Dolan’s Pitch Could Lead to Lucky Break : Prep baseball: Junior’s knuckle-curveball is baffling hitters. It also could get the San Clemente student a pro contract.

The autograph hounds wouldn’t leave Ken Dolan alone. After pitching the first no-hitter of his high school career last week, a group of grade-school kids, none of them taller than Dolan’s waist, were begging for his signature.

Dolan, a junior at San Clemente High School, obliged them all.

Not far away, a group of men packed up their radar guns and pitching charts. They, too, would like to have Dolan’s signature, but not as memorabilia.

As many as 15 major league scouts show up every time Dolan’s pitches. They check the speed of his fastball with their guns and oooh and aaah at his breaking pitch.

In a year, Dolan will sign on the dotted line, whether it’s a letter of intent for college or a professional contract.

“The scouts have been coming around to watch Ken pitch since he was a freshman,” San Clemente Coach Joe Miller said. “There seem to be more and more show up every time he pitches. They know a good thing when they see it.”

It might seem odd that all of this attention is being paid to a 16-year-old high school pitcher. Especially one who has won a grand total of nine victories in 2 1/2 years.

But considering the Tritons have won only 18 games during that time, Dolan’s record doesn’t look too bad. Besides, he has a lot more on the ball than his won-loss record indicates.

While Dolan’s fastball, which has been clocked at 86 miles per hour, has impressed coaches and scouts, it’s his breaking pitch that has them talking. Dolan throws a knuckle-curveball, a pitch made famous by former Dodger Burt Hooton, and has been baffling hitters with it since he was in the San Juan Capistrano youth leagues.

The pitch is thrown with one knuckle on the ball. However, instead of floating to the plate like a knuckleball, it comes in hard like a fastball, then breaks down.

“The problem is, you’re not sure what you’re seeing,” Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Zamora said. “By the time you decide it’s a knuckle-curve, it’s the seventh inning.”

Capistrano Valley has lost to Dolan three times in three years.

As a freshman on the varsity, Dolan pitched a one-hitter against the Cougars, who at the time were defending Southern Section 3-A champions. And this season, Dolan has pitched a no-hitter against them.

What’s even more painful for Zamora is that Dolan learned the pitch from Jim Kemper Sr., who had two sons play at Capistrano Valley.

Kemper had thrown the knuckle-curve when he was in high school and taught it to his sons, Jim and Eric. Dolan learned the pitch when he played on a Little League team with Eric. Four years later, Kemper coached Dolan again and was surprised how well he had mastered the pitch.

“In Little League, Ken’s arm was too strong,” Kemper said. “God gave him a thunderbolt for a right arm and he tried to throw everything hard. But by the time he pitched in Senior Leagues, he had learned to control the knuckle-curve. No one could touch it.”

At the time, Dolan lived within the Capistrano Valley boundary, so Kemper thought that he was grooming him to be a Cougar.

However, when Dolan was in the eighth grade, the Capistrano Unified School District boundaries were adjusted and he found himself living three blocks inside the San Clemente boundary.

“Jim kept telling me about this great pitcher we were going to get,” Zamora said. “When he never showed up, I asked Jim what happened. He said that Dolan had gone to San Clemente. I keep kidding Jim about training a kid to beat Capistrano Valley.”

Zamora wasn’t the only coach who was hearing about Dolan. Miller was told that a great pitcher was coming to San Clemente.

Miller, who was somewhat skeptical at first, decided to watch the 13-year-old Dolan pitch. “You hear about a lot of great players who are in youth leagues, but you never know what to believe,” Miller said. “So I went to see for myself. The first time I saw Ken throw, I knew he was going to be on the varsity as soon as he got to San Clemente.”

Miller brought Dolan along slowly. As a freshman, he was used mostly in relief, with an occasional start.

Dolan was 6 feet but weighed just 150 pounds, so he lacked the stamina of the older pitchers. Still, he showed flashes of his capabilities.

Besides pitching the one-hitter against Capistrano Valley, Dolan also had a four-hit shutout against Mission Viejo.

It was in the Mission Viejo game that Miller first saw how tenacious Dolan could be on the mound. From the first pitch, the Diablo players taunted Dolan and kept calling him “Skinny Boy.”

Worried that his pitcher was going to be intimidated, Miller went to the mound to talk with him.

“I got out there and he was glaring at their bench and said, ‘I want to hit the next batter,’ ” Miller said. “I told him just to pitch. But I didn’t worry about Ken being a meek little freshman after that.”

It has sometimes been hard for Dolan to live up to the notoriety. He has had to pitch for a program that hasn’t won a league title since 1976 and plays in the South Coast League, one of the toughest in Orange County.

Dolan’s earned-run average has been under 2.00 all three seasons, including a 1.45 ERA this season. He also struck out 37 in 34 innings as a freshman and 66 in 56 innings as a sophomore. This season, he has 37 strikeouts in 29 innings.

However, his career record is 9-10, including 1-4 this season.

The Tritons, at times, haven’t played well in the field behind him. In his first varsity start, he struck out seven and allowed two earned runs; however, he lost to Sunny Hills, 7-6, on an error in the seventh.

In Dolan’s four starts this season, the Tritons have made six errors, leading to eight unearned runs.

“Last year, things like that would tie me in knots,” Dolan said. “I had to learn to just pitch and not get upset about anything that happened during the game. Besides, the guys in the field have saved my buns several times.”

But even Miller said Dolan’s record would be more impressive if he pitched for a better team.

“Ken’s played on teams where he’s had a lot of tough things happen,” Miller said. “I’m not saying we’re a bad club, but we are very young. When Ken gets on an experienced team, he’s really going to do something.”

And for that, Dolan may be only one year and a signature away.