Ex-Pitcher Pena Casts His Lot With a New School, Old Sport : Colleges: After a frustrating baseball career at Arizona State, former Mater Dei standout returns to the football field, at Rancho Santiago.

It’s football season again for Tony Pena. After a two-year detour playing baseball at Arizona State, Pena is giving football another try--this time at Rancho Santiago College.

Pena has stopped pitching, hoping to avoid shoulder surgery, and started catching passes. He also said he’s feeling better since he stopped knocking his head against a brick wall. No matter what he accomplished at Arizona State, it didn’t seem to be enough for Coach Jim Brock.

When he graduated from Mater Dei High in 1989, Pena knew expectations would be high at ASU, where the Sun Devils have played in an NCAA-record six College World Series championship games, winning two in Brock’s 20 years. But he wasn’t prepared for the finger-pointing he said he endured as his sophomore season came apart at the seams.

ASU was top-ranked in preseason polls, but missed the 48-team NCAA playoffs, crash-landing with a 35-27 record. Much of the blame fell on the pitching staff’s shoulders. At one point in late April, the team’s earned-run average was 6.33. Pena, who injured his shoulder diving for a bunt in a February game against Texas, pitched in pain all season and was ineffective.

When Pena said his shoulder hurt, Brock told him to sit in the stands for a three-game series against California; he wasn’t welcome in the dugout. Pena said it was typical of the mind games Brock played.

As the Sun Devils faded from playoff contention, bitter feelings between pitching coach Dub Kilgo and the staff reached a boiling point in a hotel room “altercation.”

“I don’t know how else to describe it,” Pena said. “Players were screaming. He (Kilgo) chased guys around the hotel.”

Brock said he could not recall an incident such as the one Pena described. “It never got back to me,” he said. “If it was a case of Dub laying into the kids, that could have happened. But if it was something that ended up in a fistfight I would have heard about it.”

When the dust settled, the only way out of this mess, Pena believed, was to return to Orange County.

Pena’s shoulder was examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ orthopedic surgeon who said it wasn’t tendinitis, as ASU team doctors had said, but a separation between the humerus bone and the shoulder socket. In order to pitch again, Pena would have to have an operation similar to the procedure Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser underwent. He decided against it, which meant his baseball career was on hold.

Football was an alternative. As a senior at Mater Dei, Pena caught 64 passes--second-most in the county that season--for 1,093 yards for the Monarchs. Scholarship offers poured in, but Pena opted for college baseball.

“I kind of thought of it as a business decision,” Pena said. “I thought that (baseball) was my future. Football is so much tougher. I think I listened to too many people. I didn’t listen to myself.”

He said he doesn’t regret his decision to attend ASU, only the consequences of going there.

“I think I really got caught up in the hype of recruiting,” Pena said. “It sounded really good. . . . I heard all that negative stuff about ASU before. I said ‘Nah,’ but I found out first hand.

“(Brock) said go home, leave early. He said he didn’t want to renew my scholarship. To pitch at ASU you’ve got to be willing to pitch, I’m exaggerating here, 200 million innings. If you can’t, it’s that old pressure: ‘You’re letting the team down.’ Or ‘You’re just a baby.’ ”

Brock was disappointed to hear Pena’s comments.

“I hate to see Tony as frustrated as he seems to be,” Brock said. “He’s a very good kid. Everything we asked him to do, he did. I admired his competitiveness tremendously.

“The bottom line is you take a Mike Kelly (1991 NCAA Player of the Year from Los Alamitos) who was offered a $70,000 signing bonus out of high school. Three years later, he’s the No. 2 pick and signs for six figures. If we take credit for Kelly, we have to take the blame or shame for the fact that Tony Pena, who was a good prospect, didn’t make it here. It’s a two-way street.”

The shoulder injury kept Pena from reaching his promise, which frustrated the pitcher further, Brock said.

“He was so frustrated because he hadn’t had much success here,” Brock said. “He was so hell-bent to pitch through the injury.”

Brock said he hadn’t reached a decision on renewing Pena’s scholarship when the two met a few days before final exams last spring.

“He said he hadn’t had any success here and maybe he would transfer to another baseball school,” Brock said. “He asked for his release from his scholarship. It took three minutes. That was the last I heard until somebody sent me a copy of a newspaper article saying he had been forced out. . . . I hate to see him close the door on baseball.”

Even at ASU, Pena had thoughts of returning to the football field. Now, there’s no turning back, and he’s thankful. Since joining Rancho Santiago’s team as a wide receiver, he said he felt the stress level decline dramatically.

“Basically, football has been my sport all along,” Pena said. “I’m having fun right now, which I missed the past few years playing baseball. I’m hoping to get a scholarship again. My dream is to play at a Pac-10 school. After all this, I want to come back strong.

“Rancho Santiago is a good situation. They have me doing a lot of different things right now. I have a feeling I’m a big part of their plans.”

After two years of turmoil at ASU, it’s a comfortable feeling for Pena.