Establishing Cruz Control : Baseball: Rated one of the top outfielders in the nation, Channel Islands senior begins to meet his own lofty expectations.

To many high school baseball players, a .375 batting average is a sign of a successful season.

To Jacob Cruz, it is a slump with a capital S.

Cruz, a senior center fielder at Channel Islands High, is considered one of the top high school outfielders in the nation. That .375 average just had to go.

Cruz, who batted .494 last season, was as due as last month’s electricity bill.

“He’s just too good a player to stay down,” Channel Islands Coach Don Cardinal said.

Thus, Cruz delivered like the pure-water man last week. In wins over Royal and Agoura, he had five hits in nine at-bats, including two home runs. He also drove in six runs and scored six.

But Cruz did not fire until his so-called slump extended through three more hitless at-bats. While his teammates were busy dismantling five Royal pitchers en route to a 19-4 win, Cruz saw his batting average drop to .349.

Nothing an outside fastball couldn’t cure. Royal’s Brian Johnson offered a fastball and Cruz launched it over the 390-foot mark in center field--one of the deepest dimensions among those in Marmonte League parks. The ball traveled an estimated 430 feet.

Cruz singled in his next at-bat, then accumulated additional frequent-flier mileage when he hit a 3-and-0 fastball over the 375-foot mark in left-center field. Cruz, a left-handed hitter who proved he can hit with power to the opposite field, had another 400-foot shot.

“That ball was way out,” Cardinal said.

Cruz’s two home runs, which traveled nearly three football fields, matched his season total. He added a double and a triple in a 7-4 win over Agoura on Friday and has improved his batting average to .408.

Cardinal says Cruz, who has signed a letter of intent to play at Arizona State but may sign a professional contract after the June amateur draft, is one of the best players he has coached in 25 years at Channel Islands. Cardinal mentions Cruz in the same breath as former Raiders Gary James, the Southern Section 2-A Division player of the year in 1969, and Terry Pendleton, a seven-year major league veteran who plays for the Atlanta Braves.

Cruz, who has started in center field since his freshman season, is a two-time All-Marmonte League and All-Ventura County selection. He was a third-team, All-Southern Section 5-A Division selection last season.

Baseball America magazine listed Cruz as the 23rd best high school prospect in the nation in its preseason ratings. Collegiate Baseball listed him among the top 12 outfielders in the nation. Cruz has been invited to compete in the U. S. Olympic Festival this summer, and professional scouts have indicated that he will be selected within the first three rounds of the amateur draft.

When did Cardinal realize Cruz had such talent?

“The first day he came to school,” he said. “That kid was born to be a player.”

Cruz (6-foot-1, 175 pounds), a four-year starter, said his season-long struggle was a result of impatience at the plate. After he batted nearly .500 last season, pitchers have fed him curveballs and kept fastballs out of the strike zone.

“It was real frustrating for him having to adjust to not getting any pitches to hit,” Cardinal said. “It rattled him for a while.”

Cruz soon recognized that patience was the only path out of his slump. “I was hitting a lot of bad pitches,” he said. “I wasn’t taking the walks.”

Also, Cardinal moved Cruz from No. 3 in the lineup to leadoff so that pitchers would be forced to throw him strikes. And Cruz stayed after practice ended last week, taking cuts while his father, Jacob Cruz Sr., pitched.

Jacob Cruz Sr. has been instrumental in his son’s success. He emigrated from Durango, Mexico, in 1964, and worked at a chicken farm in the San Joaquin Valley. Today, the elder Cruz works in an auto body shop and transferred job locations four years ago in order to watch his son’s games and practices.

“I owe a lot to him,” Jacob Cruz Jr. said. “He’s had to work very hard, and sometimes we take that for granted.”

Some of his father’s work included the transformation of a right-hander into a left-hander.

“I write right-handed and kick with my right foot,” Cruz said. “My dad turned me into a left-hander, and here I am.”

There he is, roaming center field, hitting and helping Channel Islands (11-3, 6-2 in Marmonte League play) contend for its first league title since 1981.