Joe Cantarella

Barry Faulkner

The distinction exists between having fun playing baseball and

playing baseball to have fun.

The former takes place in major league replica uniforms, among

fresh-faced Little Leaguers who often merely bide their time between

the lines as prelude to the postgame pizza party.

The latter begins to occur wearing school colors, when hitting the

cutoff man is no longer the product of a short throw from a reluctant

outfielder and the minutia of the game takes on a mystic importance

to prep players approaching the peak of their physical prowess.

Sometime over the summer before his junior year, Newport Harbor

High pitcher Joe Cantarella made the often imperceptible shift,

consciously choosing to tackle his debut varsity season with a

healthy respect, as well as an abiding love, for the game.

“I just decided I wasn’t going to be the same person I was,” said

Cantarella, whose determination led him out of a pack of newcomers

into the Sailors’ starting rotation, from where he has emerged as the

team’s most successful pitcher.

Though still a source of levity that prompts Coach Joel Desguin to

describe him as a free spirit, when Cantarella takes the mound, it is

usually his teammates who try to keep him loose, not the other way

around. Facing his catcher from his elevated perch in the center of

the diamond, he is more about punch-outs than punch lines, more about

gripping the stitches than inducing them with his wit.

“I’ve really seen him maturing in the last couple months,” Desguin

said. “There is a time for joking around and a time to be serious and

compete. He likes to compete.”

Mixing and spotting his fastball, curveball and changeup,

Cantarella has gotten the best of the competition thus far. And his

willingness to compete was never more evident than in Friday’s

complete-game, two-hit shutout in a 1-0 Sea View League victory over

visiting Laguna Hills.

“I was very motivated to get our first league win,” Cantarella

said of Friday’s triumph, which snapped the program’s 19-game Sea

View League losing streak, dating back to the spring of 2001. “We all

wanted that win pretty badly, because it had been a 19-game

frustration.”

Cantarella sailed through the first six innings, facing the

minimum and benefiting from a fifth-inning run by the Sailors. But,

he said, the one-run lead only heaped more pressure onto his 6-foot,

155-pound frame.

“When we got that one run, I knew I couldn’t make a mistake,” the

Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week said. “Some of my teammates were

trying to keep me calm.”

A walk and the second Laguna Hills hit put runners at first and

second with two outs in the seventh, but Cantarella induced a pop-up

to the third baseman to protect the shutout. The win evened

Cantarella’s record at 2-2, lowered his ERA to 2.74 and sparked a

joyous celebration.

“As soon as our third baseman caught it, I ran right over to him

and jumped on him,” Cantarella said. “It was the best. I’ve never had

a better feeling in baseball my whole life.”

Baseball has been a big part of Cantarella’s life since childhood

and control has always been his biggest asset as a pitcher.

“He goes right after hitters, works ahead and makes good pitches,”

Desguin said of his right-hander, who has fanned eight and walked

seven in 23 innings this spring.

“I’ve always been good with my mechanics and I’ve always had

pretty good control,” Cantarella said. “But when I came to the

varsity, I really wanted to focus on keeping the ball down and

limiting my mistakes, because these aren’t little guys hitting the

ball anymore. If you miss your spots at this level, guys will start

killing the ball.”

Cantarella said the shutout victory over Laguna Hills was

extremely satisfying, but even his approach to success has now

changed.

“Last year, I would have been bragging about it,” he said. “Now, I

want to keep quiet about it. I just loved being a part of [the win],

but I want to just let it go.”

By letting go of a more casual approach to the game, Cantarella

has freed himself up to not only achieve, but enjoy and appreciate

his mound success.