OC Register: Ex-Angels teammates pick each others brains as college coaches

[AngelsWin.com]

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  UC Riverside head coach Troy Percival and Nebraska head coach Darin Erstad meet at home plate before the start of their non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside head coach Troy Percival talks with pitcher Riley Ohl, (#51), during Saturday’s non-conference game against Nebraska at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  Nebraska head coach Darin Erstad, watches from the dugout during Saturday’s non-conference game against UC Riverside at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside’s Riley Ohl, (#51), delivers a pitch in the first inning to Nebraska’s Spencer Schwellenbach, (#1), during Saturday’s non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside’s Damien Sanchez,(#1), misses the ball as Nebraska’s Spencer Schwellenbach, (#1), slides into second base safely during Saturday’s non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  Nebraska’s Angelo Altavilla, (#7), turns a double play as UC Riverside’s Alec Arnone, (#7), during Saturday’s non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside’s Nick Kafer,(#18), reaches for a fly ball against Nebraska during Saturday’s non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside’s Cole Pofek, (#23), rounds second base as Nebraska’s, Cam Chick,(#29), mishandles a ground ball during Saturdays non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside’s Cole Pofek, (#23), slides home safely in the first inning against Nebraska during Saturday’s non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside’s Travis Bohall,(#30), slides safely into home during Saturday’s non-conference game against Nebraska at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  Nebraska’s Spencer Schwellenbach, (#1), catches UC Riverside’s Dylan Orick,(#35), during Saturday’s non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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  UC Riverside’s Dean Miller, (#20), bats against Nebraska during Saturday’s non-conference game at University of California Riverside in Riverside, Ca., February 16, 2019. (John Valenzuela/ Contributing Photographer)

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RIVERSIDE – The dozens of card games, hundreds of lunches and road trips all over the continent, the thousands of hours of conversations on every element of the game of baseball when they were Los Angeles Angels teammates and this is what Troy Percival remembers the most about Darin Erstad.

And no, it wasn’t the obvious connection you’d think. It wasn’t Erstad putting away Kenny Lofton’s fly ball – one induced by Percival on the mound – for the final out of the 2002 World Series.

“I remember I came into a game to get a courtesy inning,” Percival said. “He had just come off a concussion and made a diving play that gave him another concussion. So I go to the hospital to see him and ask him, ‘What are you doing? That game was over.’ He goes, ‘No. The ball is never falling.’

“I’ve never forgotten that. Especially when you’re on the mound, the ball is never falling. That’s just who he is. It’s fun to watch what he turns his teams into. They follow a good leader.”

Erstad’s Nebraska Cornhuskers followed their leader into Riverside this weekend for a four-game series with Percival’s UC Riverside Highlanders. It’s the third season in a row the two former Angels teammates have started their collegiate seasons playing each other by coaching their respective alma maters, but the first time they’ve brought the series to the Riverside Sports Complex, where Percival’s retired No. 40 features prominent on the center-field wall. The previous two seasons, the teams met at the Angels’ spring-training complex in Mesa, Ariz., splitting four games.

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Nebraska captured Friday night’s game, 21-6. The teams split Saturday’s doubleheader, with UCR winning the opener, 10-9, behind three hits from freshman Alec Arnone and two hits and two RBI from freshman Damian Sanchez, and Nebraska taking the nightcap, 10-6.

Putting aside the ebb and flow of a long college baseball season, nothing has ebbed in the flow of the relationship between Percival and Erstad that began when Erstad joined the Angels in 1996 and lasted through and beyond the ends of their professional careers in 2009. The two built a friendship that surprised no one who knows them and their intense, focused personalities, having regular lunches, working out together and asking questions of each other about their respective disciplines.

“I respect him probably more than anyone in the world,” Erstad said. “We’re on the phone a lot anyway. Both of us being head coaches, you deal with issues with teams and you’re trying to learn from everyone and what different people are going through. He’s obviously got a huge pitching background, so I’ve always picked his mind about it.”

Percival hasn’t been shy about doing the same, especially since seeing what Erstad has turned the Cornhuskers into since taking the job at his alma mater in 2012. The former Angels center fielder entered his eighth season winning 58 percent of his games, along with a Big Ten title and three trips to the NCAA Regionals.

“As soon as I got the job here, I called him and started getting advice, because this is not an easy job to do if you were never an assistant,” Percival said. “I picked his brain pretty much four, five times a week. I was calling him asking questions like ‘How do you start the program? How do you get your influence into the team?’ Just everything top to bottom and he was always there to answer the call.”

Erstad answered the call during the offseason, when Percival called to inquire about – naturally – getting hitting philosophy from a player who, in 2000, hit .355 with 240 hits. Erstad told his former teammate about a book called “High Scoring Baseball” that Percival and his coaches devoured and incorporated this season in an effort to go next-level offensively.

That book stresses situational hitting, execution and putting the ball in play. In otherwords, Erstad and Percival have come full circle when it comes to making the ball fall.

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