Camarillo’s Young Is Up to Old Tricks

If any part of Delmon Young was ever a freshman, it was expelled long ago the way a baseball leaves his bat. With great speed, never to return.

Employing acumen not only beyond his years but beyond the grasp of most players below the professional ranks, Young, 14, came through with the winning hit in Camarillo’s 5-3 upset of La Puente Bishop Amat in a Southern Section Division I second-round game Tuesday at Camarillo.

Facing previously unbeaten left-hander Miguel Sanchez with two out in the fifth inning and Camarillo trailing, 3-2, Young smacked an 0-2 fastball off the fence in left-center to drive in two runs and put the Scorpions ahead.

Spencer Wyman singled to score Young and Camarillo led, 5-3. Reliever John Gonzalez (10-2) shut down the No. 3-seeded Lancers (26-4) and the Scorpions (24-6) had their first second-round victory since 1985, when Coach Scott Cline was the shortstop and Camarillo made it to a Southern Section final.

Young wasn’t even born in 1985.

But he wasn’t born yesterday, either. And after bouncing out to third on an inside fastball with a two-strike count on his previous at-bat, he looked for a fastball again, even though Sanchez was using a sharp-breaking curve to retire most of the hitters.

“I thought he might try to slip the fastball by me,” Young said.

Instead, despite making three errors that led to two unearned runs, Camarillo slipped into the quarterfinals against Long Beach Wilson on Friday.

The double was Young’s 47th hit this season, breaking the school record set by Andy Kroneberger in 1997. Young, brother of Cincinnati Red outfielder Dmitri Young, drove in Camarillo’s first run with a first-inning single, giving him seven runs batted in in two playoff games and 40 this season.

“The kid has grown up amazingly fast,” Cline said. “It’s going to be incredible to see what he can accomplish the next three years.”

This season isn’t over yet. Jacob Medina, a junior designated hitter, homered to lead off the fifth and give Camarillo reason to believe Sanchez could be beaten.

“That was the jolt of energy we needed,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez took over in the top of the fifth with none out and a runner on second. He picked off the runner before throwing a pitch, but allowed an unearned run that put Camarillo behind, 3-1.

Jim Alstot gave up two runs in the first, one earned, and was in jeopardy of losing for the first time in a Camarillo uniform. Alstot, a junior, is 8-0 this season and was 17-0 at lower levels the last two seasons.

Anthony Hidalgo had four hits for the Lancers, coached by former Cal State Northridge pitcher Ken Kendrena. The Lancers had nine hits--all singles--and stranded 10 runners.

“I was confident the whole day,” Gonzalez said. “It just felt good in the dugout. We really never got down, even after the errors.”

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BASEBALL PLAYOFFS

SECOND-ROUND SCORES

Division I

Camarillo 5, Bishop Amat 3

Division II

La Mirada 6, Palmdale 5

Thousand Oaks 4, Irvine Woodbridge 1

Hart 6, Calexico 4

Division III

Westlake 12, Paso Robles 3

Charter Oak 3, Burroughs 1

Division IV

Notre Dame 4, St. Paul 3

Chaminade 13, Nordhoff 1

Division V

St. Bonaventure 7, Pasadena Poly 2

Paraclete 5, Montclair Prep 1

Carpinteria 10, Lancaster Desert Chr. 6

Downey Calvary 5, Campbell Hall 4

Village Christian 11, Bishop Union 6

Division VI

Grace Brethren 11, Victor Valley 0

Thacher 13, Dunn 1

Faith Baptist 4, Viewpoint 0

La Verne Lutheran 11, First Lutheran 1