From Montana to Loyola, Dembisky Is a Real Beaut : Baseball: Junior right-hander is a starter and reliever for Lions. His earned-run average is best on the team.

Take every melodramatic baseball movie script, mush them together and cast the whole thing on a Catholic college campus.

Voila , the Chad Dembisky story.

Consider that facts:

* The first time Loyola Marymount Coach Chris Smith saw Dembisky pitch, he thought the right-hander was crazy. Now, although he still wonders, he says the pitcher is, “Everything you idolized as a kid and wanted to be.”

* Dembisky, a junior who starts and relieves for the Lions, comes from your proverbial small town. When he was 12, his parents left California for the clean living of Darby, Mont. (pop. 591). That was just the beginning.

Darby was a great place to raise a family, but the high school didn’t sponsor a baseball program. To play, Dembisky had to drive 17 miles a day to American Legion practice, and his father Mike built an indoor pitching complex, complete with heating, radar guns, videotapes and a batting cage.

* From Montana, Dembisky moved to Lassen Junior College in Susanville, Calif., located 100 miles south of the Oregon border. He played only two games his freshman year because of injuries, but rebounded last year to go 15-1 and lead California community colleges in victories and strikeouts.

* A junior college All-American, he signed with Loyola Marymount based on a round of bullpen pitching.

“Every time he takes the ball, it’s a war,” Smith said. “It’s funny, because every time you give an interview, you say nice things about some guy. But this guy is the most unselfish, unstatistical person I’ve ever been around.

“I don’t care about his background. I’ve heard stories about how he’s shot a bear with a bow and arrow and stuff like that. Forget that. This kid really is a throwback to the old school, 1920’s style of baseball.”

On the mound, Dembisky paces, pumps, and constantly looks like somebody just slapped his mother right in front of him.

“It’s like he is in a controlled rage,” Smith said. “He’s under control and knows exactly what he is doing.”

Dembisky has started five games for the Lions (17-12 overall, 11-6 in West Coast Conference play) and relieved in 10. His record is not eye-popping (5-3, one save), but his 2.94 earned-run average leads the Lions and he has struck out 46 batters in 52 innings.

“Actually, I’ve been trying to throw the ball in play,” Dembisky said. “But by some mistake or misfortune, I’ve been throwing a lot of strikeouts.”

Smith thinks Dembisky’s attitude helps improve his strikeout totals. After all, even the pitcher will admit that he has an average fastball.

“He’s not really a strikeout pitcher,” Smith said. “But the feeling you get when you face him, it’s like ‘ What is this?’ If you go out there not into it, he’s at another level and will just overpower you with that attitude.”

“You try to be as aggressive as you can,” Dembisky said. “You just focus on one thing when you pitch, to get people out. I don’t know how to describe it and all that. It just comes from inside. I hate to lose.

“I’ve always hated to lose. Since I was little, I’ve always been battling. I’ve always been like that, on the edge.”

So much so, that when Smith needs to visit the mound, he makes it quick.

“I just say what I’ve got to say, and get . . . out of there,” Smith said. “The team just loves to see him on the mound. I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a kid where they get absolutely 100% out of their talent like him. You are not going to teach him about pitching. No way. And you cannot tell him about competing. No way.”

While Dembisky’s on-field demeanor is intimidating, and he admits to occasionally yelling in the dugout, Dembisky seems like a normal guy in the locker room.

“So far we’ve played (29) games,” Smith said. “He’s had good and bad stuff. But the way he goes about doing it is unreal. Before the game, if you are with him he is as normal as a guy can be. You can talk to him. But then he steps between the lines . . .”

Dembisky considers himself to be a control pitcher. He mixes four pitches and can use either his fastball, slider, or curve when he needs to throw a strike.

Rated as high as 12th in some preseason magazines, Loyola Marymount slumped early, then rebounded and won 10 of 11. However, it has dropped four of five. It plays tonight at Nevada-Las Vegas at 7.

“We had a really terrible start,” Dembisky said. “But I think a lot of that had to do with our schedule and the teams we played. We played Arizona State in their park, and nobody wins there. . . . We lost to Santa Barbara, who we should not have. But we are not too worried, because we knew we would start playing well.

“Right now we are on a roll and are starting to play well. I’m confident that by the end of the season, we’ll be meeting if not surpassing all of our preseason expectations.”