Injured Jackson lifts BYU into NCAAs
| • | Clay clears final hurdle of career in winning form |
| • | Punahou grad Miyahira a softball standout |
| • | Iolani's Lei, Baldwin's Russell to play softball at Brigham Young |
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
A baseball thrown into his mouth left Doug "D.J." Jackson with a face "looking like a creature from Star Wars," his father said, but Jackson led Brigham Young into the NCAA regionals with an MVP performance last weekend.
Jackson, a 1999 Iolani graduate from Kailua, is BYU's starting center fielder. He was chosen Most Valuable Player of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at Provo, Utah, after he batted .464 (13-for-28) in six games, drove in nine runs and scored seven.
He hit .500, including hits in six straight at-bats, after being struck in the mouth while sliding home Thursday against UNLV.
"He played the last four games with a swollen face and 11 stitches inside his mouth and five outside that made him look like a creature from the Star Wars bar," said his father, William. "The doctor said it was the worst sports injury to the mouth that he had ever seen."
Jackson's hits included a three-run home run against UNLV.
His 13 hits broke the tournament record set last year by his BYU and Iolani teammate, Kainoa Obrey. Obrey is seeking a medical redshirt season this year because of herniated disks in his lower back.
BYU defeated top-seeded San Diego State twice on Saturday, 6-4 and 5-1, to win the tournament title and the Mountain West's automatic NCAA berth for the second year in a row. The victories brought BYU's record to .500 (29-29-1) for the first time this season.
(BYU's record is not the worst in the 64-team NCAA field. Navy and Harvard won conference championships to earn automatic berths despite losing records.)
Jackson's season batting average is .352 (93-for-264) in 58 starts. He has a slugging percentage of .519 and has stolen 19 bases in 19 attempts.
The Cougars will play top-seeded, Pac-10 champion Southern California (34-22) Friday (noon HST) in Los Angeles in their regional opener.
Other players from Hawai'i whose teams earned berths in the double-elimination regional tournaments:
• Nebraska
Two-time All-America pitcher Shane Komine (Kalani '98, of Kaimuki) is among a dozen semifinalists for the Rotary Smith Award, which honors college baseball's top player. It's like a Heisman Trophy for baseball.
Komine has a chance to be the sixth pitcher in college history to record 40 victories and 500 strikeouts. Despite missing 35 days with tendinitis in his right (throwing) elbow, Komine has a 7-0 record this year and has padded his career totals to 38-8 and 482 strikeouts. He could have three or four more starts if the Huskers win.
He would join the University of Hawai'i's Derek Tatsuno (40 wins and 545 strikeouts in three years, 1977-79) on the elite list.
Komine was one of 50 players named to the Academic All-Big 12 Conference team for a cumulative grade point average over 3.0.
He will pitch the regional opener for Nebraska (42-18) Friday at home against Wisconsin-Milwaukee (36-18). The game will be available at huskers.com at 7:05 a.m. (HST).
• Notre Dame (Indiana)
Junior right-hander Brandon Villoria (Maui '99) is the set-up relief pitcher for the Irish, who have won 26 of their last 29 games and the Big East tournament championship.
Villoria has the second-best earned-run average (2.14) on a pitching staff that ranks 10th in NCAA Division I in ERA (3.41).
He has pitched 21 innings in 15 relief appearances, has a 2-1 record and three saves. Opponents have batted .187 against him.
"He got a save against USC with two shutout innings, one against St. John's with 2á innings of one-hit ball, and a save against Rutgers, our big rival, with no earned runs in three innings," said Pete LaFleur, Notre Dame's baseball spokesman.
Villoria ranks fifth in Notre Dame history in least walks allowed per nine innings with 1.96 (13 walks in 59¡ career innings).
He ranks pretty high academically as well. Villoria is an electrical engineering major with a 3.63 cumulative GPA.
Notre Dame (44-15) is host to a regional and plays Ohio State (36-18-1) Friday.
• Cal State-Fullerton
Freshman Kurt Suzuki (Baldwin '01) is a classic example of the old coaches' warning: "Don't get hurt. You could lose your job."
Suzuki had started 10 straight games and was batting .429 for the Titans when his hip popped out of alignment during a game on March 23. By the time he was ready to play again, Suzuki's replacement had taken his job and still has it.
Suzuki, now batting .392 (20-for-51) in 26 games, since then has been used mainly as a defensive replacement at catcher. His fielding average is 1.000 (no errors in 136 chances).
Fullerton (36-20), the Big West champion, opens regional play against Stanford (40-16 and the national eighth seed) Friday.
• San Diego
Freshman outfielder Gavin Ng (Mililani '01) has been used mainly as a pinch runner and late-game defensive replacement for the Toreros. San Diego won two of three from Pepperdine last weekend to win the West Coast Conference championship and earn its first bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Toreros (38-21) play Arizona State (35-19) at 3 p.m. (HST) Friday in Tempe.
Ng missed football spring practice to be on the baseball bench. Last fall he won honorable mention as a return specialist in the Pioneer Football League Northern Division. He returned a punt 98 yards for a touchdown in his first game.
The 16 regional winners move on to best-of-three "super regional" series at eight sites the following weekend, and the winners there are in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., June 14-22.
NAIA WORLD SERIES
• Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)
Redshirt freshman second baseman Micah Furtado, Kaua'i's Player of the Year for Kapa'a High in 2000, and the Warriors are battling for the school's 12th NAIA championship at Lewiston, Idaho.
Furtado hit two home runs in the opening game Friday, but Lewis-Clark State was shunted into the losers' bracket Monday by Oklahoma City, 13-10.
Furtado was batting .400 (72-for-180), second highest on the team, with 12 home runs after Monday.
Sophomore Kyle Correa ('Aiea '99) pitched the last three innings Monday as L-C State's rally fell short. Correa is 1-1 in 12 games and 20¡ innings. Sophomore catcher Kona Sampaio (St. Louis '97 of Kailua), a JC transfer, has played in nine games.
Freshman catcher Gavin Concepcion (Pearl City '01) also is on the roster.
OTHER BASEBALL
• Saddleback (Calif.) JC
Coach Jack Hodges (Kamehameha '65) has a total career record of 694 wins, 327 losses and 6 ties in 32 seasons. The won-lost totals listed for him last week were for his 13 seasons at Saddleback in Mission Viejo, Calif.
