Prep column: Hitting triple figures

After nine hours of baseball, with only a one-hour interruption for

lunch in between, Estancia High’s 100-inning game, a fund-raiser held

Wednesday, nearly required, of all things, extra innings.

The combined team of underclassmen and alumni, however, held off

impending darkness and held on for a 51-50 victory over a team of

seniors, culminating a day that Ernie “Let’s play two” Banks could truly

appreciate. The game began at 8 a.m. and ended around 6 p.m.

“We usually don’t get to 100 innings,” said Estancia Coach C.K. Green,

who hopes to make the spring break marathon, fueled by boundless

enthusiasm, not to mention a well-oiled pitching machine, an annual

event.

“When we broke for lunch around noon, none of the guys thought we were

going to make it and most of them didn’t think they really wanted to,”

Green said. “But, when we got to 85 innings, we were tied, 45-45, and

then it became a game. Both teams didn’t want to see the other guys win,

so they really focused and we got through it.”

Bound by rules that limited each at-bat to one pitch and each half

inning to a two-run maximum, current Eagles, alums including Green, less

than two years removed from a senior season in which he earned

All-Pacific Coast League honors, and several parents, made the day a

resounding success.

With about $1,000 in pledges -- yet to be collected -- as well as a

personally delivered $100 contribution from Principal Tom Antal, the

event could virtually triple the program’s minuscule budget, funded by

the Associated Student Body.

Senior outfielder J.B. Goff satisfied his hankering to play shortstop

by spending all day in the infield.

Green also said the unique defensive strategies induced by the two-run

rule helped exercise his players’ minds as well as their beleaguered

bodies.

“We had a lot of sore kids on Thursday,” Green said.

With 10 league games and only a potential handful of CIF Southern

Section baseball playoff contests remaining, it appears CdM senior Billy

Eagle, in his fourth varsity season, will not threaten former Sea King Ty

Harper’s school and Newport-Mesa District record of 132 career hits.

Eagle, a two-time All-CIF performer and twice the Newport-Mesa

District Player of the Year, enters today’s game with an even 100 varsity

hits.

However, CdM freshman Wess Presson, who leads the Sea Kings with 21

hits and a .404 batting average, may wind up posing a serious threat to

the totals Harper, now a junior first baseman and designated hitter at

Pepperdine, put up in just three varsity seasons (including a record 24

homers and 99 RBIs from 1997-99).

“I like the way (Presson) goes about his business,” said CdM Coach

John Emme, among those who have compared Presson’s exhaustive work ethic

to the one Harper displayed. “Nothing he has done so far has disappointed

me.”

Few may realize Emme is coaching under an assumed identity this

spring, at least when the Sea Kings sport their blue home jerseys.

Emme, who wore jersey No. 14 his first four seasons at the CdM helm,

discovered his blue No. 14 jersey missing at the beginning of this

season. He was so reluctant to wear another number, he began the season

coaching in a pullover jacket, before eventually adopting jersey No. 25.

With the new number, chosen because it was the one worn by his college

roommate at UC Davis, the Sea Kings have lost only one home game,

including quarterfinal and semifinal triumphs last week in the Pride of

the Coast Tournament.

Can it be long before Emme, whose 7-8 Sea Kings host Pacific Coast

League rival Northwood today at 3:15 p.m., shelves his No. 14 road jersey

for a No. 25 model?