After Having Devil of a Time, Welles Has Become a Big Hit : Baseball: Former All-Bay League selection has resurrected his career at Pierce after transferring from Arizona State.

When Robby Welles steps up to the plate, he projects an aggressiveness that seems more suited for the football field than the baseball diamond.

At 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, the Pierce College sophomore doesn’t hide his intentions. He takes huge swings designed to punish a baseball, much as a linebacker hits an undersized tailback.

When Welles connects, the result catches more than passing attention.

“He’s like a raw, green kid with a lot of potential,” said George Genovese, Southern California scouting supervisor for the San Francisco Giants. “He’s got all the earmarks of being a good ballplayer.”

Thus far those earmarks have produced a .368 batting average with 10 home runs and 41 runs batted in in only 30 games. Pierce, 24-6 overall, is atop the Western State Conference standings at 14-4.

“I think I’ve proven myself, but I could be doing better just by cutting down my swing and not trying to hit so many home runs,” the 19-year-old Welles said.

But it’s no wonder that Welles has approached each at-bat with the eagerness of someone who has been waiting in the on-deck circle for a year. The Beverly Hills High graduate transferred to Pierce in September after spending his freshman season as a seldom-used pitcher at Arizona State.

“I’m just excited to be swinging the bat again,” he said. “I’ve got to go where my heart is and I wanted to swing the bat.”

One person who is thankful that Welles followed his heart is Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano, who was more than willing to let Welles display his ability at the plate.

“From day one it was pretty evident that he could swing,” Lofrano said. “If you watch him hit, there’s no way you can ignore that fact.”

Yet, according to Welles, he transferred to Pierce primarily because his hitting abilities were ignored at Arizona State.

An All-Bay League pitcher/outfielder at Beverly Hills, Welles was selected as a pitcher in the 26th round of the June, 1990, amateur draft by the Minnesota Twins. He opted to accept a full scholarship to Arizona State with the expectation that he would be given the opportunity to hit as well as pitch.

But on the first day of practice with the Sun Devils, Welles wasn’t included in any hitting groups and soon learned that the coaches wanted him to concentrate solely on pitching.

“I was kind of like in a state of shock,” Welles said. “I mean they didn’t give me a chance to swing the bat and they recruited me as a hitter too. That’s what I really didn’t understand.”

Arizona State Coach Jim Brock, whose team was ranked No. 1 in the preseason, viewed the situation differently.

“Pitching is basically what we recruited him to do,” Brock said. “At that time you could not project him at all as a (Pac-10 Southern Division) hitter and outfielder.

“We just really didn’t see him as a good enough hitting prospect as a DH or with enough speed to play the outfield. He was kind of caught in the middle.”

Welles reluctantly accepted his role as a pitcher and appeared in just three of the team’s 62 games in 1991, yielding two runs on no hits and seven walks in 2 1/3 innings.

“I was kind of frustrated by then,” he said. “My pitching wasn’t going well and I really wanted to swing the bat.”

With Brock’s consent, Welles and the Sun Devils parted company last summer and Pierce had a new No. 5 hitter a short time later.

Although he has taken a step down from NCAA Division I, Welles said the opportunity to swing the bat once again was worth the change.

“I’m hitting the ball a lot farther now and I’m developing more as a hitter because that’s what I love doing,” he said. “I like pitching, but I don’t like playing once a week.”

Welles’ love of hitting goes back to when he was a youngster and his father, Richard Welles, pitched to him for hours at a time at a park in Beverly Hills. Richard Welles, a writer, is a former football and track standout at Fullerton College.

Although Robby Welles says his family doesn’t reside in the “rich part” of Beverly Hills, he won’t deny that growing up in the city had its advantages. After all, how many 11- and 12-year-old baseball players get to take batting practice in actor James Caan’s personal batting cage on the grounds of an estate?

“(Caan) had a batting cage at his mansion in the hills and he used to work out with Robby,” said Richard Welles, who has known Caan for years. “He used to give Robby pitching instructions and they would hit in the batting cage.”

Because of a tender shoulder suffered during the fall, Welles has yet to pitch for Pierce in the regular season. He was given permission to resume throwing earlier in the month and is close to making his ’92 pitching debut.

“I still get calls from scouts who want to know when he’s going to throw,” Lofrano said. “Anyone who was drafted out of high school obviously (has some talent). We’re looking forward to utilizing him on the mound.”

When Welles transferred to Pierce, he joined four other Division I bounce-back players--including former Arizona State teammate Brian Smith--on a team that already featured four returning all-conference players.

The Brahmas, who reached the Southern California Regional final last year, already have won two tournaments this season and scored 30 runs in one WSC game against Oxnard last month.

“It was just exciting to have all these guys come together on one team,” Welles said. “I don’t know how it happened. But it was like we knew from the start that this was going to be a special season.”

For Welles, the season began auspiciously. He hit a grand slam in his first at-bat and added a three-run homer an inning later against Glendale on Jan. 31.

Averaging one home run every 8.8 at-bats, Welles hasn’t wasted much time establishing himself as a pro prospect as a hitter. Although he is in a position to earn his associate of arts degree from Pierce by the end of summer, Welles acknowledges that he is looking forward to the June baseball draft.

But questions remain about his defensive abilities.

Genovese has coached Welles since his junior year in high school on a Giants scout team and thinks Welles has the athletic ability and arm strength to adjust to several positions.

“He has the possibility of making a catcher,” said Genovese, who changed former first-round draft pick Mike Lieberthal of Westlake High from a shortstop to a catcher. “What you have to do with a kid like Welles is project him down the road when he fully develops (physically).”

The idea sits well with Welles, who developed a quick-release arm motion as a high school quarterback in 1989. He threw for more than 1,000 yards in just six games as a senior in a season that was cut short because of a Beverly Hills teacher strike.

“I look at it (catching) and I guess it all adds up,” said Welles, whose catching experience at this point consists of a handful of innings for the Giants’ scout team last year. “As a (former) quarterback I’ve got a quick release and quick feet. Plus I really want to catch.”

With Pierce in the midst of the WSC title race, Lofrano has no intention of experimenting with Welles at catcher. Brahma freshman catcher Adam Pearlman has become a fixture behind the plate. But even Lofrano wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Welles’ future is at that position.

“What I’ve told (the scouts) is that he’s a good athlete,” Lofrano said. “With this team it fits real well for us to use him as a pitcher-DH.”

As far as Welles is concerned, any role he plays at Pierce is fine--as long he sees his name penciled in the batting order.