TAKE FIVE: CCSN SLUGGER TYLIEN MANUMALEUNA

Thursday, April 19, 2007 | 6:57 a.m.

Leaving home, in St. George, Utah, for the first time was almost too difficult for sophomore slugger Tylien Manumaleuna.

He had left Dixie College, which jumped to Division II, for the Community College of Southern Nevada, but he did not take to the Las Vegas area. He told his father, Joe, he wanted to go home.

Joe, though, told CCSN coach and former Dixie classmate Tim Chambers to be tough on his son, that he was not going anywhere. The first baseman was benched several times in the preseason.

"It was real challenging," Tylien Manumaleuna says. "So many times, I wanted to go home, bag it, say I'm done with baseball. It's too hard for me."

Instead, he buckled down, got serious with school, his diet and workout regimen, dropped 30 pounds and has carried the Coyotes, with seven home runs in his past nine games, to the top of the Scenic West Athletic Conference.

"I've been humbled," Manumaleuna says. "I was a little (jerk) out of high school , a cocky little kid. This is the place I've grown up."

1. Who's smiling now?

Manumaleuna, 19, started his home-run tear with a seventh-inning, two-out, two-run shot that was the difference at Western Nevada. He saw the pitcher smile after taking strike one. "Like he thought he had the win and they'd win the series," he says. He planted the second pitch, a fastball - "looked like a big watermelon" - over the center-field fence.

2. Fat pitches

He struggled in the preseason, hitting .235. Since Western Nevada, Manumaleuna has been in a groove, pumping his overall batting average to .288. "I've just kept seeing pineapples," he says. "I'm sitting on pitches and not swinging at bad pitches. I'm waiting for my pitch. That helps. And taking a deep breath."

3. Leaner and meaner

The 6-foot, left-handed-hitting slugger arrived on campus carrying 260 pounds. Now, he's down to 230 since eliminating rice and bread , and he lifts weights and hits the treadmill with a fury. He slid home on his belly last weekend. Laughing, Chambers told him not to do that again.

4. In first

By sweeping Eastern Utah at home last weekend, CCSN (34-13, 24-8 in the Scenic West) took a one-game lead over the College of Southern Idaho (23-9 in league). The Coyotes play doubleheaders Friday and Saturday at Salt Lake, then finish the regular season at home next weekend against Southern Idaho. The Scenic West champ hosts the conference tournament.

5. Hey, Joe

Chambers was stunned when former Dixie football player and classmate Joe Manumaleuna walked into his office during his son's recruiting trip. Chambers played baseball at Dixie in the early 1980s. "Holy cow!" Chambers said. "What's up, Joe?" "My dad says he was crazy, outgoing, like he is now," Tylien Manumaleuna says. "He's fun to be around. Obviously, I look to coach Chambers like a second father."