Pictures Tell Story of Orlando Streak : Baseball: Notre Dame second baseman goes six for six after studying old photos of himself.

In a flash, Vinnie Orlando of Notre Dame High has transformed himself from a still life to a moving picture.

Orlando, a junior second baseman, recently developed a solution to his batting problems. Part of the credit, he insists, belongs to a shutterbug, a parent of one of his teammates, who captured him in action during a hot streak last season.

Orlando noticed that the sequence of photos, which were taken during a 12-for-13 hitting barrage, showed him shifting his bat behind his head before the pitcher’s delivery. Actually, he was bouncing his bat off his shoulder blade a few times to loosen his hands and prepare for the pitch.

Midway through this season Orlando was batting below .250. Two weeks ago, frustrated with his limited output, he revived the tapping motion.

“I saw the picture and said, ‘Hey, maybe that will work again,’ ” Orlando said. “You get a rhythm going. It’s just so I can get comfortable and get ready.”

It seems a rather picayune adjustment, but since Orlando’s been tapping, he’s been rapping.

Orlando tied a Southern Section record for most hits in a game last week against Harvard with six--three singles, two doubles and a home run. Indeed, Orlando pounded three two-run homers last week.

In all, Orlando was 10 for 14 with 10 runs batted in as Notre Dame beat Palos Verdes, Harvard, La Salle and Alemany.

“The ball just looked like a basketball up there,” Orlando said after his six-for-six outing. “I wasn’t trying to get hits, I was just trying to put the ball hard somewhere and if they fall, they fall.”

Since he started tapping, Orlando is 13 for 19 and has raised his average to .372. He has driven in 22 runs and stolen 19 of 20 bases this season.

“The first time we faced him, it looked like he was trying to pull the ball,” said Alemany Coach Jim Ozella, whose team fell, 9-5, on Saturday and surrendered two hits to Orlando. “This time he was trying to use the whole field. He’ll be a lot more successful that way.”

Now, Orlando pines to swing.

“He just wants to be up there,” Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville said. “Instead of warming up before a game he’s just kinda standing there holding that bat.

“He’s capable of hitting like this all the time. He’s just relaxing, that’s the key.”