Blyleven Leaves Sooners; He’ll Attend Cypress

CYPRESS — Todd Blyleven has left the University of Oklahoma and will play baseball at Cypress College this spring, Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said Thursday.

Blyleven, son of Angel pitcher Bert Blyleven, played at Villa Park High School last year.

Blyleven said he left Oklahoma because he wanted to be closer to his family. He plans to enroll at Cypress today.

He also considered Rancho Santiago and Fullerton, but picked Cypress because he knew several of the current players and had played with some of them this summer on a Connie Mack League All-Star team.

Blyleven along with Jason Bates, Doug McConathy and Troy Babbitt, all sophomores at Cypress, were teammates this summer. Monte Jones, who has transferred from Cal State Northridge to Cypress and will play this spring, was also on the all-star team.

“I became a better coach today,” Pickler said, jokingly. “He’s going to help us a lot; he is a big, strong kid who knows what he’s doing.”

Blyleven, a right-hander, was 8-2 with a 1.26 earned-run average last spring at Villa Park. He initially planned to attend Cal State Fullerton so he could work with pitching coach Vern Ruhle. But when Coach Larry Cochell resigned at Fullerton and took the job at Oklahoma, Ruhle followed and so did Blyleven.

Had Blyleven gone to another Division I college, he would have had to sit out a season, but he will be able to play right away at Cypress, which opens its season Feb. 1.