Dietrich Proves Looks Are Deceiving : College baseball: Mater Dei graduate comes back after major arm surgery to be one of Pepperdine’s top starters.

The verbal abuse from the opposing dugout seems to start the minute Jason Dietrich takes the field.

Get this nerd off the mound!

Hey Poindexter, the library’s over there!

Dietrich doesn’t cut an imposing figure on the mound. At 5 feet 11, 190 pounds, he’s not very big. With his cherubic face, glasses and curly hair flowing from the back of his hat, he has a boyish look that hardly strikes fear into the hearts of batters.

But from Mater Dei High School to Rancho Santiago College and now to Pepperdine, Dietrich has made a career out of proving that first impressions are not necessarily the best impressions.

“Maybe my looks are deceiving,” said Dietrich, a right-hander who has a 1-1 record and 3.63 earned-run average this season at Pepperdine. “Some people say, ‘What’s this guy doing out there?’ But as soon as I start throwing I try to show them what I’m capable of, and usually that quiets them down a little.”

Yes, an 85- to 90-m.p.h. fastball can humble you, as Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon discovered four years ago. Sneddon went to scout a Mater Dei playoff game in 1990, back when Dietrich’s hair was much longer than it is today, and he succumbed to the same assumptions others had about Dietrich.

“It was almost comical, this kid with glasses and long, black, curly hair down to his shoulders,” Sneddon said. “It looked like Mater Dei was conceding defeat by pitching him. Boy, was I wrong.

“The guy had some arm strength and velocity. Sometimes your eyes deceive you, because you see so many games, but this guy was throwing pretty hard, and there was a definite chance for him.”

A few innings later, Sneddon wasn’t so sure. Dietrich, who went 6-1 for the Monarchs in 1990, was pitching a solid game against Lakewood when he felt his arm pop while delivering a pitch in the third inning.

“It went about 40 feet,” Mater Dei Coach Bob Ickes recalled of the pitch. “The umpire let him throw another one, and it went about 40 feet, too. That was it.”

Dietrich left the game wondering if he would ever pitch again. He had arm problems throughout high school and never seemed to pitch at full strength, and that scared college coaches away. Pro scouts wouldn’t touch him.

He was determined to pursue a baseball career, though. Dietrich enrolled at Rancho Santiago in the fall of 1990, but therapy hadn’t eased the pain in his arm. No wonder. Dietrich went to the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedics Clinic in Inglewood, where doctors discovered bone chips in the elbow.

Dietrich was given a choice: Have what is known as “Tommy John surgery,” in which a tendon from the forearm is removed and inserted in the elbow, giving patients about a 60% chance of full recovery, or continue to throw with pain.

Dietrich opted for surgery and underwent the procedure in January, 1991. He redshirted the ’91 season at Rancho Santiago and didn’t throw for seven or eight months after the operation.

It wasn’t until the following winter, before the 1992 season, that Dietrich felt confident enough to cut loose on his fastball and curve. But he injured his shoulder early in the season and pitched only five or six innings toward the end of the year.

“Sneddon never gave up on me,” Dietrich said. “He was always there making sure I did what I was supposed to do, and he didn’t rush me through that year. He made sure I was OK and wanted me to be ready for the next year. I kept rehabilitating, doing elbow strengthening exercises and shoulder work. Finally last year came and I was happy.”

Dietrich, healthy for the first time in years, had an outstanding sophomore season at Rancho Santiago, going 6-1 with a 2.69 earned-run average and 99 strikeouts in 103 innings. He went 8 1/3 innings and was the winner in the Dons’ 5-3 victory over Sacramento City College in the 1993 State championship game.

“He basically dedicated himself--that’s the only reason he was able to come back,” Sneddon said. “His work ethic made him one of the finest community college pitchers in California last year.”

And don’t let that innocent face fool you. Dietrich is a bulldog on the mound. He pitched that entire championship game with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. It was bleeding in the ninth inning.

“I had to take a rope out there and take him out of the game,” Sneddon said. “He wanted to finish, but luckily it worked out for the both of us.”

Said Dietrich: “I didn’t pay attention to it. I just wanted to go out there and win Rancho a State championship.”

Dietrich earned a scholarship to Pepperdine and is now one of the Waves’ top three starters. He has an above-average fastball with movement and his curve, though inconsistent at times, is getting better.

Pepperdine Coach Andy Lopez said Dietrich already has attracted the attention of pro scouts, and Sneddon believes Dietrich could pitch on the professional level.

“He’s a quiet, unassuming guy--you don’t look at him and think he’s a real competitive kid,” Lopez said. “He’s not foaming at the mouth, and he doesn’t have a four-day growth. He just looks like a real solid human being who gets hitters out.”