Front-Running Pierce Led by a Throwback : College baseball: Top-seeded Brahmas open regional final behind scrappy right fielder Joey Arnold.

You’ve seen enough major league baseball in recent years to notice the trend: athletes on cruise control. Can’t get to a fly ball? So, I’ll pick it up after it bounces a few times .

The attitude has spread to college baseball as well. A lot of guys are more concerned about how they look than what they do on the field.

So what in the name of Ty Cobb is Joey Arnold of Pierce College doing with a mouthful of dirt and a uniform that appears to have been dragged behind a trash truck, with Arnold in it, for several miles down the freeway?

“He’s kind of a throwback kid,” Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano said. “He’s a throwback to the players of the ‘40s and ‘50s, players who, if their uniform wasn’t filthy after a game, then they didn’t play their type of game. This kid never, ever checks in after a game with a clean uniform. He dives in the outfield and he dives on the bases. And it is contagious.”

So contagious that Arnold and his frenzied style of play have helped guide top-seeded Pierce (30-6-1) into the Southern California junior college regional finals starting today on the Woodland Hills campus.

By the way, some talent comes with the attack-of-a-grizzly-bear attitude. Arnold batted .313 this season, including a pair of doubles in Saturday’s series-clinching win over San Bernardino Valley in the opening round of the playoffs. In two years as the team’s right fielder, he has made one error.

“You cannot be a teammate of Joey’s and play any other way except all out,” Lofrano said. “His style, along with his ability, has made him a leader on this team.”

It also has brought Arnold (5-foot-10, 170 pounds) much further in the game than he ever imagined. Next year he will play for Cal State Northridge, currently ranked eighth in Division I. The scholarship offer came midway through the season from Northridge Coach Bill Kernen.

“He has some real obvious ability to hit and play the outfield,” Kernen said. “But what really sells him is the way he plays, all-out, every inning, every out, every day. He’s my type of player. You just don’t pass up a kid like Joey Arnold.”

Not bad for a kid who grew up as the smallest guy on the block. As a 5-7, 140-pound utility player at Reseda High, Arnold drew little attention.

“Ever since I can remember, I was the smallest kid,” Arnold said. “I learned that if I wanted to play at anything with the other kids, I had to play hard. I had to play twice as hard as anyone else just to compete. Now that I’ve caught up to most of them physically, I can’t get rid of that attitude.

“A throwback? I don’t know. But I do know that not everybody these days plays as hard as they can. They worry about other things. They worry about not getting hurt. All I ever worry about is winning that game, that day, right now. Nothing else.”

That attitude is something that coaches seek but seldom see.

“He’s come a long way from his high school days,” Lofrano said. “He had a very average high school career. He was a starter but certainly not a great player. But as he started to grow, his attitude stayed the same, of having to work harder and play harder than anyone else to get the job done.”

Arnold agrees that his high school career was small news.

“At Reseda, I just didn’t do much at all,” he said. “I was just an average player at best. I played everywhere. I caught and I pitched and played left field and third base, anywhere I could get a chance. But while I was redshirting in my freshman year at Pierce, I started to grow.”

He is still no monster, but the added inches and pounds were all Arnold needed.

“My improvement has a lot to do with getting bigger and stronger physically,” he said. “But it also has a lot to do with Coach Lofrano. He’s the best coach I’ve ever had. He taught me to play the game, mentally and physically. He has taught me the whole game, every part of the game. Why things happen and when things will happen. And because of that, now I can anticipate the next move.

“We win a lot of games because of that mental approach.”

Attitude certainly has played a role in the success of Arnold and his teammates. But nine guys with great attitudes and little talent don’t win 30 games. Arnold has driven in 25 runs batting in the No. 2 slot in the lineup. Just as importantly, Arnold led the team in walks. Combined with that .313 average, the image of Arnold standing on first base has been a familiar one at Pierce.

“Every time I looked up, Joey was there, pawing the dirt and just waiting for the chance to get to second,” Lofrano said. “He stole 12 bases for us, so oftentimes a walk or a single was the same as a double for him.”

Arnold knows the jump to top-level Division I competition next year will be a big one. But he is confident it will be a successful one. And in the back of his mind, a once-small kid has a much bigger dream.

“I had no idea what would happen to me after this year,” he said. “Then CSUN called and there was the scholarship. I was pretty surprised and very excited. Coming out of high school, I never could have imagined this. But I saw the improvement every month in the last year or two, and I started to think something like this was possible.

“Now, I turn on ESPN every night and think about the major leagues. I don’t worry about it, but I think about it. If I get drafted and get a chance, it could happen. I just have to keep improving.

“The bottom line is that I’ll just keep on playing and they’ll have to drag me off the baseball field.”

It would, no doubt, be a dirty job.