CAMARILLO HAS FUN OUT THERE SCORPIONS KEEP THINGS LOOSE AMID PLAYOFF TENSION.Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer CAMARILLO - Some baseball teams show up wearing grim game faces. Camarillo High's faces are strictly like the grinning mugs on the ``Have a Nice Day'' yellow T-shirts. ``Every time we get to the ballyard, you can see a bunch of our teammates. We got a little game of flip going on,'' said senior shortstop Brad Boyer, one of the Scorpions' key players and emcee of their vaudeville vaudeville (vôd`vĭl), originally a light song, derived from the drinking and love songs formerly attributed to Olivier Basselin and called Vau, or Vaux, de Vire. act. ``You've got a bunch of guys A Bunch of Guys (BOGs), or Group of Guys (GOGs) are terms used by counter-terrorism officials to refer to small, self-organizing terrorist cells.[1] BOGs typically have little to no contact with global terrorist groups like al Qaeda, so they independently plan and in a circle and they're flipping the ball around with their gloves.'' Such a laid-back approach is taboo on some diamonds. But it's hard to argue with the results. Top-seeded Camarillo takes a 28-4 record into today's Southern Section Division I semifinal against Long Beach Poly at Cal State Fullerton. The Scorpions have horsed around and giggled their way to within one win of a chance to play flip at Edison Field, which plays host to the section championship game Saturday. Camarillo has plenty of talent and experience. On game day, the Scorpions don't have many pregame jitters jitters 'Butterflies' Psychology An episode of nervousness or anxiety that often precedes a public event; jitters is a type of performance anxiety which may affect actors in a stage production–stage fright or soloist musicians; it may respond to anxiolytics , even now when the slightest slip-up means the season is over. ``You watch the other teams come in and take infield-outfield. They take about 30 minutes,'' Scorpions coach Scott Cline cline, in biology, any gradual change in a particular characteristic of a population of organisms from one end of the geographical range of the population to the other. said. ``We take five. We get to the field about an hour before game time, stretch for about five minutes, warm up for about five minutes, take infield for five minutes and play.'' The Scorpions' formula has worked well. Most of the players grew up together in various youth baseball leagues. They combined to win a state American Legion American Legion, national association of male and female war veterans, founded (1919) in Paris. Membership is open to veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. championship last summer. They won the Pacific View League championship. They've gone further than any previous Camarillo team. And they have fun doing it all. ``They don't take the game too serious,'' Cline said. At least when it comes to preparation. Once they're between the foul lines, baseball becomes important. But Jekyll becomes Hyde whenever time allows for it, even in the course of a seven-inning game. ``As soon as we go on the field, we get serious. But once we come back into the dugout in between innings, we fool around,'' said junior Delmon Young Delmon Damarcus Young, (born September 14, 1985 in Montgomery, Alabama), the younger brother of Dmitri Young, is an outfielder on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and was, arguably, the top hitting prospect in baseball as of the end of the 2005 minor-league baseball season. , considered the best high school player in the country but, among his teammates, just another funny man. ``We have a nonchalant non·cha·lant adj. Seeming to be coolly unconcerned or indifferent. See Synonyms at cool. [French, from Old French, present participle of nonchaloir, to be unconcerned : non-, approach. We just goof around, have fun. It's worked well.'' Camarillo's loose attitude might have served it well the past two playoff rounds. Eisenhower of Rialto Rialto, city (1990 pop. 72,388), San Bernardino co., S Calif., a residential suburb of San Bernardino; inc. 1911. The city has greatly expanded as a result of the economic and demographic growth of the southern California area. and Peninsula of Rolling Hills Rolling hills are like a mountain chain, only a "hill chain" of hills that roll on and on continually. You will often find them in between plains and mountains, near major rivers, or randomly anywhere. The only places without rolling hills are deserts and flood plains. Estates made the Scorpions work for one-run wins: 3-2 over Eisenhower on a Young home run in the eighth inning and 2-1 over Peninsula when Camarillo stranded 12 baserunners. The Scorpions maintained their composure throughout. ``We don't really get uptight at all,'' senior ace pitcher Travis Sutton said. ``Even if we're down in a game, we'll come back. I hope it stays that way through the last two games.'' Camarillo's experience and camaraderie could make the difference for a school that's produced some of the region's best talent during Cline's eight-year tenure but has suffered several near-misses in the postseason. This team is deep well beyond the high-profile Young. Seniors like Boyer, Sutton, first baseman Andrew Berkovich and catcher Justin Frash have played in big games together for years. And not just at the high school level ``We're all Camarillo boys. If you think about it, you see a lot of these other high schools, they have guys from all over the area,'' said Boyer, who has signed to play at Arizona. ``This has been our little group since we were 8 years old. And we've always dreamed of getting to the finals in Mustang mustang [Sp. mesteño=a stray], small feral horse of the W United States. Mustangs are descended from escaped Native American horses, which in turn were descended from horses of North African blood, brought to the New World by the Spanish c.1500. , Bronco bronco: see mustang. , Pony, Little League. We've always been competitive and had fun out there.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Throw in a little clowning, and Brad Boyer, pictured, and the rest of the Camarillo baseball team form a cohesive, talented group. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion