San Diego Player of the Week : Power Play by Rusk Upstages Fallbrook’s Heavy Hitters

The wind was blowing out last Wednesday at Fallbrook High School’s baseball field, making it perfect weather for power hitters.

Fallbrook took advantage of the wind, hitting eight home runs to beat Carlsbad, 22-5. And although the team’s resident home-run hitters--Bill Dunckel, T.J. Flynn, Ty Barksdale and Mark Ringkamp--all hit homers, they were upstaged by shortstop Jason Rusk, the team’s leadoff hitter.

Rusk, a lean 150 pounds, tied a national record by hitting two home runs in the third inning. He hit another one in the sixth, giving him seven runs batted in for the day and raising his average to .450.

“I’m basically just the leadoff man,” Rusk said. “These home runs have really surprised me. . . . I hit two of them when I had two strikes on me. I was just trying to get a base hit and put the ball in play.”

One person who wasn’t surprised by Rusk’s performance was Dave Heid, Fallbrook coach. He said Rusk hit a home run as a sophomore that cleared a second set of fences at Fallbrook, about 360 feet from the plate.

“Jason’s got surprising power for a guy of his size,” Heid said. “He consistently hits them out as much as our bigger guys. He hit all three of those (home runs last week) pretty well.”

Heid doesn’t expect Rusk to abandon his short stroke and start swinging from the heels, even though the fences at Fallbrook are just 300 feet from home down the foul lines and 330 in center.

“I think he’s smart enough not to let it affect his swing,” Heid said. “He’s a very intelligent player. He knows his limitations, and he knows he wouldn’t have three home runs in many other places.”

After being named junior varsity player of the year as a sophomore, Rusk hit .291 as a utility infielder with the varsity last season. He credits his improved hitting to an ankle injury suffered while playing soccer.

“I pulled ligaments in my ankle in the third or fourth game of the season,” he said. “I could have come back for the last few games, but my doctor didn’t I think I should. Also, the team wasn’t doing so well, so I just started conditioning early for baseball. . . . Usually my swing peaks around the beginning of our league schedule. (This season) my swing is at its peak right now.”

With several talented seniors, Fallbrook (5-1) has received plenty of attention from major-league scouts. Heid expects Dunckel and Ringkamp to be chosen in the June free-agent draft. He added that scouts also have noticed the potential of Rusk, 17.

“Physically, he’s just a few years away,” Heid said. “I’ve told him he should redshirt his first year in college to give him extra time to develop.”

Rusk hopes to play regularly at Loyola Marymount, where he has been accepted. “I like their aeronautical engineering program,” he said. “I want to design airplanes and space vehicles. . . . My dad would really like me to play pro ball, and if it happens, that’s great. I’ll have a career in engineering to fall back on. I’d just like to have my education first.”