Community College Regional Baseball Playoffs : Friedman Muscles In on Prominence at Cypress

Despite some success as a hitter, Jason Friedman was pretty much an unknown for Cypress College as a freshman last season.

Friedman had a strong second half of the season, and ended up hitting .390. He also was named to the Orange Empire Conference’s first team. But regardless, he didn’t instill fear in the minds of pitchers.

He was a singles hitter at a time when sluggers were dominating community college baseball. Bobby Hamelin hit 31 home runs and Mike Gonzales hit 10 for conference-champion Rancho Santiago last season; Friedman hit three for second-place Cypress.

In fact, Friedman had just 15 extra-base hits among his 53 last season.

Friedman, a left-handed hitter, had pretty much mastered the line-drive single to left. But this season, he wanted more. He began lifting weights and working more on driving the ball, as stressed by Cypress hitting coach Gordon Blakely.

“I knew if anybody was going to want me (in the major league draft or at a four-year college), I would have to hit some home runs,” said Friedman, 19. “So I started to work on the weights to get stronger.”

The results have been impressive.

Friedman, who is 6-feet-2 and about 200 pounds, had 34 extra-base hits among his 77 this season, including 10 home runs and a Cypress single-season record 20 doubles. Even with the added power, Friedman still hit .389 and only struck out 10 times. He has signed a letter of intent to play at Cal State Fullerton in the fall.

Friedman needs two hits in this weekend’s Southern California Regional playoffs to break the Cypress single-season record. Cypress (31-13) plays Rancho Santiago (29-15) at 11 a.m. today in the first round of the double-elimination tournament.

Friedman capped the regular season with a ninth-inning, two-run home run to give Cypress a 6-4 victory over Fullerton and the conference championship. Friedman was voted the most valuable player of the conference by its coaches last week.

“He wasn’t the kind of player you would think could win an MVP a year ago,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said. “But he really started to work hard at driving the ball and that’s what we stress around here.”

It was Blakely and Pickler who recruited Friedman from Cypress High School, where he was a two-time all-league player. Even with this success, Friedman wasn’t sure about playing baseball after high school.

“I really wanted to go to a four-year school,” he said. “But no one recruited me. I almost was just going to go to San Diego State and maybe try and walk-on. I was thinking about giving it up, too.”

Friedman thought about it and decided to give it a try at Cypress, where the coaches seemed interested. Besides, the school was only about a mile from his house.

A first baseman most of his life, Friedman had to sit behind starter Tim Churchill at the beginning of last season. Churchill went on to have a 34-game hitting streak, beginning with Game 1, and is currently playing minor league baseball for the Phillies.

Meanwhile, Friedman started to work out in left field. He worked his way into the starting lineup--either in left or as the designated hitter--by the time conference play began. He started this season in right field, but has since switched back to left.

He had a 23-game hitting streak this season and had hits in 23 of 24 conference games.

“I don’t think numbers play a big part in his game,” Pickler said. “He just works on each at-bat. We don’t post averages, but I’m sure some of our players know exactly what they are hitting. He’s not that concerned about it. He just likes to hit. He would be here every day if we let him.”

Friedman concentrates on making solid contact in each at-bat.

“I just want to hit it hard each time I’m up,” he said. “I didn’t really care about the streak. I remember last season that Church (Churchill) got pretty stressed over it. It was a blast while it was going on, but it wasn’t something to worry about.”

Southern California Regional Notes

Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said he will start Willie Navarrette (11-4) today. Cypress’ Scott Pickler will decide today. Navarrette made all four starts against Cypress this season, winning twice and losing once. Rob Ney got the other victory in relief as Rancho Santiago won three of the four meetings. Jack Bailey (12-4) is Rancho Santiago’s other starter. . . . Rich Lodding (7-2) made three starts for Cypress against Rancho Santiago, and Jeff Patterson (9-3) made the other. Lodding won one and lost one. Patterson and Dennis Burbank (12-4) suffered the other losses for Cypress. . . . Cypress catcher Terry Tewell should be looking forward to facing Rancho Santiago a little more than his teammates. Tewell hit half of his season’s six home runs against the Dons, including two off Navarrette. One of his home runs off Navarrette cleared the center-field fence at Rancho Santiago, which is 408 feet from home plate. . . . The numbers on the walls at Rancho Santiago are in meters, but in case you forget your conversion table, its 325 feet down the foul lines and 355 in the power alleys. . . . Southern California Conference winner Angeles Harbor (29-13) plays Pacific Coast Conference winner Palomar (21-15-1) at 3 p.m. in the other first-round game at Rancho Santiago. The winners of Friday’s games play at Rancho Santiago at 11 a.m. Saturday. The losers play at Fullerton College Saturday at 11 a.m.. The championship game is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday. . . . Ticket prices are $4 for adults and $2 for students and children under 12. . . . In the other regional at Cerritos College, Long Beach (24-14) plays Cerritos (35-8) at 11 a.m., and Mt. San Jacinto (24-15) meets Ventura (29-9) at 3 p.m.