Rio Mesa’s McMullen Continues to Feast on Pitchers’ Offerings

Big Mac’s recipe for disaster: Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. In fact, hold everything.

Jon McMullen’s parents left him at home for the weekend and he’s plum out of food.

“That’s kind of weak, huh?” McMullen said.

Odds are pretty good that McMullen will survive. At 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, the Rio Mesa High third baseman probably won’t be feeling weak in the knees for some time. Unless pitchers keep dodging him.

“I walked 11 times in the last four games,” McMullen said with measurable dejection. “I haven’t seen a strike since I don’t even know when.”

We don’t know when, either, but we know why. McMullen is batting .550 with six home runs and 33 runs batted in for Rio Mesa, which is 13-5-2 and leads the Channel League at 8-2. Feeding this guy a fastball over the plate means the pitcher must have an appetite for destruction.

Consider McMullen’s varsity debut as a sophomore two springs ago, when he hit two homers and had seven RBIs in one inning.

“That was a great team,” said McMullen, who batted .535 with 26 RBIs and was a Times All-Ventura County selection as an overgrown 15-year-old.

Tough team, indeed, but it underscores McMullen’s statistics of 1992 to point out the names of those who have left him behind. Gone to the pros is former teammate Dmitri Young, a first-round draft choice of the St. Louis Cardinals last summer. Off to UCLA went Mike Mitchell, a freshman who already is making considerable waves as an outfielder, first baseman and designated hitter.

The lack of protection in the lineup has not slowed Mac’s attack, and professional scouts are acutely aware of McMullen’s power potential. So are family members. McMullen’s father Ken played professionally--with the Dodgers and Angels--and would like to see his son do likewise.

“He says he thinks it would be fun for me,” Jon said. “He says I’m the kind of guy who would like it. Or maybe he’s just trying to get me out of the house.”

The younger McMullen does not often hang out doing nothing in particular. He played football last fall and was off to a solid start at tight end until he suffered a hairline crack in a bone in his left knee midway through the season. Baseball folks were not amused.

“I had a scout tell me, ‘I told you so,’ ” McMullen said, laughing.

They got over it. Besides, Big Mac is not liked because of his wheels. McMullen said he has been told by several scouts that he probably will be drafted between the second and fourth rounds and that he might be converted to catcher or first baseman. He tried his hand at catcher as a sophomore and would just as soon stay somewhere safe.

“Geez, high school pitchers today throw about 40 pitches an inning,” he said, laughing. “If I had a guy who threw about 20, I think I could handle that.”

Always the laugh. Almost as quick as his bat. And his tongue.

Batting behind McMullen in the Rio Mesa lineup is cleanup hitter John Mitchell, Mike’s younger brother. John is a string-bean 6-4, 170 pounds but has whacked four home runs. Sometimes, McMullen wonders how the rail-thin Mitchell brothers hit the ball so far and so often. Mike holds the school single-season record for RBIs with 44.

“Those guys are sticks, “ he said. “I guess they all just swing real hard. I don’t know what got into Mike (at UCLA). He’s going nuts. I guess somebody must have whacked him in the head with a rock or something.”

McMullen swears he could be a stick by the time his dad returns tonight from his deer hunting trip. But Jon might have to pass on the venison feast.

“Argh, I hate deer meat,” Jon said. “That stuff’s nasty.”

A pure beef kind of guy.

Never say never: They were not mathematically dead, but catatonic comes close.

San Fernando and Chatsworth, the past two City Section 4-A Division champions who entered the week with fading hopes for league titles, rallied from the brink of elimination with two-game sweeps.

Chatsworth has won five games in a row--including a sweep of El Camino Real last week--and has improved to 7-5 in West Valley League play. The Chancellors are one game behind Taft (8-4) with five remaining.

San Fernando recorded a pair of shutouts at the expense of Cleveland last week and moved into a tie for third place with the Cavaliers in North Valley League play at 5-7, three games behind first-place Granada Hills.

It has been an uphill battle for San Fernando, which had trouble posting consecutive strong outings until last week.

“May and June are Tiger time,” San Fernando Coach Steve Marden said optimistically. “We have some work to do, but as we all know, third place is good enough.”

The top three teams from each league are eligible for postseason play; San Fernando last season turned its third-place finish into a City title.

On the ropes: A proposal to establish a separate Orange County Section suffered another setback last week when the Southern Section Council voted 39 to 9 against supporting such a move.

All nine votes in favor were from Orange County representatives. Eighteen leagues were not represented.

Before the vote, L.A. Baptist Principal Gary Smidderks, president-elect of the council, said the council opposed an exclusive Orange County section because it would increase costs and diminish services for the Southern Section. He also said it would affect the competitive balance and state playoffs.

The Southern Section will announce at a State Federated Council meeting Friday that it is against Orange County secession.

“An Orange County Section is really in limbo right now,” said William Brand, principal of Trabuco Hills High in Orange County. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens at the state meeting.”