Montgomery Recycles His Act at Westminster : Baseball: High school pitcher does not throw in the towel after hearing some discouraging words at Fountain Valley.

Most sophomores would have been content to be the starting shortstop and a part-time pitcher for Fountain Valley, one of the better baseball programs in the county.

But Kent Montgomery didn’t want to play shortstop and he didn’t want to be a relief pitcher. He wanted to start and he didn’t feel like waiting until his senior season to find out if he could do it.

So after the season, Montgomery asked his coach, Ron La Ruffa, who could not be reached for comment on the matter, what he had in mind for him next season.

“He said he had a lot of arms and that I’d probably only pitch two or three innings at a time,” Montgomery said. “And then he said something I’ll never forget. He said, ‘The other guys will start, you’ll come in and pick up the trash.’ ”

Then and there, Montgomery knew his days at Fountain Valley were over. Initially, he attended Fountain Valley so he could play with his brother Rich, who had set career records for runs batted in and hits at the school during his three-year career that ended last year.

So after the school year, Montgomery and his family moved out of their rented apartment in the Fountain Valley district and back into their own house in the Westminster district.

“I know some people look at Westminster as some sort of ghetto school, so I also wanted to come over here and make this a competitive school,” Montgomery said.

So far, it appears Montgomery made the right move. Through Westminster’s first 17 games, he is 6-2 with a 2.67 ERA. In 54 innings, he has walked only eight and struck out 19.

He has already thrown twice as many innings as last year, when he went 2-0 with three saves.

Westminster Coach Brian Batesole said Montgomery is the main reason his team is 10-7 and vying for its first playoff berth in five years.

“He’s meant a heck of a lot to us,” he said. “It doesn’t take a genius to see he’s won six games and we’ve only won 10.”

Montgomery is also contributing at the plate. He’s batting only .250, but is third on the team in RBIs (eight) and second in runs scored (11).

Batesole didn’t know before the season how Montgomery might contribute, or if he would contribute at all.

“I had heard we might get him during the summer, but you hear things like that a lot,” Batesole said. “Once I saw him that first day of school, I said, ‘OK, great.’ ”

Still, Batesole didn’t know what he had until practice began.

“We knew we were going to use him as a pitcher, but we weren’t sure what role,” Batesole said. “I didn’t see him all winter, so I didn’t know how he was coming along.”

Montgomery was coming along fine, thanks mainly to La Quinta assistant coach Jimmy Doyle, who coached Montgomery’s winter team.

“Kent is such a smart pitcher,” Doyle said. “He goes out and scouts the other team he plays. That’s something you don’t see in high school. He loves the game and he really knows it.”

Montgomery said: “I learned a changeup from Jimmy and I improved my curve ball and my slider.”

With a fastball that barely hits the 80 m.p.h.-mark, Montgomery needs all four pitches working to be effective. Except for Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to Servite in which he allowed a season-high four earned runs, Montgomery usually has every pitch at his disposal.

‘He’s just always around the plate and always ahead in the count,” Batesole said. “He gets his curve over for strikes and another key is that he’s able to spot his fastball.”

Said Montgomery: “Because I don’t throw that hard, I have less margin for error than most hard throwers. But I also know that not many high school pitchers throw as many pitches as me.”

But Montgomery said his fastball will occasionally surprise people.

“When I get a lot of adrenaline going I can get it up there pretty good,” he said.

Montgomery had that adrenaline going out of control in his first Sunset League start, which happened to come against his old team, Fountain Valley. Though he beat his former team, 4-3, he got off to a rocky start, allowing three runs, all unearned, in the first inning.

“It was a tough start, but I looked over to the Fountain Valley bench and knew that I’d rather be here fighting back than not getting the opportunity at all,” he said.

Montgomery proved his Fountain Valley victory was no fluke when he came back in his next start to beat Edison, 3-2, in nine innings. He walked one and struck out four in going the distance.

Not bad for a trash man.