49ers in Good Hands
by Bob Keisser, Long Beach Press-Telegram
April 23, 2004 With each year, Pete Manarino rediscovers that the softball world is still expanding, much like the universe after the Big Bang.
He only has to look at the rosters of other universities to know this. Division I programs keep popping up on the landscape, colleges that didn't have notable programs a decade ago are now national contenders, and the competition for players plows through California like locusts.
"There are Pac-10 teams (outside California) with their rosters dominated by California imports,' Manarino, Long Beach State's veteran softball coach, said. "Even Florida State has some California kids on its roster.'
When supporters of gender equity and Title IX began legislating equal athletic opportunity, they probably didn't have coast-to- coast competition for recruits in mind. Call it an unexpected perk.
For Manarino, it's an unexpected challenge. But he's used to that.
In this climate of feverish competition, he has kept his program among the best. No coach in any sport has won more games in Long Beach State history than Manarino (761), and he's had just one losing season since arriving on campus from St. Joseph High School in 1984. He's taken his teams to the playoffs 14 times, had six 40- win seasons, and made five trips to the College World Series.
Now he's coaching a team that may wind up being his most successful club ever. The 49ers are 38-9, an .808 winning percentage, and 8-1 in Big West play heading into their weekend series with perennial rival Fullerton, putting them within reach of school records for most wins (48 in 1990), fewest losses (17 in 1988) and best winning percentage (.730, 1988).
But with 12 games left plus the postseason, he's not interested in comparisons and records at the moment.
"At this stage, we just want to keep things in perspective,' he said this week. "We're playing well and continue to work hard so we can stay at this level.
"We've won a lot, but the most important thing is that we don't get complacent. You still need to grow as a team even if you're winning a lot of games.'
His 2004 team has two distinct advantages.
The 2003 team was 10-14 heading into late March and losing games every way possible.
Those 49ers were shorthanded because of injuries, were shutout seven times, made five errors in a game in their own tournament, and were drubbed 8-0 by Arizona in their last game before conference play.
They then went on a 19-3 sprint to finish the season a game shy of first in the conference and advance to the postseason. Since March 29 of 2003, the 49ers have gone 58-14.
"There was a time last year when we had only 11 healthy players, and then we went on a run,' he said. "What we went through built a lot of character and maturity, and it's carried through to this season.'
Manarino also has his best 1-2-3 pitching tandem in more than a decade. Meredith Cervenka (16-4, 1.02 ERA), Lindsey Knoff (11-3, 1.16) and Marcel Torres (11-2, 0.90) have dominated opponents (both Cervenka and Knoff have thrown perfect games this season) and Cervenka needs 12 more strikeouts for the school's career record.
The trio recalls the early '90s, when Manarino had three superb pitchers in Mary Letourneau, Stacy Van Essen and Ruby Flores, who dominate the record book and pitched the 49ers to four consecutive College World Series appearances (1990-93).
"Our pitching has been as good as what we had with Mary, Stacy and Ruby,' he said, "and that's saying a lot because those pitchers were great.'
Many programs try to get through a season with one dominant pitcher, recalling the early 19th Century days of baseball when a team used just two or three pitchers in a 130-plus game season.
Manarino doesn't believe in asking a pitcher to throw 300 innings in a season, and having two aces is often the key to winning a NCAA regional tournament and advancing to softball's College World Series. "I believe in using all I've got,' he said.
Especially since the NCAA expanded the postseason field to 64 teams. With expansion came a decision to have eight eight-team, double-elimination regionals to produce the College World Series field. When it comes time for the NCAA to assign teams to regionals, it can be just as biased against the West Coast in softball as it is baseball.
Manarino said softball will eventually follow the path set by baseball, which went to two rounds of regionals 16 four- team sub-regionals that advanced 16 teams to eight best-of-3 regionals.
It would be nice if the 49ers were in a position to host a regional, too, much as Mike Weathers' baseball team did for the first time last season, but the NCAA requires hosts to have lights and press box facilities, and the campus diamond, otherwise a nice park, has neither.
With budget cuts on the horizon, improving softball facilities is low on the agenda, but it's still something Manarino would like to see before he's done coaching. Besides qualifying the 49ers as a potential postseason host, it would also help recruiting.
"We don't have the facilities and resources that those schools playing football (Pac-10, SEC schools) do,' he said. "But we do have a dynamic school president (Dr. Robert Maxson), a great school and in a great location.
"I consider myself pretty fortunate.'
Despite the competition from Florida State. |
