heads into
WAC Championships
■ Team needs a good
performance at *
today's match to top
archrival New Mexico
and berth in NCAAs
By Matt Croce
Sports Writer
Fresno State Bulldogs men's
golf team.Head Coach Mike
Watney admits that his team is play¬
ing Much better now than at the
beginning of the season.
He quickly adds, however, that
the team's good play will need to
continue today atnhe WAC Cham¬
pionships, hosted by Wyoming at
the Cheyenne Country Club in
Cheyenne. And, perhaps most im¬
portantly, at the NCAA Western
Regionals May 16-18.
."We' ve definitely improved a lot
over the year," Watney said. "We're
playing much better now than
before."
Perhaps the biggest reason for
the Bulldogs' turnaround has been
the maturation of freshman Danny
Paniccia, and the addition of fellow
frosh Matt Christensen into the
starting lineup. Christensen has top-
10 finishes in Fresno State's last
have surged recently with a victory
at the U.S. Intercollegiate, hosted
by Stanford, and a third place fin¬
ish last Saturday at the BYU Cou¬
gar Classic.
Fresno State will need to play
well to finish in front of New
Mexico, one of the top teams in the
••I'm very excited about [Paniccia and
Chrjstensen's] play. It elevates the entire team."
—Mike Watney
Head Coach of Fresno State golf team
two tournaments while Paniccia has
tied for 21st and tied for 11th.
"No doubt," Watney said.
"Danny has finally learned that he
can play just as well as the top col¬
legiate players, and Matt is playing
great. I'm very excited about their
play. It elevates the entire team."
Thanks to Christensen and
Paniccia, along with the rock-solid
play of senior All-American hope¬
ful Jon Bettencourt, the Bulldogs
10-team WAC Championships.
"We'll have to be at our best to
beat the Lobos," Watney said. "It
should be very close and exciting."
Watney said that his team is
pretty much assured of an NCAA
bid, regardless of Fresno State's fin¬
ish in Cheyenne. But he wants his
team to remain focused.
"We need to keep it going so our
confidence will remain high at the
NCAA's," he said.
West Coast
conferences
deserve a
little respect
By David Johnson
Sports Writer
When it comes to sports, it's all
about respect. The respect you give
and the respect you get.
It comes from all angles; play¬
ers, coaches, colleagues, and fans.
On the West Coast, however, this
respect appears to come less readily,
especially on a collegiate level.
Commentary
It can be seen reflected in the
national media and in the polls in
all the major spectator sports, base¬
ball, men's basketball and football.
The astute sports fan may notice
that while Manhattan basketball
and Princeton football receive apt
coverage and highlights on ESPN's
Sportscenter, the middle-to-upper
ranked teams in the Pac-10, West¬
ern Athletic, West Coast and Big
West conferences receive little, if
any, attention. '
At Fresno State this battle for
national attention and respect rages
on. Most fans were happy to see
Fresno State basketball in the na¬
tional headlines this past season.
Too happy to realize that the cov¬
erage the team, and its infamous
coach, received was all but positive.
The absence of Fresno State bas¬
ketball in the NCAA tournament
may have posed a more serious
question than the quality of RPI rat¬
ings and the weight of an early sea¬
son loss to Pacific. Has this low
level of respect for West Coast ath¬
letics become institutionalized?
Arguments for Jerry Tarkqnian's
team to have been seeded weigh
heavy on both sides.
But in the case of Fresno State
baseball, and the remainder of the
WAC, the question has a definite
answer.
Before the beginning of the 1996
baseball season, the NCAA Divi¬
sion I Baseball Committee chose to
follow the recommendations of a
computer, and allowed the RPI rat¬
ings scale to determine which 18
conference champions shall earn
automatic bids into the NCAA
Regionals.
The WAC was not one of those
conferences. In fact, the WAC and
WCC berths are consolidated so the
champions must play each other to
determine who goes to the
Regionals.
In the case of the WAC, this
means that the champion must have
won their divisional race, which this
year have been tighter than ever.
Then, after beating out five other
teams, must play the champion of
the other division in a three game
series. Then the interconference
game.
That's a lot to ask of any pro¬
gram, no matter where it is located.
According to the computerized
RPI ratings there are 18 conferences
Please see JOHNSON, Page 7.
)