Nordhoff Isn’t a Total Loss in Baseball Any More

Steve Blundell, coach of the long-suffering Nordhoff High baseball team, recognized the turning point on the youth fields of Ojai.

It wasn’t the quality of play or participation levels. Youth baseball has always prospered in Ojai, Blundell said. But for the first time in his 10 years with the high school program, Little Leaguers weren’t blowing him off.

“For so many years the program hasn’t been successful, kids always said why should they go out for a program that is terrible?” Blundell said. “Little Leaguers were always telling me, ‘I’m not going to play for Nordhoff.’ ”

Out of the mouths of babes. Perhaps the youngsters had a point.

Shortly after he became coach five years ago, Blundell searched the school archives for the last Nordhoff league championship in baseball. After checking back 35 years without finding one, he gave up.

The Rangers last reached the playoffs in 1980 and haven’t finished with a winning record since 1979.

And Blundell was no miracle worker. In his first three seasons, the team won three of 61 games, losing all 36 Frontier League games.

Last season, the Rangers broke a 38-game league losing streak and finished the season with a 1-11 Frontier record. But Nordhoff was 7-13-1 overall, a modest achievement at best but cause for hope in Ojai.

And 1995 has been a downright breakthrough. The Rangers already have doubled their league victory total from the past four years--OK, they have only two. But each journey begins with a small step, and it’s been a long road for Nordhoff.

And now, even the little tykes are listening to Blundell. The number of players who try out for the high school team keeps growing, and students on campus have taken note, if only barely.

“One girl said to me once, ‘I didn’t know Nordhoff had a baseball team,’ ” said Miles Robertson, a senior center fielder and co-captain. “Before, the most we ever had show up for a game was about 20 people. Now we’re getting some fans and it’s not just our parents anymore.”

After beating Malibu, 3-1, on Friday, Nordhoff is 2-3 in league play and 5-6 overall.

Blundell even takes heart in some of the losses, such as back-to-back games against Santa Paula and Calabasas, which are a combined 8-0 in league play.

Nordhoff took Santa Paula 11 innings before losing, 6-5, on a 40-foot infield hit. Against Calabasas on Tuesday, the Rangers lost, 3-1, but senior left-hander Mike Walsh matched Coyote ace Jared Sandler almost pitch for pitch.

Walsh, 2-2 with an 0.93 earned-run average, allowed Calabasas only three hits--while Sandler gave up five--and Walsh’s seven strikeouts increased his total to 48 over 30 innings.

“You can see it in the kids’ eyes, Blundell said. “They really want it this year. They have to battle the mystique of being losers, but I believe the kids will break it. This is going to be the breakthrough year.”

At least it’s a far cry from the days when Robertson first joined the program. When he was a freshman on the junior varsity, the squad was so thin that Robertson was moved to the infield, becoming the only left-handed shortstop in the league.

“It was kind of goofy,” he said. “Any time our real shortstop pitched, they moved me to shortstop. I took it in good humor.

“Now, we think about making the playoffs. We’d like to make it once this decade. Or maybe that’s more like once in 20 years. We’re not doormats anymore.”

*

Talk about an Irish Spring in his step. Dublin-born Keith O’Doherty of Thousand Oaks, the most improved distance runner in the area, is closing in on the nine-minute mark at 3,200 meters, a barrier no Ventura County runner has cleared in 12 years.

In the first month of the season, O’Doherty has lowered his time in the event nearly 20 seconds, running 9:10.91 in last weekend’s Pasadena Games. At this rate of improvement, O’Doherty seems certain to be the first county runner since Eric Reynolds of Camarillo to break nine minutes.

Reynolds, who was a national cross-country champion in high school, ran a county-record of 8:41.0 in 1983.

O’Doherty might have company this season in his pursuit of nine minutes. Teammate Jeff Fischer ran a 9:10.42 last year and Camarillo’s Eleazar Hernandez has a best of 9:10.96.

All three will be part of the 3,200 field Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational, the premier high school invitational in the country.

O’Doherty’s stock has risen quickly among NCAA Division I coaches. Arkansas, Villanova and UCLA have scheduled recruiting trips for him.

UCLA was courting O’Doherty before the Pasadena Games, but Arkansas has not spoken to him since the fall, and Villanova did not make contact with him until last week.

O’Doherty, who already has made visits to Princeton and Baylor, is particularly intrigued by Arkansas.

The Razorbacks have won seven NCAA Division I cross-country titles in the last 11 years.

In addition, Arkansas Coach John McDonnell also is Irish. O’Doherty spent his first 13 years in Dublin before his family emigrated to America.

“I’ve always been interested in (Arkansas) because of their coach,” O’Doherty said. “He’s Irish like me.”

* Contributing: John Ortega.