UCSB baseball coach Bob Brontsema had the decency to spare those in attendance at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon the gory details of a freak accident that happened to freshman player Brandon Trinkwon.
Trinkwon suffered a serious injury when the ball came off his bat and hit him directly in the face during Saturday’s Big West game against Long Beach State.
“I’ve seem some gruesome things on the baseball field but not many as bad as this,” Brontsema said. “Since it’s lunch, I won’t get into details. It was a horrific scene for the kid.”
Brontsema said the initial reports from the emergency room were Trinkwon could lose his eye.
“It was a very, very rough time for the family,” Brontsema said.
But the latest news is positive.
“He’s not going to lose his eye; his retina is not detached. It’s getting better, better and better. He’s going to need a bunch of surgeries.”
Trinkwon showed up to watch his teammates in Sunday’s series finale against the 49ers.
“His dad says it’s because he’s Canadian, he’s got a little hockey in him, or something like that,” said Brontsema, referring to his toughness. “It was great to see him, but to see your teammate and a guy you go to battle with, it was very tough for our guys.”
Brontsema said the long-term prognosis for Trinkwon is good.
Dos Pueblos baseball coach Nate Mendoza introduced sophomore starters second baseman Ben York and left-handed pitcher Gabe Speier, who will be in action when the Chargers play Santa Barbara in a three-game Channel League showdown series starting Tuesday.
“It’s going to be a great series,” Mendoza said. “Santa Barbara doesn’t make many mistakes. We have to be at the top of our game.”
Santa Barbara assistant George Rempe brought two key players for the Dons: Kees t’Sas and Kenny Crawford.
In other prep baseball news, San Marcos coach Tony Vanetti said his team “played probably its best game on Thursday against Santa Babara,” losing 2-0. “The guys played spirited baseball. We were in it from the start. That was a big moral victory for us.”
Vanetti, who introduced “the future of San Marcos baseball,” sophomores Sean MacDuffie and Joe Prince, said he hopes the momentum from the Santa Barbara game will carry them for the last seven games of the season.”
Other highlights:
–UCSB water polo player Milos Golic became the first two-time scholar-athlete of the year award winner for his school. He also won the award in 2009.
Golic, a three-time first-team All-American, holds a 3.80 GPA in finance. He has been accepted into the master’s program in finance at Bocconi University in Italy.
The Serbian-born Golic holds the UCSB record for goals in a career with 272.
He expressed his gratitude to the Round Table.
“I hope this kind of model will spread all over the place, especially in my country, where athletes aren’t recognized at all.”
–Laguna Blanca swim coach Dan Alef brought his “undefeated” three-person team to the luncheon.
“Every member has qualified for CIF automatically, so we expect all three members of our team to achieve great status for Laguna Blanca,” said Alef.
The team members are Milo Filips, Austin Abrams and Lauren Alef.
–San Marcos swim coach Chuckie Roth said swimmer/water polo player Rose Koper has been accepted to Claremont McKenna College.
–Dos Pueblos swim coach Leslie Wiggins Roth announced that Emily Rose Williams will continue her swimming career at the University of Texas.
“I can’t thank her enough for the postiive contributions for our school and, more importantly, for our team,” Wiggins Roth said. ”She’s one of the best swimmers to come out of our community for a while.”
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