Sajor Nearly KOs Himself Trying to Beat Camarillo

Call it wishful thinking.

When asked by paramedics Friday where he was, Channel Islands High baseball player Eddie Sajor responded, “McDonald’s?”

Actually, the Raider center fielder lay nearly motionless on the outfield grass at Channel Islands after colliding head-first into the outfield fence.

The game was delayed 25 minutes as Sajor was surrounded by a fire engine, an ambulance, several concerned teammates and his parents. The senior leadoff hitter was then taken to St. John’s Hospital Regional Medical Center for X-rays and was later released.

Camarillo went on to win the Marmonte League game, 10-5.

The X-rays showed that Sajor had a compressed vertebra. He is expected to miss Channel Islands’ three remaining games.

“I was just kidding around about McDonald’s,” Sajor said from his home Friday night. “Everyone was worried and I just wanted to let them know I was OK.”

Sajor ran into the fence in the sixth, when Camarillo’s Chris Lillich hit the ball deep to center. Sajor turned just as he collided with the fence and hit his forehead on a pole which runs across the top of the fence.

He fell to the ground, then slowly got up and threw the ball toward the infield. By that time, Lillich was well on his way to a three-run inside-the-park home run.

“To look for it on the ground, crawl to it--knocked out--pick it up and throw it in, that’s heart in my book,” Channel Islands Coach Don Cardinal said. “I hope someone was videotaping that play. I’d use it to show everybody what all-out effort is.”

Sajor never actually lost consciousness, but his impact pushed the permanent chain-link fence about eight inches past its original location.

“I didn’t want to quit right there and die,” Sajor said. “I knew the game was still going on.”

The Raiders (3-7 in league, 8-12 overall) close out their season without Sajor, their leading hitter with a .455 average, who was instructed by doctors Friday not to participate in any physical activity for a week.

Camarillo pitcher Travis Willis, who had pitched no-hitters in both of his previous assignments against Channel Islands this year, struck Sajor out to open the first. But suspense whether he would record a third no-hitter was short-lived.

Henry Alfaro, the Raiders’ No. 3 hitter, hit a soft line drive up the middle in the first to kill any hopes Willis may have had for a hat trick. Channel Islands went on to collect nine hits.

Willis wasn’t surprised that Channel Islands finally caught up with him.

“It would be very hard to throw three no-hitters against the same team,” he said. “Anyway, I didn’t have all my stuff today and they made me pay for it.”

Willis, however, was still good enough to go the distance and strike out nine to improve his record to 9-2.

Channel Islands gave the Scorpions (7-4, 14-8) an early scare, scoring twice in the fourth to take a 5-4 lead.

Tom Couture opened the inning with a walk and moved to second on Brian Courtney’s single. They both scored when Sajor followed with a triple to center. Sajor was 2 for 3 before leaving the game.

Camarillo, which took a 3-0 lead in the third behind back-to-back homers by Ken Sirak (a two-run shot) and Lillich, scored twice in the fifth to take the lead for good, 6-5.

The Scorpions added four runs in the sixth, when Lillich hit his second home run of the game and fifth of the season on the fly ball to center on which Sajor was injured.

The victory strengthened Camarillo’s hold on second place in league, 3 1/2 games behind first-place Simi Valley.