UC Irvine a nice fit for former Thousand Oaks baseball star Lundahl
By Steve Ames Special to the Thousand Oa

STEVE AMES Acorn Newspapers TAKING THE NEXT STEP-Chad Lundahl was standout for the 2003 CIF-SS Division II champion Thousand Oaks baseball team. Since graduating from TOHS, he's moved on to play at UC Irvine. It's been a big jump from high school to college ball, he said.

While he showed good promise at Thousand Oaks High, Chad Lundahl knew it would take a major adjustment to play baseball at the NCAA Division I level.

But a commitment to hard work and a goal to improve his performance next season is carrying him through the summer.

Lundahl played for the Lancers from 2000-03, where he learned the fundamentals and was beginning to see how they might best be applied when he began his freshman season playing for the UC Irvine Anteaters (UCI).

"There's a big change when you're going from high school to college," said Lundahl, the son of Mark and Margo Lundahl.

"A lot of it is work ethic. You've got to get your work in. You have to be able to get in the weight room. You have to be able to stay after and take ground balls," he said.

"You've got to remember that when you go to college, you're getting the best players from high schools from everywhere. The level of competition gets that much better."

In addition, Lundahl, a sociology major, said being a studentathlete in college is a challenge.

"It's a tough schedule to maintain," he said. "During the season it's one of those things that you've got to sacrifice. I'm there to play ball and get my education. It's tough. You've got to learn to balance the two out, but baseball takes a little bit of a priority during the season."

As a senior at Thousand Oaks, Lundahl distinguished himself as a member of the '03 CIF-SS Division II championship team.

Lundahl was named first-team All-State and was on the AllMarmonte League and AllVentura County first team for three years and, as a sophomore, participated in the USA-Japan Goodwill Games.

"Japan, that was a great experience," he said. "We traveled all around Japan and played in five different city provinces, and the work ethic they have in Japan is the work ethic we have in college. It takes that kind of preparation that they were doing at a younger age over there. We're still catching up, I guess, to their players right now."

As Lundahl moved on to UCI to begin his collegiate career playing in the Big West Conference, while a freshman for the '04 season and wearing uniform No. 4 as he had in high school, he hit .226 with no homers and six RBI in 36 games.

Playing mostly shortstop-as he did in high school-and third base, Lundahl recorded 10 hits, seven runs, two doubles and a triple, with a personal-best three hits in a game against the Minnesota Gophers.

He spent the summer playing for a wood-bat collegiate team, the Duluth Huskies in the 12-team Northwoods League, where he experienced overnight road trips and playing nightly before fans in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada stadiums.

Lundahl hit .226 with two home runs and 19 RBI in 41 games. He recorded 30 runs, 12 hits and had four stolen bases.

"That was a great time," he said as he thought back to his summer with the Duluth team. "You can't beat summer ball. Play every day and no school. It's just like playing minor league ball."

During the '05 campaign, he batted .216 with one home run and 17 RBI, playing in all of UCI's 52 games. He garnered 37 hits, eight doubles, had seven multiple-hit games and drove in a career-high four RBI against the Wa s h i n g t o n H u s k i e s . Lundahl played through the season, though, hampered with a strained ligament in the foot the last two months. At the conclusion of the season, the UC Irvine players voted on five team awards and named Lundahl its Best Defensive Player.

At the end of this season, the Anteaters qualified for the NCAA Division I Malibu Regional Playoffs, losing to the UCLA Bruins, 3-2, and to the Missouri Tigers, 5-4, in 14 innings.

With these games included in his statistics, Lundahl batted .271 with no home runs and 18 RBI in 55 games. He had 55 hits in his 203 at-bats.

"I had a little stint this year where I went 13-for-21 in a week," he said. "There were four doubles and eight RBI. That would've to be my highlight week, for sure."

Reflecting on what he's learned on the diamond while at UCI, Lundahl said that he appreciates the knowledge he's gained about baseball.

"It's great instruction," he said. "All of our coaches are great teachers. They know so much about the game and they'll teach you more stuff than you even thought that you needed to know, a lot of knowledge about what to do in certain situations with the ball, whereas in high school you just pick it up and throw it. You learn a lot about what situations occur. They're definitely very insightful.

"The one thing we need to work on is the slider, the slider in college," Lundahl said. "You don't see it a lot in high school. You know guys are able to command the ball for strikes better in college, so it's a little bit of an adjustment. Strikes, strikes, strikes, and they'll throw all their pitches for strikes. It takes a little more discipline and you have to raise your game up a little more."

With the season now complete, Lundahl will shift gears and take the summer off from organized baseball.

"I will stay back at Irvine and take some summer school to catch up on some school that I've been missing and get in the weight room and put on some more weight," he said.