Toro Baseball Team Gets a Quick Fix : College: Cal State Dominguez Hills Coach George Wing knew the fastest way to improve his team. He stocked it with junior college transfers and feels confident as the Toros open league play today.

The quick fix is in at Cal State Dominguez Hills, where second-year baseball Coach George Wing is generally pleased with the results turned in by his first recruiting class.

The Toros begin California Collegiate Athletic Assn. play at 2:30 this afternoon at Cal State Northridge with a 5-3-1 record. Northridge (2-0) will visit Dominguez Hills on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Two Toro victories earlier this year were at the University of Arizona and UC Santa Barbara, two Division I schools. Dominguez Hills was ranked as high as 13th in the nation before slipping to 24th this week.

“At this stage it is too early for rankings,” Wing said. “I think Dominguez Hills will have a real impact in the conference. Not a whole lot of people are looking at us yet, but the guys have the right attitude.”

Wing, hired so late in 1988 that he missed the entire recruiting season for his 1989 team, has rebuilt the Toros with 22 junior college players. The team carries only five freshmen, none of whom have seen regular playing time.

In the future, Wing, a former junior college coach, wants to go after high school seniors, but for the 1990 campaign it was important to put a winning team on the field. Dominguez Hills, which captured back-to-back California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles in 1986 and ’87 under former Coach Andy Lopez, finished well below .500 the last two seasons.

“Last year it was a situation of taking the hand that was dealt me and seeing what I could do,” said Wing, who replaced Lopez in mid-July of 1988 from Cosumnes River College in Sacramento.

On a potential future roster of 28 players, Wing hopes for a mix of 14 junior college players and 14 freshmen.

“My plan now is to build with freshmen,” he said. “But after last year’s finish (16-29-1), I felt that we needed to develop respect, for recruiting purposes, and that’s why I went the quick-fix route.”

Building a team around transfers who have two years of college training behind them is considered the fast way to turn a sagging program around. So far, Wing’s philosophy seems to be paying dividends.

“The guys have developed a very strong (fellowship),” Wing said. “All the JC guys come from a familiar-type background; that is, they played at quality programs on a college level. They came here all for the same thing: to play baseball. It’s easy for them to make the adjustment from one college to the next.”

Three players are having an immediate impact. Infielders Fred Camarena (.448) and Johnny Blood (.382) and outfielder George Scott (.375) lead the regulars in batting.

Said Wing: “Between them, there is always one that is getting on base, starting something, always being a spark plug.”

What the Toros have lacked is more hitting from the remainder of their lineup. First baseman Bill Keep (.313) is the only other regular hitting above .300. The team has added 10 points to its batting average in the last week, but .292 is not considered strong in college circles.

“We’re still waiting on our power guys to get going,” Wing said. “We have the potential to be very, very explosive, but we have yet to see it.”

The Toros have shown a propensity for falling behind early, then roaring back. Dominguez Hills has been outscored 17-11 through nine games in the first three innings, but in the middle innings it owns a 35-23 edge.

Said first-year offensive Coach Eric Mihkelson, a former Toro player: “I wasn’t excited at first with our offense. There wasn’t any execution. But now we’ve got things going good.”

The seventh inning may prove to be the key in many Toro games this year, if early trends continue. Dominguez Hills has scored just once in the stretch frame this year, while opponents have managed eight runs.

That may change as the season progresses and starting pitchers grow stronger and can go the distance more often. It could become a point of concern for Wing, however.

Defensively, the team looks solid but not spectacular, Wing said. Dominguez Hills has committed nine errors this season, three against Arizona.

Wing thought the Toros’ pitching would be strong when he saw the team in winter workouts. But so far, things haven’t shaped up that way.

“I’m not convinced yet that we will be a dominating pitching staff,” he said. “In this conference, we have as good a chance as any team to win. But so far we’ve been on a roller-coaster ride with our pitchers.”

The staff was dealt a major blow about a month before the season began when ace hurler Chuck Plumley quit.

“He just lost it in his heart,” Wing said. “It wasn’t a disagreement with us or unhappiness with the program; he just didn’t want to play anymore.”

That still left 13 prospective pitchers in the fold. Left-handers Vincent Aguilar (1-1) and Willie Navarette (1-1) have five starts between them. Lefty Armando Gomez is 2-0 and occupies the third spot in the rotation. Wing looks for right-hander Gilbert Diaz, a 10-game winner from Allan Hancock College, who already has a save in relief, to see plenty of action, possibly as a starter. If Diaz comes around, Wing would have the option of mixing up his left-handed rotation.

“There’s no question in my mind,” he said. “The potential is there for us to be a dominating force in the conference.”

When the team is up to bat, Wing lets Mihkelson call the signals.

“He has played here and knows this field very well,” the coach explained.

When he was hired, Wing took a long, hard look at the facilities in Carson and realized that recruiting power-hitting lefties would be out of the question.

The Toro diamond sits on a mesa looking out toward the Palos Verdes Peninsula. In the afternoon the ocean winds whip in against the hitters. Home runs to right and center fields are few.

So Wing decided to build a team that can play “up the middle”--a bunt-and-run team, much like those Mihkelson is used to.

“I’ve geared the team toward handling the bat, the short game of hit and run,” Wing said. “Power hitting is great on the road, but it doesn’t do us any good at home.”

In the CCAA, defending national champion Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is ranked fourth nationally this year. Struggling Cal Poly Pomona already has two losses to 16th-ranked Northridge, but the Broncos remain No. 15. Wing, however, said UC Riverside may be the team to beat.

But then, he said, don’t count the Toros out. “We are a dark horse.”