Long Beach’s Case Finds Persistence Pays Off in Baseball : Colleges: From Little League to Division I, former Troy High School standout endures bad times to establish himself.

It’s not something he looks back on fondly, but Mike Case will always remember his first organized baseball experience.

He was 12 and his mother had signed him up for Little League without telling him. Case, somewhat reluctant and plenty scared, showed up for that first practice in Yorba Linda wearing blue jeans and sneakers.

The other kids were decked out in baseball pants, cleats and caps, and you knew what they were thinking when they saw Case.

Who is this geek?

What followed wasn’t exactly a best-Case scenario. By midseason, Case’s batting average stood at .000. Worse, he hadn’t even made contact.

Then, a breakthrough.

“Sometime around the middle of the season I finally hit the ball and said to myself, ‘Oh, so that’s how you do it,’ ” Case said. “I ended up batting .415 that year.”

A legend may not have been born that day, but a good ballplayer was.

Case went on to star at Troy High School, where he batted .400, hit 11 home runs and helped the Warriors win the Southern Section 3-A championship in 1987.

He earned a scholarship to Loyola Marymount, where a redshirt year and a major knee injury prevented him from playing in two seasons. He transferred to Cal State Long Beach, where he is now the 49ers’ starting left fielder and home run leader going into this weekend’s crucial Big West Conference series against Cal State Fullerton.

“I was a shy kid, but my mom always knew I liked the game,” Case, a 23-year-old senior, said of his indoctrination to the sport. “I was scared and didn’t want to go at first, but she said try it for a week, and if you don’t like it, quit. I liked it, so I stayed.”

He nearly left the game last summer, though. Case, a 6-foot-2, 185-pounder, had a good junior season at Long Beach, batting .385 with five home runs and 31 runs batted in. But by midseason, his role had been reduced to that of a platoon player, starting only against left-handed pitchers.

Case began to doubt his ability after the season. He was also getting more involved with his father’s construction company, and seriously involved with his girlfriend, Kim Corrigan, to whom he is now engaged.

Adulthood and the real world beckoned, and Case didn’t think he could waste another year playing baseball.

“I thought baseball might be my ticket, but how was I going to make the pros if I couldn’t even start in Division I?” Case said. “Baseball didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so I thought I should pursue something else.”

Case was ready to leave the team when he met Long Beach assistant Bill Geivett for lunch last summer. But when it came time to leave the tip, Case was still a 49er.

“He told me you don’t want to say, ‘What if?’ ” Case said. “He said I might never have the opportunity to play again, so what’s one last year? He also said if I wasn’t having fun, I should quit. But there was still something there, so I pursued it.”

Geivett and Long Beach Coach Dave Snow told Case what it would take to become a full-time starter: He would have to make more consistent contact, hit to all fields, utilize his speed more and develop a more intense mental approach to the game.

“Basically, he’s done those things,” Snow said.

Case, who has filled in at third base and started all but two games this season, was batting .333 with 11 doubles, six homers and 31 RBIs for Long Beach (25-14-1, 12-3 in conference) before Wednesday night’s 4-3 victory at UCLA.

Just knowing he’ll be in the lineup every day has put Case’s mind at ease.

“I used to be a streaky guy--when things were going well, I’d be up there with the best of them, and when things went bad, I’d be down there with the worst of them,” Case said.

“I used to get down a lot after bad games, but I’ve been more positive this season. I realize there’s always tomorrow. I’m more relaxed, and knowing I’m an everyday player has helped my consistency.”

Few would have thought five years ago that Case would start for one of the nation’s best college teams. Sure, he hit a lot of home runs his senior year, but Troy had one of the smallest fields in Orange County--310 feet down the lines, 340 in the gaps and 370 to center field.

Many were skeptical of Case’s power stats until the day he smashed a home run over the 375-foot mark in Dodger Stadium, helping Troy defeat Arlington, 7-4, for the 3-A championship.

“That’s up there as one of my best memories--it’s still the biggest thrill of my career,” Case said. “After I hit that one, a lot of people told me that it shut some people’s mouths.”

And opened some eyes. Case received no scholarship offers and had planned to enroll at Fullerton College--until the Dodger Stadium blast.

“I saw him hit that home run and no one else was recruiting him, so we jumped on him,” said Snow, then the Loyola Marymount coach.

Case was a redshirt his first season (1988) at Loyola Marymount. The next fall, while attempting to catch a foul ball beyond the third-base line, he slipped in the dugout, clipped his right leg on the bench and tore most of the cartilage and ligaments, including the anterior cruciate, in his knee.

Reconstructive surgery repaired the knee, but it would be a year before Case could play again. He sat out the 1989 season, focusing plenty of energy on his rehabilitation program but not enough on his schoolwork.

Case’s grade-point average slipped to 1.8, and he was academically ineligible to compete. He was going to transfer to Fullerton College when Snow, who had taken the Long Beach job the previous season, called again.

Having spent 2 1/2 years at Loyola Marymount without playing in one game, Case transferred to Long Beach after the fall semester of 1989. He is nearing the end of his third season with the 49ers, who are ranked among the nation’s top 15 teams in both college baseball polls.

“Doctors doubted I’d have 100% of my leg strength, but my leg feels stronger and I feel faster now than before the operation,” Case said.

He’s also feeling better about his future. Case can play outfield and infield, and he even pitched the ninth inning of a 13-11 loss to UCLA two weeks ago, allowing two hits but no runs.

Snow believes such versatility should enhance Case’s professional prospects, and Case has already received calls from eight scouts this season.

“I’ve never heard from a scout until this semester, so it’s a good feeling finally hearing that people are interested in me,” Case said. “I just want a chance to play pro ball.”