Viking_Yearbook_90

This page: Baseball coach Jack Dunn considers his options during a game. Opposite page: Tony Prentice pitches the ball for PSU. 1 1 0 PSU's inexperienced teatn still has • • wtnntng year The 1990 PSU baseball team won 30 games and provided head coach Jack Dunn with his 16th consecutive winning season, but struggled to a 9-15 Pac-10 North Division mark to miss the confer– ence playoffs for the first time since 1984. With a team dominated by freshmen and sophomores, PSU entered the season in a rebuilding posture. The youth and inexperience showed through, as the team often played well, but inconsistently. The Vikings finished 30-24 overall, but were sixth in the seven– team league, one game out of play– off qualifying position. The brightest spot for the Vi– kings was sophomore centerfielder Dane Walker, who was named the Pac-10 North player-of-the-year after hitting .393 with four home runs, 46 RBI and 13 stolen bases, all team highs. Mark Peterson, ·another sopho– more, led the pitchers \\;'ith a 10-3 record and 73 strikeouts. Freshman Mike Hillman went 6-3, and junior reliever Tony Prentice registered seven saves with a 2.83 ERA. Senior David Gogal shook off an early-season slump by hitting safely in his last 11 games, raising his average to .310. It was the fourth straight .300-plus batting year for Gogal, who finished with a .342 career mark. Gogal, Darrel Sparkman and Brian Syverson are the only senior starters lost from the team, which should come back in 1991 with the experience to challenge for the league title. Dunn, in his 16th year at the helm, was assisted by Kelly_Srnith, Tom Gorman and Mike Wantland. At season's end, he was selected to lead a tei;l.m of Pac-10 North All– Stars into the Dutch Baseball Federation's annual summer tour– nament in Haarlem, The Nether– lands. -J.R. Rardon.