Minor League Stadium Clears First Hurdle

A soil composition study on the baseball field at Saddleback College completed the first step toward construction of a $6-million baseball stadium to be used by the school and an independent minor league team.

Officials of the Mission Viejo Professional Baseball Club, formerly the Long Beach Riptide, were concerned the field, which had to be lowered, was on top of a crest of bedrock. But the study showed only clay and thumb-sized gravel as deep as 15 feet at the proposed location.

That soil not only drains well but will be able to support the weight of the new ballpark, according to the study done by the geotechnical engineering firm Leighton and Associates.

“This was a big first step in the construction process,” team president Patrick Elster said. “And with the number of tickets we have sold so far, things are moving in a positive direction for us.”

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Kevin Bever, former Edison High and Golden West kicker, has accepted a scholarship to Pittsburgh.

Bever kicked for Edison from 1992 to 1994 and for Golden West in 1995-96. He has enrolled at Pittsburgh for the winter semester, and will join the Panther football team for the 1997 season.

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Joey Aversa, a standout infielder at Edison High, Golden West College and Southern California College, has signed a triple-A contract with the Cincinnati Reds.

Aversa, who was a first-team All-Sunset League selection with Edison in 1986, also pitched for SCC in 1989 and ’90. He was drafted in the 40th round in 1990 by the St. Louis Cardinals.

His father, Joe Aversa, is the hitting coach at Fountain Valley High.

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John Knox, track and field coach at Century High the last six years, has resigned to spend more time with his family, Athletic Director Lisa Treen said.

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Tickets to the Toshiba Senior Classic, the Senior PGA Tour’s first California event of 1997, March 10-16, at the Newport Beach Country Club, are on sale at Ticketmaster locations, by phone at (213) 480-3232 or by calling the tournament office at (714) 646-9007.

Prices for daily tickets range from $5 to $25, season and weekend passes are $75 and $50, respectively, and clubhouse tickets at $125. Children 12 and younger are free.

The Toshiba Senior Classic raises money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Orange County, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Assn., and the National Dyslexia Research Foundation.