Legend of Gennaro Grows With His Slugging Statistics : Baseball: SDSU’s biggest hitter is hardly imposing in stature, but he has produced.

The power hitter is 6 feet, 175 pounds.

At least, that’s what it says in the San Diego State baseball media guide. Teammates say 160, maybe.

The power hitter had seven homers, total, in his first two seasons at SDSU.

High school? Brad Gennaro managed only two home runs in his senior year at St. Augustine. Not exactly knee-knocking time for opposing pitchers.

Batting practice, yes. Gennaro, who did his best Babe Ruth impersonation the first weekend in April, is used to hitting homers in batting practice.

“In batting practice, I’m always hitting them out of the yard,” Gennaro said. “In games, I haven’t done it much.”

On that first weekend of April, Gennaro went to Air Force as just one of the guys on the SDSU baseball team.

Over the weekend, the legend of Gennaro returned to San Diego.

A day or two later, Gennaro returned.

In a startling display of lightning-quick wrists, Gennaro, a junior, hit four home runs in four games at Air Force, including three in the second game of a four-game series.

One of his three home runs was a grand slam. In that game, he was 4 for 4 with seven RBIs.

For the weekend, he was 10 for 13 with 13 RBIs. No other player in SDSU history had hit three homers in one game. Not Tony Gwynn, not Chris Gwynn, not Graig Nettles not Mark Grace. Gennaro had never hit two homers in a game at any level.

“It’s the best weekend I’ve had in my life,” Gennaro said. “I was kind of in awe. I tried not to show much emotion outside, but inside, I was overwhelmed.”

The first homer came in the third inning, with one on. Gennaro had two strikes on him and he was trying to make contact.

The second came on a fastball, to lead off the inning.

The third--the grand slam--was on a first-pitch slider.

“In right field, after the third one, I was just looking out over the fence, into nowhere, laughing,” Gennaro said.

By the end of the game, each of his teammates were claiming to have called his third home run.

“I called it,” said first baseman Jason Ledford. “When he hit it, I think the whole bench was calling it. I said, ‘I called that’ and the others were saying, ‘Me, too.’ ”

Gennaro has been inundated with interview requests ever since, and he has to screen them. Not that he can’t handle the attention, it’s just that someone on the team may be out to get him.

“When we were in Sacramento (March 13-15), Brad played a trick on a couple of teammates,” Ledford said. “He disguised his voice, saying he was a reporter for the Sacramento Bee, and called (pitcher) Benji (Grigsby). Benji fell for it. Brad was interviewing Benji about the game we had that day (against Sacramento State).

“Everybody was in Benji’s room, and he was going, ‘Be quiet, be quiet, I’m getting interviewed.’ ”

So a day after his big weekend, a reporter telephoned Gennaro and Ledford, afterward, asked him if it was a real reporter.

These days, it usually is. The Aztecs are 11-1 in the WAC and, after Friday’s 9-6 victory over New Mexico, Gennaro was batting .381 with five homers and 29 RBIs.

He really caught fire once Western Athletic Conference play started. He has played in 10 of SDSU’s 11 WAC games and leads the conference in batting at .586. Going into SDSU’s March 21 tripleheader with Brigham Young, Gennaro was only 11 for 45 (.244).

What’s interesting is that Gennaro, a criminal justice major who would like to play baseball professionally, had more success in high school as a . . . pitcher.

He led the county with 99 strikeouts his senior season a St. Augustine. He also threw out 10 baserunners from center field.

SDSU was actually second on his list coming out of high school. He had hoped to go to the University of San Diego but no scholarship was offered.

“I’ve enjoyed my three years at San Diego State,” he said. “And I think the players there get more recognition.”

The Aztecs have qualified for the NCAA playoffs in both of Gennaro’s years on the team.

He has also had the opportunity to play outside of San Diego. The summer before his freshman season, SDSU Coach Jim Dietz took him on a touring team to Alaska. Last summer, Gennaro played in a collegiate league in Virginia.

“I had a great time,” said Gennaro, who worked as a stockboy in a supermarket for the summer. “It as kind of a change living away from home, but I met a lot of new guys.”

Now, the guys are meeting him. Those who haven’t seen him before--and even those who have--have been left open-mouthed at some of his exploits.

The Air Force weekend wasn’t Gennaro’s only memorable time. In the third game of the BYU tripleheader, with two out and the Aztecs down by a run in their final at bat, he hit a full-count grand slam to deliver the victory.

“I said last year that he’s probably the purest hitter on the team,” Ledford said.

Of course, even pure hitters don’t always get breaks.

The night Gennaro hit three home runs? He went to a pay phone in the hotel lobby to call his parents and give them the news, and Dietz happened to walk by. Upstairs, Dietz said. Now.

Gennaro was a couple of minutes past curfew.