Tragedy Didn’t Keep La Quinta Pitcher From Victory

He had tears in his eyes before the game. His voice trembled, his heart ached. But he walked to the mound with purpose.

“This one’s for you, Kelly,” La Quinta pitcher Jim Livernois said to himself Tuesday afternoon. “This one’s for you.”

It isn’t every day that a high school kid has the realities of life and death thrust upon him. Monday afternoon, Livernois was as excited and anxious about playing Woodbridge in Tuesday’s Southern Section playoffs as his teammates. It was a big game. Everyone around school was talking about it--students, teachers, coaches. Winning would be such a rush.

But the phone call came Monday night. Kelly Dean, Livernois’ dear friend and Little League coach, had been hit by a car and killed. He was waiting for a bus in Santa Ana. He had stepped off the curb in front of a passing car.

Livernois couldn’t stop the tears. The memories flooded in--Kelly telling Livernois and his teammates to pile in the truck, it was time to go to the batting cages; Kelly rushing into practice, always late from work, Kelly cheering for Livernois from the La Quinta High stands. . . .

Livernois knew Tuesday there was no way he could block it all out. He didn’t want to. He decided the rest of the season would be a tribute to his friend. Before taking the mound, he smeared some of his black grease paint below his eyes onto the sleeve of his uniform in Kelly’s memory.

When Woodbridge took an early 5-0 lead--all from earned runs--some La Quinta followers might have wondered what Livernois’ reaction might be. Until recently, Livernois has had a reputation as a hothead, the kind of athlete who is so competitive, it works against him.

People had noticed it in the way he would blow up at his younger brother, C.J., a sophomore second baseman, any time C.J. made a mistake. They had seen it during La Quinta’s Garden Grove League loss to Kennedy, which cost the Aztecs the full share of the league championship. They had heard it in Livernois’ occasional verbal blue streak.

But Tuesday, Livernois stayed poised, quietly reminding himself of what he needed to do, continually reminding himself that the La Quinta offense would eventually come through.

A seven-run fifth inning saw to that.

Anibal Delacruz, who in January and February could not hit a ball off the hitting tee, singled in a run. Livernois’ groundout brought in another. Joe Linck, who can hardly run the bases because of various injuries, hit a three-run home run. Zane Parkin, a 6-foot-5, 210-pounder who’s just learning to play the game, followed with a home run, and La Quinta led, 7-5.

Livernois heard someone call out to him as he stepped to the plate. He was in the middle of his superstition-filled routine--sweep batter’s box, click bat against cleats, rub brim of cap--when someone in the stands said: “Do it for Kelly!” It made him feel all the more inspired.

That showed in the innings that followed.

La Quinta Coach Dave Demarest said Livernois--the county’s leading pitcher with a 12-2--had trouble with his pitches throughout the game. He didn’t have his curve, Demarest said. He didn’t have his slider or fastball, either. But none of that stops Livernois’ tenacity.

If he can find a way to win, he will.

After gaining the 7-5 lead, Livernois retired the side in the sixth and, with two on and two outs in the seventh, he struck out Scott Coker to end the game. As his teammates rushed to the mound, Livernois looked up to the sky.

“I just wanted to win for Kelly,” Livernois said quietly. “I thought about him all through the whole thing. . . .

“When we won, I just looked up and said, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ ”