Bushart Awash in Confidence After Plunging Into New League : Baseball: Cal State Northridge junior left-hander surfaces as one of the top Cape Cod pitchers during the summer.

Left-handed pitcher John Bushart had heard the tales. Like a Boy Scout devouring campfire ghost stories, he listened intently when Cal State Northridge teammate Greg Shockey talked about the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Shockey had spent the previous summer in the league, arguably the premier amateur summer baseball league in the country.

Shockey told of flame-throwing pitchers, rocket-hitting batters and acrobatic fielders.

The league has impressive credentials. There were more than 100 Cape alums on major league teams last year, and each Cape roster reads like a college all-star squad. This summer, Bushart is one of three players with area ties who has competed in the league. Stanford’s Andrew Lorraine of Hart High pitched for Hyannis, and Robby Welles of Pierce College pitched and played several other positions for Brewster.

Given the stories he had heard, Bushart, a junior in eligibility at Northridge and a Thousand Oaks High graduate, could have been expected to be quite nervous when he made his Cape debut for Chatham.

But nerves were no problem.

“From the first time I sent him out, he looked like he was pitching at Dodger Stadium,” said Chatham Coach Rich Hill, who also coaches Cal Lutheran. “He was in control.”

Bushart, a Thousand Oaks resident, said his confidence rose when he realized his abilities were on a par with those of the league’s players.

“Shockey made the players out to be the big leagues, and that’s what I thought it was when I got out here,” Bushart said. “I found the players were like me.

“He said most of the guys throw 90 (m.p.h.). I throw 83 or 84, and I thought, ‘Geez, I can’t fit in here.’ My perception of it was so high, and it is a great league, but I realized I could play in this league.”

He has not only played but excelled. Bushart, 6-foot-5, finished the regular season with a 3-2 record and 2.49 earned-run average and helped Chatham earn a berth in the Cape playoffs. Hill ranks Bushart among the top 10 pitchers in the league, citing his improvement from the start of the summer.

Chatham, which won the Eastern Division title and had the best record in the 10-team league, defeated Brewster, two games to none, in a first-round playoff series to advance to the league championship series that begins this week.

Hill and Bushart have known each other since Bushart’s high school days and, “I wanted to see if he could find someplace on the Cape for me to play,” Bushart said.

“Rich said he could hook me up, but he wasn’t sure I could be on his team.”

Mark Skeels of Thousand Oaks played for Chatham last summer, and Hill jokes about having a Thousand Oaks quota. Coaches recruit players from their own teams, and Hill’s squads always have a strong California contingent. Bushart, however, is his first Northridge player.

“That guy (Northridge Coach Bill Kernen) does such an incredible job with pitchers,” Hill said. “I love to get a guy from his staff.

“This summer, hopefully, will give (Bushart) confidence in battling for that rotation spot.”

After serving as a swing starter for Northridge last spring, Bushart is setting himself up for a big junior season heading into baseball’s amateur draft.

“This is a very important summer in terms of the draft,” Bushart said. “I’m looking to get drafted, and I see this as a very important steppingstone.”

A member of Chatham’s starting rotation, Bushart began the summer with a laundry list of ways to improve, and so far he has hung hitters out to dry, limiting them to a .220 average.

“The big thing I wanted to work on was a changeup,” Bushart said. “I’ve been throwing that a lot and I’ve had good results. The other thing I came to work on was command of my pitches.”

For many Southern Californians, life on the Cape is itself a changeup. Chatham is a lovely little resort town--if Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind” were a town, it would be Chatham--but Californians operate at a different rhythm.

“It’s so relaxed, so laid-back,” Bushart said as he leaned back on a tree-shaded bench behind the Chatham field. “I’ve learned to adjust, and I like it.”

This summer isn’t the first time baseball has provided Bushart with new surroundings. After his senior year at Thousand Oaks, he played on an all-star team that traveled to Scandinavia and the then-Soviet Union for a series of goodwill games.

“It’s weird because baseball takes me so many places,” he said. “Not only do I get to play baseball, but it’s taken me to another part of the world, and I’m thankful for that.”

The other Valley-area players have not fared as well as Bushart on the field.

After being one of the top left-handed relievers on the Cape in his first season for Hyannis, Lorraine had a rockier second Hyannis tour.

Last summer Lorraine was 2-1 with five saves and 1.85 ERA, and he recorded a victory and a save in Hyannis’ league championship series triumph over Chatham. This season, though, Hyannis stumbled to a 17-26 record. Lorraine failed to record a save, and he finished 1-3 with a 4.12 ERA.

“This year it’s been a little tougher on the field because we’re not winning as much,” Lorraine said earlier in the season. “Off the field I love it.”

Lorraine worked at the Hy-Line ferry, which runs between Hyannis and Nantucket, Mass., and he lived a few blocks from the docks. If not the nicest town on the Cape, Hyannis is considered the liveliest.

“It’s great; I’m living right on the water,” Lorraine said. “I can’t imagine being in a better place.”

He too has begun pointing toward professional baseball.

“The draft is really important to me now,” he said. “If I could at least show the same package every time out, at least people will know what they’re getting.”

He did not record a decision in either of his first two seasons at Stanford, but Lorraine plans to crack the starting rotation as a junior.

“I’m going to throw a lot,” Lorraine said of the coming season for the Cardinal, whose staff was decimated by the amateur draft. “It’s mine to screw up. I feel like I’ve earned it.”

Welles hit an area-high 14 home runs for Pierce last season, but he didn’t find his stroke this summer in Brewster.

In 43 at-bats, he batted .149 with one home run and two runs batted in.

Welles, who has signed with Pepperdine, started late in Brewster. He missed the first several games before the Pepperdine coaching staff helped him get a berth on the team.

“I’ve always wanted to play here,” Welles said. “I’m definitely glad I’m here, but I just pictured it differently.”

Drafted as a pitcher out of Beverly Hills High but limited to designated hitter at Pierce because of a shoulder injury, Welles returned to the mound briefly this summer.

In three appearances without a decision, he threw four innings and did not give up a run.

The adjustment to the wood bats used on the Cape often slows hitters, but Welles believes his morning job at a grocery store also contributed to his lackluster season.

“It’s pretty hard to perform when you’re drained coming on the field,” he said.

It has been a summer of mixed emotions for Welles.

“It’s a great experience,” he said, but “I’ll probably appreciate California a lot when I get back.”