He’s Not Nevin Yet, but Holcomb Could Be

After dismantling Mater Dei, 13-3, in their Division 5-A quarterfinal Friday afternoon, members of the El Dorado baseball team gathered around the radio to tune into their favorite group, Phil Nevin and Titan Backup Band.

With the College World Series coming to them live, this was one hit parade the El Dorado players weren’t going to miss. Even if it was being broadcast from oh-so-blah Omaha.

Nevin, you see, is not only Cal State Fullerton’s All-American third baseman; he’s an El Dorado graduate. He survived both Coach Steve Gullotti and the school cafeteria. It’s no wonder the current crop of Golden Hawks looks up to him. He’s Baseball America’s player of the year, a top draft prospect, a million-buckaroos-to-be.

Certainly, playing on the same hallowed ground as he did in high school doesn’t guarantee you a ticket to Nevin-Nevin Land, but it’s probably nice to know you’re getting the same dirt up your nose when you’re sliding into home.

At this, Shawn Holcomb sniffs. Nevin’s just a guy, says Holcomb, a senior pitcher/designated hitter. He worked hard, stayed focused, did what he was supposed to do. Now it’s paying off.

Funny, that’s what Gullotti says about Holcomb.

“Shawn feels the same way Phil Nevin feels,” Gullotti said. “He’s focused, he just zeros in. When he gets on the mound, he knows what to do.”

As he proved again Friday against Mater Dei.

Holcomb earned his 11th victory of the year--he has only one loss--by allowing two hits and striking out seven in five innings. At the plate, he singled, doubled, hit a home run and drove in four runs.

This season, he has an earned-run average of 1.04. He’s also batting .351 with six home runs and 33 RBIs.

He’s also a 6-foot-4, 200-pound, just-turned-18-year-old ready and waiting for the upcoming amateur draft . . . which he’d rather not talk about just yet.

There’s a personal matter to attend to first: Tuesday’s 5-A semifinal against Diamond Bar, the top-ranked team in the nation according to USA Today and Baseball America. Last year, Diamond Bar knocked El Dorado out of the playoffs with a 5-4 second-round victory.

Holcomb, who came in to pitch in the seventh inning, gave up the winning home run.

“We were up, 4-3, in the seventh inning, with two outs and no one on,” says Gullotti, who has lovingly reminded Holcomb of the scenario nearly every day this season.

“Their center fielder gets a base hit. We have two strikes on the next hitter, we decide to challenge him with a fastball . . . “

Gong. Diamond Bar’s best hitter, Jared Janke, blasts the ball over his home-field fence, a mere 350 feet or so.

Holcomb says he’ll never forget it. His coach and his teammates say they won’t let him; not when the opportunity for sweet redemption is just ahead.

“The ball went over the fence, and I was just in a daze,” Holcomb says. “The end of the season, just like that. You expect to win, and then everything you work for is gone. . . .

“Now we have another chance. I want it to happen.”

And Diamond Bar wants them back.

“They’ve been wanting to play us, we’ve been wanting to play them,” says Janke, a 6-5 212-pound senior with some serious statistics (10-0, 0.67 ERA and a .382 batting average). “It’s going to be a great game.”

And it’s going to be played at Cal State Fullerton, home of that guy who led El Dorado to the 4-A championship in 1989. You know: His name rhymes with “heaven.”

But no more comparisons. Besides the focus part, Holcomb is his own man. Raised in Missouri, he’s into country music as much as Pearl Jam. He does an impressive impersonation of George Bush--”I do a pretty good Dana Carvey doing George Bush,” he says--and he has a love for aquatics.

He attended the Powder Puff Innertube water polo match between the junior and senior girls, anyway.

Plus, Holcomb says, his No. 1 role model isn’t Nevin, it’s his older brother, Scott Holcomb, now playing triple-A ball for the Yankee organization. In an exhibition game last Thursday, Scott earned the victory--beating the Yankee major leaguers. It’s a fact of which his younger brother is oh-so proud.

“We talk all the time,” Shawn says. “We’re always really happy for each other when we do well.”

He certainly hopes he makes his brother proud against Diamond Bar. Although Tyson DowDell is expected to be the starting pitcher, Holcomb says there is a good chance he’ll be on the mound in relief late in the game. If not, he could put a dent in Diamond Bar as the designated hitter. Anything to erase the memory.

Last year, he got stomped. Tuesday, Holcomb wants to leave the field with Diamond Bar on the soles of his shoes.

The flip side to a very big hit? Could be worth tuning in.