He Comes Through With a Crunch : Prep baseball: Scouts are taking notice of Marina’s Marc Newfield, ranked 12th nationally by Baseball America, and his big-league swing.

One by one, the major league scouts line the backstop at Marina High School’s baseball diamond to get a glimpse of the slugger known as “Captain Crunch.”

While many of his teammates still save baseball cards, Marc Newfield collects baseball business cards. Scouts from coast to coast have wooed the Marina first baseman, whose swing has been compared to Eric Davis’.

Newfield earned his nickname last summer when stories of his towering home runs became legend throughout Orange County.

And beyond.

He’s ranked 12th nationally in Baseball America’s top 25 high school players. The magazine lists Newfield, 6 feet 4 and 205 pounds, as the nation’s top first baseman. He’s hitting .472 this season with 24 runs batted in and seven doubles.

More than 30 professional scouts watched Newfield go one for four in a 7-4 loss to Edison Saturday.

Marina Coach Paul Renfrow said all the attention has worn thin on the senior.

“He’s not as happy-go-lucky as he used to be,” Renfrow said. “You can see the pressure is starting to build on him. He’s not as relaxed as he used to be.

“The poor guy thinks the scouts are going to base their opinion on one game, and that’s not true. They’ve already made up their minds about him. He’s a certain first-rounder.”

Renfrow’s not the only one who has noticed Newfield’s potential--and the pressure on him.

“The scouts drive him crazy sometimes,” said pitcher Gene Sica, who is sidelined with a knee injury. “It rained two weeks ago and about six scouts waited out in the rain for him. He came out and ran for them and they thanked him. Then he went and hit for them.”

Newfield didn’t disappoint them. He stepped to the plate at the junior-varsity field adjacent to the varsity diamond. He knocked the first two pitches to the pitcher’s mound of the varsity field.

“They (scouts) had to be impressed with that,” Sica said.

Newfield merely shrugs when asked about pressure from the scouts.

“At first it was tough,” he said. “I worried all the time when they were here. I felt I had to prove myself in front of them.”

Newfield is still deciding whether to play college baseball or turn pro. He said he’s being recruited by Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach and University of the Pacific. He’ll probably make a decision by the major league draft, which starts June 4.

If he decides to play professional baseball, Newfield can’t sign a contract. Because he’s only 17 years old, Newfield will need his parents, Richard, a parole board officer, and Dee, who’s studying to be a court reporter, to sign for him.

“It’s going to be a big decision for him,” Renfrow said.

But Newfield has other worries lately. A right-hander, he led the county in home runs last season with 10. He was expected to challenge the county record (12, set in 1986 by Valencia’s Andy Ruscitto) again this year, but has only four so far.

“You can’t get the RBIs and homers if he can’t swing the bat,” Renfrow said, referring to the 18 walks Newfield has received this season. “Marc takes that on top of his shoulders. That’s life. He has to learn to deal with that.”

He’s also adjusting to a new position. He was a designated hitter in his first two seasons on the varsity but moved to first base last summer.

“I think (Baseball America) put me as the top first baseman because of my hitting,” Newfield said. “The scouts say they will try me in the outfield.”

Newfield said he lacks concentration at the plate and needs to be more patient. But his 29 runs scored are one of the main reasons Marina (12-11-2, 8-6 in the Sunset League) has qualified for the playoffs.

“(Pitchers) just started walking me a lot lately,” he said. “I was disappointed with my hitting earlier in the year. I kept going up to the plate thinking I was going to get walked. I didn’t have the right attitude.

“I haven’t seen many fastballs. They haven’t pitched around me. It’s just that I haven’t been ready to hit.”

But when he is ready to hit . . .

Newfield pointed to Marina’s left-field wall, 340 feet from home plate. Then he pointed to the three-story apartment building behind the wall.

“We were playing Fountain Valley last year and I put one over the wall and the apartment building,” Newfield said.

Said Renfrow: “He’s just awesome when he hits the ball. He hits the ball so hard and it moves so fast, the outfielders don’t even have a chance to move.”

Stories of Newfield’s home runs are famous throughout the Mickey Mantle summer leagues, said Marina teammate Robin Lindsey.

“Our Mickey Mantle team started calling him Captain Crunch,” Lindsey said. “You should have seen him in the league. He just bombed balls. One at the Pacific Regionals went 500 feet. He had 12 homers in only 20 games.”