KEEPING TABS / DANA HADDAD : Scouts Flock to Observe Cruz Control

The scouts see Arizona State center fielder Jacob Cruz swing a bat and they compare him to Toronto Blue Jay first baseman John Olerud, who batted .400 or better for a majority of the 1993 season.

Maybe that’s because Cruz’s swing is elegant, like Olerud’s. Or maybe it’s because the Channel Islands High graduate is batting .407 heading into a three-game series against UCLA that starts tonight. Fact is, scouts are flocking around the left-handed junior, who is expected to be selected within the top five rounds in this June’s amateur baseball draft.

“In fact, a Kansas City scout is due to be here in about 20 minutes,” Cruz said by phone Wednesday from Tempe, Ariz. “I’ve got agents calling all the time. It’s been a hassle.

“They like my swing. It’s fluid, easy. A couple of scouts have compared me to Olerud.”

But Cruz could be just as appropriately compared to Atlanta Brave third baseman Terry Pendleton. Cruz and Pendleton attended Channel Islands High. Both were overshadowed coming out of high school: Cruz by St. Louis Cardinal minor leaguer Dmitri Young of Rio Mesa and Pendleton by many players.

“He came out not being a star,” Cruz said. “But I remember him coming out and taking batting practice with us my sophomore or junior year and I remember (former coach) Don Cardinal telling us how hard he worked and he didn’t really learn how to hit until after he left Oxnard College and went to Fresno State.”

Pendleton was the National League’s most valuable player in 1991 and led the Braves to the World Series in ’91 and ’92. He has served as inspiration to Cruz and other Oxnard youths.

“He’s a guy who came out of our neighborhood and our high school and accomplished something in athletics,” Cruz said. “He’s the most star-studded guy to come out of that place.”

Cruz, who is having a star-studded season, is the neighborhood’s latest success story. He leads the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division (the “Six-Pac”) in batting. He has 85 hits in 209 at-bats with 54 runs batted in, 11 home runs, 11 doubles, two triples and eight stolen bases. He bats third in the order for the 10th-ranked Sun Devils (35-14), who trail first-place Stanford by one game in the Six-Pac with a 16-8 record.

“I set a goal at the beginning that I wanted to get as close to .400 at I could,” said Cruz, who had a 30-game hitting streak (spanning two seasons) snapped in late February and is now on a 12-game streak. “And I also wanted to get 100 hits.”

Cruz, 21, might have put up similar numbers last season except for four cracked ribs. He was injured in a collision at home plate. He hit .342 with 10 homers.

“I’m taking care of myself,” he said. “I’m not sliding into home headfirst anymore.”

Cruz, who has a strong arm and average speed but good range in the outfield, lifted weights in the off-season and has been awed by the results.

“It’s amazing,” said Cruz, who is 6-feet, 175, 10 pounds heavier than last year. “It helped my running, throwing . . . every phase of my game. I didn’t get big, but I’m stronger. Now I can dig a low ball out of the ground and hit a line drive. Last year, those were ground balls that never got out of the infield.

“Last year at this time, I was physically tired. I was dragging.”

*

Coming up short: Brigham Young and Kevin Hambly missed a chance to play in the NCAA volleyball final four, losing to Stanford in the final of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament.

Hambly, a 6-7 middle blocker from Royal High, had 20 kills as the Cardinal won in four games. Hambly led the Cougars with 443 kills this season.

Earlier in the tournament, Hambly had 13 kills in a four-game victory over Hawaii, and 17 kills with a team-best .438 attacking percentage and a team-high 12 blocks in a four-game victory over USC.

*

Another O’Bannon: New Mexico wide receiver Turhon O’Bannon has agreed to contract terms with the Rams. The former Cleveland High player caught 47 passes for 710 yards (averaging 15.1 per catch) and seven touchdowns last season. As junior, O’Bannon caught only 14 passes but four of them went for scores.

“He was a young guy just learning to play football while he was here,” said Steve Landress, former Cleveland coach. “But he’s a hard-working young man. He overcame a knee problem and was our best receiver his senior year.”

O’Bannon, 6-foot and 192 pounds, is a half-brother of UCLA basketball players Ed and Charles O’Bannon.

Staff writer Mike Hiserman contributed to this column.