Pop Art

Arthur Ortiz will always remember the 2000 season at Palmdale High.

He won’t forget how the Falcons rode the 97-mph fastball of Matt Harrington and churned their way through rough-and-tumble games against Highland to win their second Golden League baseball title in three seasons.

He can always reflect upon the buzz around campus, the excitement on game day, the jubilation when the title was secured.

It’s amazing what you remember just sitting and watching.

Ortiz was academically ineligible last season and missed out on the Falcons’ success. No patrolling the outfield. No dramatic home runs. Not even a pinch-hit.

When you don’t make grades--he had a 1.9 grade-point average, short of the required 2.0--you can’t make plays. Ortiz, a year wiser, realizes that now.

He transferred to Lancaster through open enrollment in search of a fresh start in the classroom and on the field. It’s safe to say he has found both.

The senior outfielder has a region-best 12 home runs and ranks fourth with 37 runs batted in. He is also swinging for the fences in the classroom, earning a 3.5 GPA last semester.

Ortiz has 22 walks and only nine strikeouts. He is hitting .500, with a slugging percentage of 1.108.

An outsider last season, Ortiz is now outstanding.

“He’s become feared,” Lancaster Coach Doug Martin said. “People are afraid to pitch to him. The pitches he faces are so far outside or so far inside because they don’t want to pitch him anything.”

There’s no doubt the conditions at Lancaster--and at most other Golden League fields--are favorable for hitters, with the wind blowing out almost daily.

The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Ortiz isn’t the only member of the Eagles to take advantage. Lancaster is hitting .414 and averaging 10.3 runs.

But the friendly winds didn’t help the Eagles in the past. They won four league games in 1998 and three in 1999 before improving to 9-6 last season.

The progress continued this season, evident in a 21-4-1 record and an easy stroll to the league championship. They finished 14-1 and five games ahead of Palmdale and Quartz Hill in what is believed the largest margin ever for a Golden League champion.

Martin has his theories for the turnaround. Most involve Ortiz.

“He’s pushed us to do some things we’ve never been able to do at this school,” Martin said. “He’s been around champions and he’s instilled that in a lot of our guys. He’s made us feel like [winning] isn’t over our heads, that this is the type of team we really are.”

As Lancaster enters a first-round game in the Southern Section Division II playoffs today at home against Royal (19-9), Ortiz has pondered the past.

The sting of being ineligible has been replaced by the smack of a home run. He is no longer watching a champion, but performing like one.

And he has been reunited with his cousin, Tony Ortiz, a shortstop for Lancaster. They were close as youths, but drifted apart when they went to different high schools in ninth grade.

“When I got ineligible, I was like, ‘I’m going to [Lancaster],’ ” Ortiz said. “I told myself I was going to stay on top of my work and be with my cousin. I had been slacking off and really wasn’t getting on top of my work, so I transferred.”

Two more goals await--a strong playoff run and a diploma.

“I have my mind set on graduating,’ he said. “That’s real important for my family. And for me.”