Big Picture Still Looks Rosy to LaRuffa

Now certainly isn’t the easiest time for Fountain Valley Coach Ron LaRuffa to reflect on his return to the school he built into a Southern California power in the 1990s.

For starters, his Barons are enveloped in chaos. Once the surest thing in Orange County baseball, Fountain Valley is on the brink of repeating its storied collapse of 1999, when it started 16-4, lost its final six games and missed the playoffs.

Two weeks ago, Fountain Valley was 16-4. Then came two losses to foundering Los Alamitos. Then two more to upstart Edison.

The Barons have fallen from their preseason perch as the top-ranked team in the county and one of the 20 best teams in nation--according to a number of national publications--to the third-place team in the Sunset League.

No. 6 Fountain Valley closes out the regular season this week with two games against No. 4 Esperanza. With the Barons (16-8, 7-6) only a game ahead of fourth-place Edison (13-10-1, 6-7), the third and final automatic league playoff berth is very much up for grabs.

Amid the pandemonium of the last two weeks, LaRuffa is able to step back and see the big picture--of himself. He sees a 52-year-old coach who has dabbled in the junior college ranks as a pitching coach but remains loyal to the institution of high school baseball, which has brought him so much joy and success over the last 24 years.

More recently, though, LaRuffa found that it brought an overwhelming load of responsibilities, too.

“What happens is you end up wearing a lot of hats,” said LaRuffa, whose Baron teams won Southern Section titles in ’94 and ’95. “Your time teaching the game, which I really enjoy, is cut down quite a bit because you’re more of an organizer than a coach.

“You’re going to booster club meetings, emptying trash cans, raising money and dealing with parents. There’s just a million things you have to do that are time-consuming.”

Thus came the impetus for last season, which LaRuffa spent as Cypress College’s pitching coach. While there he got his teaching fix as the Chargers came one pitch away from winning a state title (a cruel twist, considering LaRuffa also suffered defeat in the state title game in 1988 as an assistant at Rancho Santiago).

After the season, a re-energized LaRuffa realized he missed certain aspects of high school coaching.

“There’s a lot of rewards in running a whole program and having a say in the way things are done,” LaRuffa said.

So he returned to Fountain Valley, where precedent also could bode well for this year’s team. Remember, LaRuffa’s ’95 section champs finished third in league.

“We chose the wrong time to play poorly,” LaRuffa said, “but we could be a completely different team in the playoffs.”

THE FALL OF TROY

Troy Coach Dane Ilertson has played the role of triage nurse as five regular players have missed significant time--or haven’t played at all--because of injuries.

“What next?” Ilertson said. “Frogs and pestilence?”

Three pitchers were lost for the season before a single game was completed. Brian Campbell was seriously injured in a snowboard accident at Snow Summit last December; Ryan Smith injured his back in a February scrimmage; and Adam Manassero tore his anterior cruciate ligament after stumbling over first base in the season opener.

The injury bug followed Troy into April. Second baseman Peter Smithedajkul missed two weeks after puncturing a lung during infield practice, and catcher Jeff Northover will require surgery after a ligament tear in his ankle ended his season.

Pitchers Jeremy Arbiso and Jon Salazar have done a fine job filling in for the Warriors (7-15, 5-8), but as Ilertson said, “When your two best pitchers are freshmen, it can make for a real learning season.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Most league titles are on the line this week as the regular season comes to a close Friday. Only Villa Park (Century), La Quinta (Garden Grove), University (Pacific Coast) and Irvine (Sea View) have wrapped up their leagues.

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