Rodriguez Plans to Stick Around

Albert Rodriguez’s dreams of playing Division I college baseball appeared to be in jeopardy when he learned that he didn’t meet Stanford’s admission requirements this month.

Rodriguez, a shortstop at Westminster High School, was two months away from graduation and suddenly had no idea where he would attend college. Stanford was his first choice; he didn’t even have a No. 2 and hadn’t been heavily recruited by schools other than Stanford.

“Everybody was convinced he was going to Stanford,” Westminster Coach Ken Ostrowski said. “I felt like he was good enough that he should be one of these first kids to get signed right away. He deserves to be at a big Division I school.”

Things have changed in the last week. Rodriguez still isn’t sure where he will go to college, but at least he has some options. Cal State Long Beach, UC Irvine and California are among the schools that are interested in him.

Rodriguez is hitting .492 with 4 home runs, 5 doubles, 5 triples and 15 RBIs in 19 games. But what has most impressed college coaches is his defense. He has only three errors.

“We were very interested in him,” Stanford Coach Mike Marquess said. “He is a tremendous defensive player. There aren’t a lot of good defensive shortstops. Wherever he goes, someone is going to get a quality shortstop.”

Rodriquez has a 3.5 grade-point average but said his Scholastic Aptitude Test score of 980 wasn’t good enough for Stanford.

Ostrowski said the word is out about Rodriguez.

“The recruiting war is starting to heat up,” Ostrowski said. “I’m information central.”

Ostrowski is as impressed with Rodriguez’s offense as his defense.

“He’s very smooth with his hands defensively, and that carries over to the plate,” Ostrowski said. “He doesn’t limit himself to one field. He can hit the ball to (right) field with power. Pitch it inside, and he turns on it. Pitch it outside, and he drives it. That’s why he’s a dangerous at-bat. That’s why he’s our best hitter.”

Rodriguez says he hopes to make a decision in the next two weeks.

“It’s probably between UCI and Long Beach,” Rodriguez said, adding that he is leaning toward Irvine. “I just went to UCI and it looked good. I just think it’s a better school.”

Westminster (5-3-1, 14-4-1), in third place in the Sunset League and ranked seventh in the county, certainly has benefited from Rodriguez, said Ostrowski, a first-year coach.

“I couldn’t have stepped into a better situation having a kid like him at a crucial position like shortstop,” Ostrowski said. “He has a very professional manner with how he handles himself on the field and off of it.”

Rodriguez, 17, is 5-feet 8-inches, 145 pounds. He gained five pounds in the off-season with a weightlifting program.

Rodriguez, who played on a scouting team for the Atlanta Braves last summer, hasn’t drawn much attention from professional baseball scouts.

“Scouts make me so mad. They drive me up the wall,” Ostrowski said. “They’ll say he’s too small--that he’s not durable enough to make it through a 162-game season. It’s the same thing they told the Brian Downings and all the other players who were always told they couldn’t make it.”