By DAVID PRESZLER

It's been a season of turn-arounds for Brian Fachet and Jake Stewart.

The two former Crater High baseball standouts have played key roles in a successful season for Shasta College of Redding, Calif., and jump-started their own college careers in the process.

At this time last year, Fachet and Stewart were disenchanted with junior college baseball. Both had gone out for squads -- Fachet at Chemeketa Community College in Salem and Stewart at College of the Siskiyous in Weed, Calif. -- only to quit before the season got going.

Now the hard-hitting duo is leading the Knights into the California regional playoffs as the 14th seed. Shasta, which finished 20-16 for its first 20-win regular season since 1992, faces third-seeded Canada College in Redwood City on Friday.

"We did pretty well," says Fachet. "California (junior college ball) is a lot different than Oregon. It's a lot more competitive down here. It's just been a great experience."

The Knights went 11-25 last season -- their first under coach Brad Rupert. He says Fachet and Stewart deserve a fair chunk of credit for this year's success. They were key components on a team that led the Golden Valley Conference in batting average, home runs and runs scored.

"These two Oregon guys were a big part of it," he says. "They were driving in runs and when the opportunities arose they got it done."

Fachet hit .314 with a team-best 40 RBIs and seven home runs as the Knights' clean-up hitter and third baseman. He was a first-team all-GVC selection in leading Shasta to a second-place finish in the league at 17-9.

"Five of those home runs were either to win a game, tie a game or go ahead," Rupert says. "Seems like every time he hit a home run it was a big one."

Stewart was the designated hitter or first baseman in every game and hit .364 with 30 RBIs and one homer from the No. 6 spot. He made second-team all-GVC.

"He was our only true left-hander in the lineup," Rupert says. "When they had right-handed pitching, he seemed to flourish."

Stewart says having Fachet around has been a big bonus.

"It's fun," he says. "It's nice to have someone you played with all through high school."

Stewart says that after their bad experiences at the other junior colleges, the two thought going to the same school might help.

"We decided to come here together," he says. "I'm glad it worked out like this. It's been for the better."

Both players are freshmen in terms of athletic eligibility. They both plan to return to Shasta next season and spend the summer in Redding playing for the semi-pro Redding Oaks.

Fachet, who hit 24 homers for the Medford Mustangs last summer, hopes another solid year will get him to NCAA Division I baseball at the University of Southern Mississippi, which has shown some interest. He says the year at Shasta has been extremely helpful in reaching that goal.

"Rupert really took our fundamentals to another level," he says. "We really worked on our swings and shortened them up."

Fachet has also improved on what has been the weakest facet of his game: fielding.

"I'm trying to work on that because at the next level you have to be able to field and hit," he says. "I'm taking a lot of ground balls and doing a lot of fungo work."

Rupert says they spent much of the fall and early spring working on Fachet's footwork and throwing motion. He noticed a marked improvement in Fachet's fielding during the season.

"We just got his feet going and got him on top of the ball so he wasn't throwing sliders to first base," Rupert says.