Torrid Torrance Hitter Spreads Line Drives Like Seeds in the Wind : Prep Baseball: Antone Williamson already has 12 hits in 22 tries and 13 runs batted in in seven games.

Seeds .

That’s what Torrance High School’s Antone Williamson calls the line drives he stings all over Torrance Park.

“That’s because I like to spread ‘em all over the outfield,” Williamson explains.

It’s what he does best. Williamson, a 16-year-old junior third baseman, is already one of the South Bay’s most feared prep hitters. It’s a young season, but Williamson already has 12 hits in 22 at-bats, including 13 runs batted in. In seven games.

His secret? Williamson has a catchword for that, too.

Yard ball.

That’s the game Williamson and his high school teammates play with wooden bats and tennis balls in Williamson’s back yard in Torrance.

The back yard is about 20 yards wide by 50 long, which makes for rather cozy confines. So Williamson and his Torrance teammates include the house next door as part of the playing field.

The layout of the field makes for some bizarre rules. A ball hit off the neighbor’s house remains in play, but if it’s hit over the house it’s a double play. A ball hit over the fence into the adjacent schoolyard is a home run.

“It’s kind of like ‘arena’ baseball,” Williamson said. “But it’s good for your hitting, your fundamentals. You have to hit the ball up the middle, so it forces you to keep your head down.”

If you’re the pitcher in a yard ball game against Williamson, you keep your head down, too, lest you end up with a Spalding sandwich.

The game is all right with Torrance Coach Jeff Phillips, who is reaping the rewards of Williamson’s extracurricular batting practice. The Tartars, turning it around after an 11-15 record last year, have won six of their first seven games this year.

The Tartars travel to Cerritos for an 11 a.m. game Saturday in the Palos Verdes/Redondo Tournament. Cerritos handed them their only loss of the season, 5-3, in the El Segundo Tournament.

Torrance won again Wednesday afternoon, a 16-1 rout of Mira Costa. Williamson planted four seeds in Torrance Park’s outfield--two doubles and two singles.

“If Antone gets less than two hits a game, it’s either because they pitched around him or they caught the balls he hit,” Phillips said.

Williamson, a sturdy 6-foot, 180-pounder--he was the backup quarterback for Torrance’s football team--has a sweet left-handed swing reminiscent of a young George Brett. His powerful wrists allow him to crank up tremendous bat speed, and he has fence-clearing power to all three fields.

And Williamson knows how to hit the alleys. Half of his base hits this year have gone for extra bases--two doubles, two triples and two home runs.

The first of Williamson’s homers this season came in the first round of the El Segundo Tournament against Burbank Burroughs.

It was Williamson’s third at-bat of the year; two Torrance runners were on base in a scoreless tie. Williamson produced a 400-foot-plus shot that soared over the left-center field fence in the deepest part of the outfield and boosted the Tartars toward their first victory.

“The coach from Burroughs told me afterward that was the farthest ball he’s seen hit in his park, ever,” Phillips said.

Williamson hit his second homer against Long Beach Millikan in the El Segundo Tournament--a screamer into the right-center field gap that outraced Millikan’s outfielders into the shadowy reaches of the park.

Part of the reason for Williamson’s--and the team’s--early success is that Williamson, batting third in the Torrance lineup, has solid hitters surrounding him. Right fielder Eric Gonzalez, who was on the junior varsity last year, is a legitimate power hitter and bats cleanup. Bryan Mullings, Torrance’s shortstop, hits in the second spot and homered Tuesday in a 7-4 victory over Miraleste.

But being exposed in the Torrance lineup last season didn’t hurt Williamson’s numbers any.

He still hit .463 with four homers and 36 RBI as a sophomore. He struck out only five times in 82 at-bats, mounted a staggering .768 slugging percentage, and was selected to The Times All-South Bay and All-Southern Section 5-A Division teams.

He was 15 years old.

The biggest difference this year is Williamson’s defense. He was moved from shortstop to third base as a freshman and made only two errors at the position that season.

But last year, Williamson made seven errors in 26 games, most of them by overthrowing first base.

Williamson says he has pinpointed the problem over the off-season.

“I got hit by puberty,” he said. “I hadn’t gotten used to my body yet. So I was overthrowing it. Way overthrowing it.”

This year is a different story. Williamson has improved markedly on the hot corner, and while he has always possessed a slick glove and good range, he now throws to first base with telling accuracy.

College and professional scouts are coming out early to take a look at Torrance’s prodigy. Phillips already has “a big old stack of cards” from scouts in his desk.

“The way he’s been hitting the ball, he’s bound to impress people,” Phillips said. “We’re getting all kinds of scouts coming around, and they’re looking at him .”

One scout on hand Wednesday at Torrance Park left the grandstands with a smile and a catalogue full of notes.

Art Schuerman, a seasoned Los Angeles-based scout for the Milwaukee Brewers, considers Williamson one of the top juniors in his entire territory, which stretches from Huntington Beach to Malibu.

“He’s got two real good tools right now,” Schuerman said. “His arm and his hitting are particularly advanced at his age. He doesn’t run that good, but then again he doesn’t run that bad, either.”

Schuerman is more correct on the second count. Williamson already has four stolen bases this season.

Still, Schuerman and the legion of professional scouts who are bound to line up over the next couple of years for a peek at Williamson will probably have to wait their turn.

A lucky college could snare him first. Williamson is a bright and serious young man who recently handed Phillips a progress report with five A’s and one B on it.

He has his heart set on a business degree after high school, at a college close to home--”possibly in the Pac-10,” Williamson said. He says a professional baseball career can wait until after college.

“Antone is really a great kid,” Phillips said. “More often than not, the package isn’t always as complete as it is with him. And he’s never going to change, either. Antone will always be Antone.”