CLEANUP MAN ADDS STARCH TO LINEUP MONTANEZ MOVES FROM USC LAUNDRY ROOM TO LEFT FIELD.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

The laundry room wasn't the stage on which Abel Montanez had dreamed of performing three years ago.

The lifelong USC baseball fan transferred from Columbia University, where he had Ivy League success on both the football field as a freshman safety and in the classroom as a dean's-list member.

Montanez believed he could contribute to the USC program, one of college baseball's best. He envisioned himself dusting dirt off his cardinal and gold uniform after sliding into second base.

Instead, Montanez spent his first year at USC assisting in the cleaning off of grass stains from everyone else's jerseys.

``It's difficult for your ego,'' Montanez said of the season he spent on the Trojans' ``Baseball Support Staff.''

This isn't exactly a Cinderella tale, but Montanez's is a rags-to-riches story. From team manager to seldom-used benchwarner to starting senior left fielder for the nation's preseason No. 2-ranked team.

``I felt that I could play at this level,'' he said.

But USC initially didn't see it that way. Montanez, a former football and baseball star at Bishop Amat High in La Puente, was cut from the 1998 USC team that went on to win the College World Series. He hung around as a team manager, a paying position made possible by Montanez's financial-aid package under a federal college work-study program.

The pay was nice. But fringe benefits weren't part of the gig.

``It is laundry. It is equipment. It is to mind the store. Taking hot dogs to the umpires in the ninth inning,'' Trojans coach Mike Gillespie said. ``You're a go-for. You're a general equipment, maintenance guy.''

Gillespie simply had no room to keep Montanez on the '98 roster.

``They're those guys who are good players, but we just have so many, you kind of get lost in the mix of everybody else,'' said Trojans senior shortstop Seth Davidson, a member of the national-championship team. ``You have to get your shot to make it. And you don't get many of those. You maybe get one.''

Montanez considered giving up when he apparently blew his one chance. He was allowed to work out with the team that spring. He was one of the first arrivals at practice, camping out in the batting cage for extra work.

Gillespie noticed Montanez's spunk but had too many other worries to pay much attention. Montanez felt helpless, sweating in the hot sun with his teammates during the three- to four-hour workouts knowing there were no games for which to prepare.

In that sense, Montanez was like any Trojan. Until about 6 p.m. Practice was over, teammates showered and rode off on their bicycles. But Montanez's shift was just beginning.

``Not only were you at practice but doing the extra stuff afterward. You get here at 1:30 and practice is over at 5:30 or 6. And then you have to stick around until 8:30-9 p.m.,'' Montanez said. ``I was a rookie and the low man on the totem pole.''

Low enough that Montanez couldn't travel with the team on road trips. Remember that celebratory Trojan dogpile on the Rosenblatt Stadium mound in the 1998 national championship game? Montanez watched it on television.

The disappointment rejuvenated his quest to make the team in 1999. Gillespie rewarded him. Montanez took the next step but had all of six games played and five hitless at-bats to show for it.

``You say you're on the team, but no one sees you in the games,'' Montanez said. ``I always knew that I was a person who was going to work hard. I had the ability. I always felt that.''

Last season, everyone else figured it out. Montanez began his junior year with a niche as a reserve. On April 25 at UC Santa Barbara, Gillespie scribbled in Montanez's name on the lineup card as the left fielder and had enough justification to keep it there 14 more times.

In the NCAA Regional at Cal State Fullerton, Montanez went 7 for 10 with his first career home run. He earned All-Tournament honors for the regional champion. He finished 2000 with 17 hits in 52 at-bats.

``It was a great feeling to contribute to the team,'' Montanez said. ``Now I can look back and say I was one of the guys that helped the team get to the College World Series. That's a great feeling in itself.''

``He was just an extra guy. Not only did he not get the first crack to play, but he didn't get the fourth, fifth or sixth cracks to play,'' Gillespie said. ``This guy kind of keeps plugging and you start noticing that he does some things pretty well.''

And not just on the diamond. Montanez has a GPA hovering around 3.3. He'll graduate in May with a business administration degree and is mulling over a stack of job offers.

Montanez's patience has been rewarded. The long hours on the practice field, the late nights and the trips to the concession stands to get an umpire's snack seem trivial now. Montanez is finally a hit outside of Dedeaux Field's dungeon.

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Photo: Ex-Ivy Leaguer Abel Montanez used to run errands for USC's baseball team; now he scores runs as the starting left fielder.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer