It’s a New Ballgame for Samora

With Korean pitcher Chan Ho Park making the Dodgers’ opening day roster and Japanese teen-ager Makato Suzuki impressing everyone in the Seattle Mariners’ camp, American interest in baseball in the Far East has been piqued.

But about all fans know about baseball in the Philippines is that country’s team had to forfeit a Little League World Series championship two years ago because it used players who were too old.

Thousand Oaks High senior third baseman Quincy Samora grew up and played baseball in Manila before his family moved to Southern California last summer.

Samora, whose father is an American consultant, contrasted Philippine baseball to the more publicized Japanese baseball.

He said his team, which was not a high school team, practiced for about three hours, once a week, and played games on weekends. Japanese teams are noted for exhausting daily practices.

Another trademark of Japanese baseball is intensive attention to fundamentals.

But in the Philippines, coaches are more concerned with the outcome than the style, Samora said.

As an example, Samora described learning to field a ground ball in the United States and in the Philippines.

“There’s less emphasis on the actual mechanics (in the Philippines),” he said. “There, a player would take 50 ground balls and field them the way he wants and just throw it over to first base. Here, you have to line yourself, catch it to the left side, use soft hands, shuffle your feet.”

Samora said most Philippine pitchers, who are generally smaller than American pitchers, throw more breaking balls than fastballs to compensate for their size.

He seems to have adjusted to American pitching well, earning a spot as the starting third baseman and cleanup hitter for the Lancers. He is batting .300.

But he is also tied for the team lead in errors, with four. Perhaps a result of that inattention to detail in the Philippines?

“I’ve had several problems in the past, but I’m trying to correct them,” he said. “Years of doing it my way is kind of difficult to correct.”

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What next?: Jim Ozella, Alemany’s longtime baseball coach, wouldn’t say whether he has another coaching job lined up.

Ozella told the school in November he will not return for his 12th season, but didn’t inform his team until Wednesday.

“Coaching will be in my future,” he said. “There will be no time away from coaching. There’s nothing definite lined up but I’ve talked to a few people. That’s something I’d rather keep quiet for now.”

Ozella, 35, will continue teaching advanced history at Alemany, however. He said he simply needs a change.

“I just thought it was time to move on and look for a different challenge, a different experience,” he said. “I’m not burned out.”

Leaving won’t be easy, he says, because he feels closer to his group than others.

“It’s tough because a lot of these guys have been with me for four years and we’ve had a lot of good experiences,” Ozella said. “So far this has been a real fun year coaching.”

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Simple signs: El Camino Real baseball Coach Mike Maio is obviously not one for subtlety.

During the Conquistadores’ 14-7 victory against Thousand Oaks on Wednesday, Maio became so frustrated with his players for failing to watch him for signs that he simply started yelling.

“Sacrifice bunt, right now,” Maio screamed. “What’s the use of signals if they’re not looking at me? Right there! Bunt it to the third baseman.”

A decoy, right? Maio was trying to get the Thousand Oaks fielders to think his batter, Steve Riback, was going to bunt, but he was actually going to swing away. Right? Nope.

On the next pitch, Riback dropped a perfect bunt, to the third baseman.

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Deja vu . . . . almost: The Westlake baseball team turned a triple play on Tuesday against Las Vegas in the Durango tournament.

But the wacky part is, the next day, against the same team, against the same batter, in the same situation, they nearly turned the same triple play.

On Tuesday, Las Vegas attempted a bunt with none out, and the runners at first and second running on the pitch. The batter popped the ball right to the pitcher, who was able to start an easy triple play, to second, then to first.

Wednesday, in the championship game, with the same batter up, it happened again. None out, runners at first and second running on the pitch, a popped up bunt.

Problem was, this time the Westlake pitcher and the first baseman lost the popup in the sun and the ball dropped.

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Aside: One of Bell-Jeff Coach Craig Sherwood’s first projects after he left Crespi was to convert the Guards’ Richard Szeptycki into a sidearm pitcher, as he did with the Celts’ Jon Cuccias.

But after Szeptycki allowed six runs in two-thirds of an inning Saturday, Sherwood conceded that project was over, but more are on the horizon.

“I’ll find me one (who can throw sidearm),” Sherwood said. “When that thing works it is unhittable. It’s a ground ball extravaganza.”

Staff writer Irene Garcia contributed to this story.