He Clicks After Making the Switch

Opposing pitchers are finding it difficult to throw a baseball past Visalia Oaks shortstop Denny Hocking.

“I feel like I’m swinging a tennis racquet and the baseball is the size of a beach ball,” Hocking said.

Hocking, 22, ranks sixth in the California League with a .328 batting average. The former West Torrance High and El Camino College player has had two 15-game hitting streaks and five consecutive games with three or more hits playing for the Minnesota Twins’ Class-A team in the California League. In 114 games, he has four home runs, 62 runs batted in and 27 stolen bases. He is one of seven players on the team batting .300 or better. Visalia leads the league with a .297 team batting average.

“I got a few batting tips watching ESPN,” said Hocking, a switch-hitter. “I really think I’ve found my hitting zone.”

Hocking was a right-handed hitting catcher at West Torrance and El Camino. After a year at El Camino, he was drafted in the 52nd round of the June, 1989, draft by the Minnesota Twins. Hocking was told by Minnesota scouts that he had potential to play in the major leagues if he became a switch-hitting infielder.

“I was too small to be a catcher,” Hocking said. “The Twins thought I had the hands and the arm strength to be a middle infielder.”

Hocking learned his new trade during his sophomore season at El Camino. His college teammates, Steve Allyn (West Torrance) and Frank Pena (Bishop Montgomery), taught Hocking how to bat from the left side of the plate.

In his first season of professional ball, Hocking batted .294 for the Twins’ short-season Class-A team in Elizabethton, Tenn., and was voted the league’s 10th-best prospect by Baseball America.

Last season, Hocking played at Class-A Kenosha, Wis., of the Midwest League. He was disappointed not to be playing in the California League and batted a career-low .255. But he did make the all-star team.

“I was disappointed not to be coming home, but it gave me something to push for,” he said.

This season Hocking got his wish to play before his friends and family in Southern California and began the season with a 15-game hitting streak for the Oaks. His most recent 15-game hitting streak ended Aug. 9.

Hocking’s favorite place to play is in Adelanto, Calif., home of the High Desert Mavericks.

“It’s an ideal hitters’ park,” he said. “The outfield is really smooth. It’s 330 feet down the lines and the ball really carries.

“And they always draw a big crowd.”

Mavericks’ stadium also offers Hocking his biggest challenge as a shortstop.

“It’s like fielding ground balls in a hotel lobby,” Hocking said. “You hit a ground ball and chances are it’s going to be a hit unless it’s at somebody. You rarely see a bad-hop ground ball there.”

The way Hocking is batting, he is two years and one good hop away from making the major leagues.

Bad break--Reno outfielder Enoch Simmons suffered a hairline fracture of his right wrist and will miss the final month of play in the California League.

Team doctors discovered the fracture two weeks ago after originally diagnosing the injury as a sprain.

The former Loyola Marymount player suffered the injury June 17, a day before he was suppose to represent the North in the league’s all-star game.

In 74 games, Simmons batted .260 with a home run and 45 runs batted in.

Notes

Former Loyola Marymount reliever Joe Caruso had 22 strikeouts in 17 innings for Class-A Lynchburg. . . . Albany first baseman Don Sparks (Loyola Marymount) has a .309 batting average to lead the Eastern League. . . . Third baseman Chris Donnels (South Torrance, Loyola Marymount) was batting .301 for triple-A Tidewater before he was promoted by the New York Mets.

Second baseman Darrel Deak (Loyola Marymount) batted .428 during an eight-game hitting streak for Class-A Springfield. Deak is second in the Cardinal organization with a .311 batting average. . . . Former El Camino first baseman Dan Lewis had a run-scoring single in the ninth inning to give Shreveport a 3-2 victory over Arkansas on Aug. 2. Lewis has 12 home runs to rank second among San Francisco Giants’ farm teams.