Dues Paid, Murrietta Is Cashing In : High school baseball: Esperanza catcher seeks payoff against Simi Valley.

Jason Murrietta didn’t need to worry when he hit a brief slump early in the high school baseball playoffs. The Anaheim Esperanza catcher had worked through them before.

Long slumps. The season-long variety.

Murrietta batted .237 as a sophomore last year, the second-lowest average among Aztec starters.

It was a tough season for him, but cut him a break. After all, he was a sophomore.

“It was all confidence,” he said. “There were a lot of good pitchers in our league, guys like (El Dorado’s) Shawn Holcomb. They scared me.

“But this year, every time I go up to the plate, I’m thinking that no one is going to beat me.”

And only a few have.

Murrietta has more than doubled last year’s average, batting .565 in the regular season to lead Orange County players.

After getting only one hit in the first two playoff games, Murrietta’s average has slipped to .531 entering Wednesday night’s Southern Section Division I championship game against second-seeded Simi Valley (27-3).

It was his key hitting in the quarterfinals and semifinals, though, that helped the Aztecs (24-5) reach their fourth championship game in eight seasons.

Murrietta drove in the first run of the game on a groundout in the first inning of a 2-0 semifinal victory over top-seeded Crespi.

In the quarterfinals, he was two for four, including a towering home run, with four runs batted in in an 8-1 victory over Hesperia.

Murrietta said the home run, his first of the season in 81 at-bats, surprised him--but not nearly as much as his performance thus far.

Murrietta’s rise through the ranks took time. He needed to adjust to the varsity level after moving up as a freshman during the 1991 playoffs, joining a team that was top-ranked nationally before losing in the section semifinals.

As a sophomore, he started in right field and later moved to catcher, the position he had played since T-ball at age 5.

At catcher, Murrietta plays a position in which he is seen and heard. His chatter pumps up his teammates and sometimes irritates opponents.

During the Upper Deck Classic in April, a player from Miami Westminster Christian spit on Murrietta after crossing home plate. Murrietta went after him and had to be restrained by teammates.

“There’s always so much action behind the plate,” he said. “You can pick your team up, get everyone going with yelling and screaming. It’s especially important if the game gets dull and minds start to wander.”

Murrietta takes stolen bases personally. It’s an ego thing. Stealing on him means you’re challenging him. So is running on a dropped third strike. That’s why some of his tags get “a little aggressive.”

His aggressiveness carries over from the football season. Murrietta was a starting safety on the Aztec team that tied Los Alamitos, 14-14, in the section championship game.

“It would be great to play on two CIF championship teams in the same year,” Murrietta said.

But he knows winning it all will be difficult--even with Aztec ace Marcus Jones (11-2) on the mound--because he knows how good Simi Valley is.

The Pioneers, top-ranked in USA Today’s national poll, won the Upper Deck Classic and are batting .389. They have outstanding power hitters in Kevin Nykoluk (.476, 10 home runs), Ryan Hankins (.510, 12 home runs) and Britten Pond (.519, six home runs).

Murrietta respects them but wants badly to beat them. He thinks he knows how.

“Simi Valley is a fastball team,” he said. “Marcus has to establish a changeup, get them down 0-and-2 or 1-and-2 and then come at them with the heat, which is what he’s best at.”

Murrietta offered no predictions but added that the Aztecs are ready.

“The pressure’s not on us at all,” he said. “We’re one of only three (Orange) County teams left in the playoffs, and no one expects us to win. And we can play with them.”