Krehbiel Switches From Mat to Bat Without Taking a Tumble

Jared Krehbiel, a designated hitter at Channel Islands High, is making a strong run at the state freshman-of-the-year award and he owes a big assist to . . . Mary Lou Retton?

Playing in one of the best high school leagues in Southern California, Krehbiel leads the Marmonte League with five home runs and is batting .409 with a team-high 16 runs batted in. At 5 feet 10, 180 pounds, he is one of the biggest ninth-graders at school and last fall was the offensive MVP on the freshman football team.

But there’s more than just bat speed, quick hands and excellent hand-eye coordination to explain Krehbiel’s baseball success.

“His upper-body strength is phenomenal and that comes from his gymnastics background,” Coach Al Tarazon said.

Given Krehbiel’s impact this spring, Tarazon might consider putting the whole team on the parallel bars.

Krehbiel started rolling around a gymnastics mat at age 4 when he tagged along with older sister Denise to the Ventura County Gymnastics Center in Camarillo. Like many youngsters, Denise took up the sport after watching Retton bring home the gold in the 1984 Olympic Games.

By age 5, Krehbiel started competing and soon was working out four hours a day, five times a week. He was an immediate success in age-group events and last year placed second in the state in the high bar in an age-group competition.

At a subsequent regional meet at Arizona State, he shared first-place honors in the event.

All along, Krehbiel played baseball and his mother, Helene, is convinced that gymnastics has made him a better ballplayer.

“You can’t tell me that gymnastics hasn’t helped him as a baseball player,” she said. “He learned how to control his body. You’ve got to know where your body is when you’re flipping through the air.”

Krehbiel plans to leave the flipping to others, saying he might return to the gymnastics club this summer merely to stay in shape. “Baseball is more fun,” he said.

Not for pitchers. He has hit all five home runs and is batting .500 (12 for 24) in 10 league games.

He singled and homered in his first two at-bats in league play and hit two homers in a four-for-four game against Camarillo.

He hit a grand slam against Thousand Oaks, his No. 1 highlight of the season. Tarazon expects many more similar feats and said Krehbiel will help in the field after this season.

Krehbiel is playing behind senior Armando Magallanes this year, but is a talented catcher with quick hands and feet, Tarazon said. Still, Krehbiel will make his mark with his bat.

“He just loves to hit,” Tarazon said. “He’s a big, strong kid who can really swing it.”

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A spirited race for the county batting title is being waged by two close friends in their first seasons on the varsity.

Jack Wilson, a second baseman at Thousand Oaks, and Matt Riordan, a right fielder at Westlake, are a pair of juniors who played together on numerous all-star youth teams in the Conejo Valley.

Wilson is batting a remarkable .597 (37 for 62), but Riordan is the hottest hitter in the Marmonte League, raising his average to .559 (38 for 68).

Riordan was four for six in two league games last week and has 18 hits in his last 29 at-bats, a .621 clip. Riordan also had a streak of seven consecutive hits stopped on Wednesday when he was hit by a pitch.

A converted catcher whose knees prefer the relative idleness of right field to the rigors behind the plate, Riordan (5-11, 168) leads the league with nine doubles and four triples. He also leads Westlake with three homers and 19 RBIs.

With Westlake (16-4, 7-3) and Thousand Oaks (14-8, 6-4) enjoying solid seasons and driving for playoff berths, it is easy for Wilson and Riordan to applaud each other’s success.

After Riordan was informed that Wilson went three for three on Wednesday, actually losing ground to his friend after a two-for-three game, Riordan was happy for Wilson.

“Three for three? That’s great,” he said. “I’m glad we’re both doing well.”

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No player’s fortunes best exemplify the turnaround of the Westlake softball team than pitcher Kelly DeArman.

Despite a 0.86 earned-run average last year as a sophomore, DeArman had a 5-9 record in Marmonte play for the downtrodden program.

Since the softball team began play in 1978, Westlake has not won a league title or qualified for the playoffs. If the team ever had a winning record in league play, no one can remember.

Some of those shortcomings will be remedied this year. The Warriors are in second place, one game behind Camarillo, with an 8-2 record and have set a school mark for victories with a 16-4 overall record.

DeArman (15-3) leads the county in victories and strikeouts with 151 and has allowed 42 hits and two earned runs in 125 innings--an ERA of 0.11.

She said she benefits because she is one of the few left-handed pitchers in the area, but credits much of her success to an improved supporting cast.

“My ball breaks in to right-handed hitters and they’re not used to that, so I get a lot of handle shots,” she said. “Our defense is so much better this year. Pitching last year was pretty difficult, but this year I have confidence in our defense.”

Westlake faces a big test Tuesday, meeting Newbury Park (15-5, 7-3) and Kristi Fox, The Times’ county player of the year in ’94. Fox is 12-4 and beat Westlake last month, 4-1, when Emily Webster hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning off DeArman, the only homer she has allowed.

DeArman and Fox are friends, playing on the same youth teams together, but DeArman hopes to put friendly feelings aside for seven innings on Tuesday.

“We haven’t beaten Newbury Park since I’ve been here, so that’s our next goal,” DeArman said. “It’s important that I pitch well, but I have to approach it the same as any other game.”