‘92 Lions Have Done Little to Restore the Roar : Baseball: Although expectations weren’t high, Loyola Marymount has tumbled to last place in the West Coast Conference.

In January, first-year Loyola Marymount baseball Coach Jody Robinson realized the Lions didn’t have a windfall of talent or experience.

Only one starter from a 38-22 team returned, and only four seniors were on the 30-man roster. Half of the players were freshmen.

But even Robinson says he couldn’t have envisioned the difficulty that the Lions have experienced in 1992.

With 18 games remaining, Loyola is 10-27 and in last place in the West Coast Conference at 5-12. The Lions have lost eight games in a row going into a three-game WCC series against Santa Clara starting today in Westchester.

Another loss will ensure the team’s first losing season since 1985, when the Lions finished 27-28 in Dave Snow’s first season as coach.

“We knew it would be tough, but it’s been rougher than we expected,” Robinson said. “When you lose, it’s always frustrating. I know everyone’s disappointed, from the players to the coaching staff. Nobody said it was going to be easy, but nobody said it was going to be this difficult either.”

Robinson had never experienced a losing season in nine years as a Division I assistant.

“I’ve had a few nightmares this season,” Robinson said. “It’s been very difficult for me. I haven’t gone through anything like this since high school. But I have to fight through it just like the players have to do.”

Keeping the players’ spirits up is another matter.

“The coach tells us every day that we’ve got to maintain a winning attitude, and we’re still working hard,” senior outfielder Matt Marks said. “But I think there is a question in our mind if we can win.

“There’s not as much talent on this team as there was last year. Not to take anything away from my teammates, but this isn’t as talented of a team as last year. We don’t have seven or eight guys who were drafted. We have 15 freshmen on the team, and that makes a big difference. They’re just not used to playing at this level.”

There were signs of hope early in the season. After dropping seven of their first nine games, the Lions rebounded to win four of six to improve to 6-9.

Then Loyola lost third baseman Gerardo Perez, a senior who was the only returning starter. Perez cracked three vertebrae in his back during a Feb. 25 game against UC Irvine and has missed 22 games. He recently resumed practicing and could play against Santa Clara.

Perez was leading the Lions with a .362 batting average.

“We were 6-9 and starting to make progress when it happened, and we’re 4-18 since then,” Robinson said. “It’s not good when you lose a guy who’s supposed to be your leader. He’s somebody we relied on, and it’s hard to lose a player like that.”

Aside from the loss of Perez, Robinson said it is difficult to pinpoint the team’s problems.

“It’s never one thing but it’s always something,” Robinson said. “Either it’s leaving the bases loaded and not scoring or making a costly error. We also need to play consistent defense. We’ve done that once in a while but not enough.”

The same can be said for Loyola’s pitching. The Lions started the week with a 6.50 earned-run average and that was before a 10-8 loss to Fresno State on Tuesday and a 12-3 defeat to Cal State Northridge on Wednesday.

“The pitching hasn’t been consistent,” Robinson said. “They’ve improved a bit lately. (Shane) Bowers has done OK, but he’s had nothing to show for it and (Bob) Noson has also done OK.

“We just haven’t been able to put together a complete game. When we’ve gotten the pitching, we haven’t gotten any hitting. We’ve had too many breakdowns along the way.”

Robinson has been encouraged by the offensive production from some of the younger players. Sophomore first baseman Anthony Napolitano is batting .311 with 30 runs batting in. Sophomore shortstop Greg Carl is batting .296 and freshman outfielder Mike Seal is at .295.

Marks is tied for second in the conference with a team-leading seven home runs.

“We’re a young team for the most part and we’ve played like it,” Robinson said. “But we have some guys who have done well.”

Considering that most of his players will be returning next season, Robinson says there is hope.

“That part is encouraging,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young players and that’s why I’m optimistic. If this was a team with a lot of juniors, maybe I wouldn’t feel that way. But it’s a young team, and with the signing date coming up, we think we’ll be all right for the future.”

The first day that players can sign national letters of intent with NCAA schools is Wednesday, and Robinson said the outlook is promising.

“We’ve gotten some verbal commitments from some pretty good players,” he said. “We like the group of kids we’re getting. You just hope that you’re a couple of players away from being competitive, and hopefully that will be the case for us.”

In the meantime, Robinson is hoping his team can learn from the remaining games.

“We’re trying to get back to the team aspects of the game, and we want to find out how much pride they have,” he said. “We need to see who the guys are that hate to lose.”

Said Marks: “It would be nice for this team to feel what it’s like to win so they can have a winning attitude for next year.”

Robinson thinks the Lions’ fortunes will improve.

“They say you have to take the bad with the good,” he said. “If that’s true, we have a lot of good coming down the road.”