They’re No. 2, but Not Trying Any Harder

They know they’re out there, somewhere. Silently analyzing their every move, charting every pitch, hit and putout. They’re the faceless, nameless people behind those national rankings, the rankings El Dorado’s baseball team has come to know . . . and care less about.

No doubt you’ve heard by now. El Dorado, the folks at Baseball America say, is the second-best high school baseball team in the nation. That’s right, No. 2 in the nation, just like Pepsi or Dan Quayle.

Pretty heady stuff for a team of teen-agers, right?

Not for the Golden Hawks. This team is as down-to-earth as a mine shaft. Egos need not apply. As far as El Dorado is concerned, rankings are rank things; place too much faith in them and your success is bound to sour.

“The rankings don’t mean anything,” says top Hawk Tyson DowDell. “In baseball, anything can happen. You can lose any day.”

Sound like a well-coached kid? He should. DowDell and his teammates take their low-key cue from Coach Steve Gullotti, who treats hype like a hanging curve, smacking it out of sight every chance he gets.

Anyway, if those behind the rankings are to be believed, how does one assess this team? Certainly, the Hawks seem to be in for a tremendous year. But why?

Well, it’s simple: El Dorado got caught in a time warp last spring. And now they’re back. Don’t believe it? Check out that lineup. How many key players are missing from 1991? Just one, right? He’s probably still lost in time, anxiously awaiting the debut of Terminator II. But all the other players are back, bigger, stronger and smarter. And that’s the key.

Don’t buy it? OK, maybe the answer lies in the little things. Such as that endearing way the players spit on each other’s cleats, then kick each other with dirt. Or those entertaining voices--imagine Pee-wee Herman after a blast of helium--provided by Aaron Tom and Eric Ayala during particularly tense moments. Or that glow-in-the-dark, good-luck skull hanging next to Shawn Holcomb’s pillow.

OK, maybe not.

Maybe, just maybe, El Dorado is the best team in the county because no other team comes close.

Or at least not close enough.

At least not yet.

This brings us to El Dorado’s game against Ocean View Monday. El Dorado won, 5-2.

A simple little victory? Hardly. Check out the fingernails on those Golden Hawk fans. They’re probably bitten to the quick.

It took 11 ulcer-enhancing innings to put this game away. Momentum was swinging like a heavy metal hairdo. Ocean View got a break. El Dorado snuffed it. El Dorado got on base. Ocean View worked out of it.

Finally, with two outs and two on--including DowDell, who had walked--Holcomb stepped to the plate. Holcomb, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound senior, faced Mathieu Royer, about half his size.

Ball 1. Ball 2. The El Dorado fans cheered.

Strike 1. The Ocean View fans cheered louder.

Ball 3. Strike 2. The count was 3-2, and Holcomb fouled one away. And another. And another. No one was saying much, until . . .

Wham!

Can’t be sure, but we believe Holcomb’s homer landed this side of Saddleback.

“I just wanted to make that coach pay for it. Walking Tyson, I mean,” Holcomb said. “Coach Gullotti put me in behind him for a reason.”

The reason had been a secret until now.

While DowDell is continually anointed with attention, deservedly so, Holcomb could be the team’s best surprise. He’s two inches taller and 35 pounds heavier this year--his mother doesn’t call him “Sandwich Man” for nothing, he says--and wants to make up for the fact that he gave up the winning home run in last year’s season-ending loss to Diamond Bar in the second round of the Southern Section Division 4-A playoffs.

Actually, Holcomb wants to make up for last season, period. Finishing 20-7 wasn’t good enough.

“We didn’t win anything last year,” Holcomb says. “We had a good season, but we didn’t win the Loara tournament, (Empire) league or CIF. This year, we’d like it all.”

“We” is a majority of last year’s squad, plus such talented additions as sophomore pitchers David Perry and Benito Flores, who combined for a 3-0 shutout over Dana Hills Tuesday.

Then there’s Graham Clemons, a junior who earned the victory over Ocean View Monday. Clemons relieved DowDell in the seventh, struck out the first batter he faced, struck out another, walked only one and didn’t allow a run in five innings.

It was his first varsity game. And probably the first time he inspired one man in the stands to turn to another and say, “What kind of radar didya get on that boy?”

That’s right, El Dorado. They’ve got their eyes on you--all of you. And only an entire season remains.