El Camino Appears Ready to Start Baseball Tradition

With four San Diego Section championships in football, two in boys’ basketball and one in girls’ basketball, El Camino High has gained a reputation as a sports school.

Unfortunately, it has never been a baseball school. In 13 years of trying, the baseball team has never even made the section playoffs.

But after El Camino’s 5-1 victory over visiting San Marcos Friday, it appeared as if that dubious streak might end soon. The Wildcats’ victory gave them a 2-1 Avocado League record, a half-game behind league leader Oceanside, and an overall mark of 8-4.

El Camino’s game Wednesday was rained out; the Wildcats had not played since Monday’s 9-2 loss to Oceanside.

“I thought mentally we weren’t with it against Oceanside,” El Camino Coach Adrian Leon said. “So we had a team meeting and discussed some things. I was anxious to see how we would respond.

Senior left-hander Joe Malek responded with a four-hit complete game to improve to 3-2.

If anyone knows anything about winning, it’s Malek. He quarterbacked the Wildcats to the section title this year.

“The attitude’s changed,” Malek said. “This is the ‘90s. I hate losing, and so do the other football players.”

Seven football players were in El Camino’s starting lineup Friday. Malek’s catcher, Ricky Spears, was a first-team All-Section linebacker. Although he did not get a hit in three at-bats Friday, he has six homers and an average over .400.

Malek, only 5-feet-4, threw just 69 pitches and walked just one batter. His only mistake was a high fastball to Eric Martin that was hit over center fielder Kevin Knudson’s head for an inside-the-park homer.

“I was really prepared for this game, and that’s the key,” Malek said. “The umpire was calling a lot of strikes, so I just tried to work the corners.”

El Camino scored a run in the first on Martin Arispe’s RBI single, and it appeared San Marcos (6-6, 1-1) would come back with one in the second as Tim Fletcher led off with a double down the left-field line. But one batter later, Fletcher was caught off second base on Brian Calloway’s grounder to third.

San Marcos mounted another threat in the fifth, but Malek struck out Calloway with two outs and runners on second and third.

Fred Hernandez’s RBI double in the fifth gave El Camino a 2-0 lead, and the Wildcats broke the game open with three runs in the sixth. J.R. Patton and Brian Clark’s had RBI singles, and a catcher’s interference call allowed the other run to score.