NOTEBOOK : Waves Go Outside to Get Help Inside

Center Gavin Vanderputten of Trabuco Hills High made an unwritten commitment to Pepperdine on Friday and will become the first foreign basketball player at the school in 15 years.

Vanderputten, a 6-foot-10 exchange student from Perth, Australia, averaged 20.4 points and 11 rebounds a game last season and helped lead Trabuco Hills to the Southern Section II-A championship.

The Waves, however, lost their bid to sign Kirk Goehring, a 6-6 guard from Memphis, Tenn., who signed with Louisiana State on Monday.

Vanderputten was recruited by more than 30 NCAA Division I schools and had narrowed his choices to Pepperdine, Fresno State and Utah.

“Pepperdine is where I felt most comfortable,” he said. “It was a gut feeling.

“They were all good schools. The only thing that stood out with Pepperdine was the location. I’m close to friends and family that I have here and that was where I wanted to play.”

Evaristo Soares and Marcos Leite, two centers from Rio de Janiero, were the last foreign basketball players to compete for the Waves. Soares played from 1977-80 and Leite from 1973-76.

The signing of Vanderputten was a first for Coach Tom Asbury, who has been an assistant at the school since 1979.

“We’ve tried to recruit a few (foreign players), but we get beaten (by other schools) on those kinds of kids,” he said.

Trabuco Hills Coach Rainer Wulf says Vanderputten should prosper at Pepperdine.

“It’s a great program and they have a lot of good players,” he said. “But I think Gavin is in a position where he can play as a freshman.”

Sorensen honored: Junior outside hitter Tom Sorensen, who led Pepperdine to the NCAA volleyball title, was selected first team All-American by Volleyball Monthly for the second consecutive season.

Sorensen, one of the nation’s top hitters, set a single-season school record with 723 kills. He also holds school records for career kills (1,612) and career serving aces (130).

Pepperdine’s Alon Grinberg, the most valuable player at the NCAA championships, was a second-team pick. UCLA’s Chip McCaw was named to the honorable mention and all-freshmen teams.

UCLA’S Dan Landry and Stanford’s Duncan Blackman, a Pacific Palisades resident, were named to the second team and Mike Sealy (Santa Monica High, UCLA) was selected to the third team.

UCLA’s Jeff Nygaard was selected freshman of the year.

Circuit city--Pepperdine junior first baseman Dan Melendez tied a school record with three home runs in a game against Cal State Northridge on Tuesday.

Melendez hit three-run homers in the first and fifth innings and added a solo shot in the seventh in the Waves’ 11-2 victory over the Matadors.

Melendez, a St. Bernard High graduate, has 10 home runs.

Which way to Miami? Most high school baseball players dream about a chance to play for perennial powerhouse University of Miami, but Beverly Hills pitcher Dean Styne had a different Miami in mind when he signed a letter of intent last week.

Styne signed with Miami of Ohio of the Mid-American Conference.

“He missed big time by a couple thousand miles,” Norman Coach Bill Erickson said jokingly. “Miami of Ohio is a beautiful school located about an hour outside of Cincinnati. He should have a good time playing there.”

Styne is 6-1 with a 2.10 earned-run average for the Normans, who are 13-6 and 5-2 in the Ocean League.

Battling for first: Crossroads, Faith Baptist and Buckley are tied for first place with two weeks remaining in the Delphic League baseball season.

Crossroads (10-7) plays at Buckley Tuesday and plays host to Whitney on Friday at 7 p.m. at Clover Field and Campbell Hall on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Veteran’s Field.

“Everything is up in the air,” said Crossroads Coach Chuck Ice, whose teams have either shared or won the Delphic League title nine of the past 10 years. “I think if we play consistently like we have played the last two ballgames, we should win it.”

Following a crash course: Crossroads center fielder Mike Yam never hesitates when it comes to chasing a fly ball.

Yam has crashed into the chain-link fence at Clover Field on two occasions while trying to catch a fly ball. Both times he suffered bruises and had the wind knocked out of him. He prevented an extra-base hit by catching a line drive and barely missed another fly ball that cleared the fence for a home run.

Both times he bent the fence crashing into it.

“Mike has been one of our fastest and most aggressive players ever to play the outfield at Crossroads,” Ice said. “We play our right and left fielders close to the foul lines because Mike covers so much ground.”

Yam also has beat out 10 bunts for base hits.

Chance for redemption: The Culver City baseball team is only 7-8 and 2-4 in the Ocean League, but the Centaurs can turn around their season with seven games in 10 days.

Culver City was scheduled to play first-place Redondo and a doubleheader against Beverly Hills this week. The Centaurs then play host to Leuzinger in the third-place game of the Redondo tournament on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Next week, Culver City plays host to Redondo on Tuesday and Morningside in a home-and-away series on Wednesday and Friday.

The Centaurs’ hopes rest with the arms of Chris Brennan, Sani Bozunovich and Dylan Sugar, right-handed pitchers who have ERAs under 2.00.

“Our own destiny will be determined in the next 10 days,” Culver City Coach Jerry Chabola said. “That’s not a bad situation to be in.”

Meet rescheduled: The UCLA men’s and women’s track and field teams will host cross-town rival USC and Cal State Northridge Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium.

The recent rioting in Los Angeles following the Rodney G. King verdict forced the postponement of the meet, which was originally scheduled for May 2 with UCLA, USC and Brigham Young competing.

The field events will start at 11 a.m. and the running events at 1:30 p.m.

Staff writer Mike Reilley contributed to this story.