Mendoza becoming force in SU lineup
Advocate photo by John Oubre
Southern?s Juan Mendoza is hitting .331 with a team-best five homers.
By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Apr 21, 2007 - Page: 2C
The only player to play in ? and start ? every game for the Southern baseball team this season is the one SU coach Roger Cador never got to see in action until he started playing.
And playing a lot, as things have turned out.
Junior left fielder Juan Mendoza came to Southern from Oakland in January on the recommendation of his junior college coach, Contra Costa College?s Marvin Webb, an infielder in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization in the 1970s who had played against Cador, then with the Atlanta Braves organization.
?Here?s a guy, in January, we didn?t know anything about,? Cador said. ?Never saw him play.?
Start No. 32 comes today for Mendoza as SU (19-12, 12-6 Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division) hosts Grambling (15-26, 6-12) in a doubleheader of seven-inning games at 1 p.m. at Lee-Hines Field.
The three-game series ends with a single game at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Both teams will don uniforms from the Negro Leagues for the series, in which first-year Grambling coach Barrett Rey returns to SU, where he played and was an assistant coach, for the first time.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/7130376.html?showAll=y&c=y