Competitiveness Feeds El Camino Real’s Wolf

Grab a lariat and lasso that critter. Bring that boy into the herd, into the wild West Valley League.

It was 1987 when Jim Wolf of El Camino Real High mentioned to his coach, Mike Maio, that his younger brother was quite a baseball prospect. I’m not the lone Wolf, Jim said. There’s another back home.

Young Randy Wolf, it was said, was going to be Grade A prime beef someday.

“Uh-huh,” Maio said. He’s only a veal cutlet right now. Maio had heard similar yarns before. This tale proved true.

“If I would have known that he was gonna be this good, I would have lassoed him so he didn’t go (to school) anywhere else,” Maio said. “But at the time, he was only about 10 years old. I had a long time to wait.”

The patience paid off--and sooner than expected. Wolf, a junior outfielder and pitcher, started on the varsity as a 14-year-old freshman and showed he was every bit the impact player his sibling predicted.

This season, Wolf has added pitching to his bag of tricks. Last week, he threw a one-hitter and struck out 10 in an 8-0 victory over San Fernando, his second shutout of the year for the Conquistadores (13-1), who are ranked sixth in the state.

After nearly three seasons of having Wolf on the varsity, Maio describes the left-hander as a latter-day Billy the Kid.

“He’s a fierce competitor,” Maio said of Wolf, who won’t turn 17 until August. “He can kind of fool you with his baby-faced look.”

He’s no sheep in Wolf’s clothing on the mound, even though he had never before pitched for the varsity.

“Wolf competes,” San Fernando Coach Steve Marden said succinctly. “When he’s in the outfield, you only see it when he’s at the plate.

“You can really see what kind of a kid he is when he’s throwing: Every single time he throws a pitch, he competes.”

Marden and others liken Wolf to Ryan McGuire, a 1990 El Camino Real graduate and an All-American first baseman at UCLA. McGuire, a left-hander and a four-year starter in high school, pitched as a senior and was just as gritty.

In fact, McGuire and Wolf will be the only four-year starters in school history, though they are very dissimilar offensively.

“We’re definitely separate ballplayers,” Wolf said. “He used to hit the longball. I try for line drives and to run more.”

Still, Wolf is the team’s cleanup hitter, sandwiched between Dan Cey and Justin Balser to form a potent nucleus. Wolf is 14 for 32 and has scored 21 runs, but it is his pitching that has turned the team from contender into favorite.

Entering the season, El Camino Real was expected to challenge for the City Section 4-A Division title based on its veteran lineup. Pitching was another story. Wolf (5-foot-10, 175 pounds) and right-hander Kevin Szymanski were untested.

“That was the thing that looked to be a problem,” Wolf said. “It’s surprising. The pitching is more than people expected, more than I expected.”

Szymanski is 5-1 with an earned-run average of 1.41. Wolf is 6-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings.

With the bat, Wolf has more than scratched out a niche. He batted .404 as a freshman and .388 as a sophomore. Through 2 1/2 seasons, he is 64 for 159 (.403) and has scored 58 runs.

Starting pitcher, cleanup hitter. Wolf has played a major role in the team’s success.

“So far, he’s pitching well, batting .400 and really doing the job,” Maio said. “So far, things have turned out OK.”

Best of all, Maio has him for another season, right there in his OK Corral.