DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL MALE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:Rybarczyk’s home run sets tone

One hit is all John Rybarczyk had in his first week.

He made it count for Costa Mesa High’s baseball team.

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and the game tied against Century, Rybarczyk went after the first pitch.

The fastball, a little up, wound up over the center-field fence, a great way to start the season for Rybarczyk.

Hitting home runs is still somewhat of a novelty for the 6-foot-3 senior, as he’s hammered only four in his high school career.

But when the right fielder belted the homer to beat Century, 8-5, in the season opener, it came as no surprise to Coach Jim Kiefer.

“It’s not something I’m going, ‘Oh, wow! He hit a home run!’” Kiefer said. “He’s a guy we’re expecting big things from this year. He got a pitch to hit and he did what he’s capable of doing, and the timing couldn’t have been better.”

Kiefer’s seen his Mustangs take off after Rybarczyk’s blast.

Heading into Saturday’s Newport Elks Tournament Costa Mesa championship game against Calvary Chapel, the Mustangs were 4-0 on the season.

The start is the best in Kiefer’s two years at Costa Mesa.

One reason for the early success is the senior leadership provided by Rybarczyk. Last year, Kiefer said only one senior played and it left him in a quandary.

“I didn’t have captains last year,” he said. “I felt like I had to be the captain.”

Kiefer can manage now and leave it to Rybarczyk to set the tone. He is a pianist after all.

When Rybarczyk is not trying to stroke the baseball to all fields, he strokes the keys on a piano at church.

He got hooked on the piano when his grandma, Charlotte, introduced him and his two younger sisters to it more than six years ago.

“My grandma really wanted me and my sisters to play, so she started paying for our lessons,” said Rybarczyk, adding that when he plays he thinks of his late grandma. “It’s really fun. When you get a little rhythm, you can be creative.

“It’s really sweet to be able to do something a lot of people can’t do.”

Rybarczyk is far from mastering the piano, because as he put it, “I never really learned chords. I just learned the notes.”

That’s all right because Rybarczyk is still learning how to read pitches.

Sometimes he said playing the piano makes for interesting times in church. At least there’s a band and he’s not the lone performer on stage.

It’s the same on the baseball field.

After Rybarczyk’s big hit got Costa Mesa rolling, he went hitless in his next two games because what he attributed to bad mechanics at the plate.

He can afford to do so in stretches this year, unlike last year when he led the team in batting average (.408), hits (31), home runs (three) and doubles (seven).

Costa Mesa has five other solid seniors who start, and they look to improve on last year’s painful 9-16 record.

Rybarczyk is counting on a big year before he plans to play at Vanguard University. The two guys batting in front of him are off to prosperous starts.

“Our No. 3 hitter has just been raking the ball. The guy in the four spot has been making a lot of contact,” said Rybarczyk of Zach Von Berg and Chad Peterson. “We actually all haven’t played to our potential. But we play great defense and our pitching has picked us up a lot.”

Kiefer said the Mustangs have the ingredients to make the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Rybarczyk is thrilled about that because in his first two years at Costa Mesa things looked bleak.

“My first two years here before [Kiefer and assistant coach Marcus Franco] came were really kind of a mess. There wasn’t like a style of baseball we played or anything. It was unorganized,” Rybarczyk said. “Pretty much [Franco’s] responsible for any success I’ve had because I wasn’t even a really good hitter. I could hit in Little League, but I wasn’t able to hit [on] the varsity level until he was working with me.

“Last year was the first year I ever even hit a home run. He’s gotten a lot of power out of me that wasn’t there before.”

Rybarczyk proved how much in his lone hit in the first week of the season.

JOHN RYBARCZYK

Hometown: Costa Mesa

Born: Jan. 18, 1989

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 190 pounds

Sport: Baseball

Position: Right field

Coach: Jim Kiefer

Favorite food: Breakfast burrito

Favorite movie: “The Count of Monte Cristo”

Favorite athletic moment: Going four for four with a home run and a double last year during the Beach Pit Classic that snapped a six-game losing streak.

Week in review: Hit a game-winning three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning that gave the Mustangs an 8-5 season-opening victory.