MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Tryouts for the top baseball team in the Marine Corps opened here a few weeks ago. More than 100 players showed up with hopes of making the prestigious Team Marine.

Coaches Lloyd Dawson and David Sandoval had the daunting task of choosing the 30 best players to fill the roster. Players from the East Coast, Hawaii and Okinawa are arriving within the next few weeks to be a part of the team as well.

"I think tryouts went really well this year," said Sandoval, the assistant coach who has played with the team for the last five years. "We had tryouts every Saturday for about a month, and we made sure the Marines knew what kind of players we were looking for," said Sandoval. "The level of competition in this league is excellent. You can't just play baseball once or twice a week and come out here and expect to be able to compete with the type of talent that's in our league. Players in this league range anywhere from college All-Americans to amateur players who know what they're doing when they step onto the diamond."

Sandoval said the depth of pitching the team has this year is the best he's seen in a long time.

"Usually we have two or three guys we really depend on to carry us through the season," explained Sandoval. "The past few years we've had to pick up a few civilian pitchers to play with us because of our lack of pitching. But, luckily this year we have five to 10 pitchers we can call on to give us some strong innings."

Offensively the team is as strong as ever too. Good news for the Marines. Bad news for opposing pitchers.

"We got some real good bats coming back," Sandoval said. "A few of our big bats missed last season because of deployments. But now everybody's returned and with them back in the lineup we should score a ton of runs."

Team Marine will begin playing in the Western Semi-Pro League and the South Bay Wood Bat League March 27. Most of the 45 games in the regular season will be played in Southern California, but the team also has planned trips to Central California and Las Vegas. Sandoval also thinks the team has enough talent to make it back to nationals in Wichita, Kan., like they did two years ago. The highlight of the season will be the game against the Navy at the San Diego Padres new PETCO Park Aug. 1.  The game will be played after the Padres face the Dodgers and anyone can stay around to watch the ninth installment of the exciting series.

Since there is not an official All-Marine baseball team, Team Marine has been funded by Camp Pendleton's Marine Corps Community Services for the past eight years.

"Team Marine is considered one of our varsity sports at Camp Pendleton," said Jim Duckworth, MCCS Athletic Director, Camp Pendleton. Duckworth said in '96 he got a call wondering if the Marines would like to play the Navy in a game at Qualcomm Stadium, the Padres old ballpark. "The general was supportive of the team so we started it up, and we've been playing the Navy for eight years now, and we've won six of the eight games."