They’ve Fallen . . .And They Can Get Up : ‘Bounceback’ Players Refine Their Baseball Skills at Local Junior Colleges to Get Second Shot at 4-Year Institutions

All you stat-riding, stirrup-hiding diamond dogs sniffing around the yard for the D-1 ride that will salvage your pride, settle on the end of the bench here and listen up for the lineup.

Don’t expect your names to be called. We’re looking for experience today, ballplayers whose egos have been crammed into their back pockets along with their batting gloves, guys who have swallowed hard and explained to still another patronizing former high school classmate what happened.

These players might fall behind early, but they bounce back, and by game’s end, they prevail.

They went to big-time programs straight from high school, just like you ache to do. But either physical pain or mental anguish drove them back home. Fortunately for them, home is Southern California and they found refuge at a junior college, honing their skills and readying themselves for a second chance at Division I.

What’s that? The mention of junior college has you hiding behind your bat bag? Keep an open mind. In this game, it’s what you learn after you know it all that matters.

Batting leadoff . . . Mike Muncy.

A shortstop drafted out of Camarillo High in 1991 by the New York Yankees, he turned down a package worth $100,000 to take a full ride to Arizona State, disappointing UCLA, USC and Notre Dame.

Muncy, only 17 when he began college, lasted one semester before retreating to Moorpark College where he was reduced to an ego-deflating utility role in 1992.

On weekends, he’d watch ASU games on cable television and kick himself. He’d gone from feeling homesick to feeling sick at home. “I wished I would have stuck it out at ASU,” he said. “I’d follow the team in the papers and on Prime Ticket. It hurt.”

Muncy felt shamed, but it was only the middle innings. He transferred to Ventura, corrected a longstanding vision problem and began to see the light. A starting second baseman, he set school records with 27 stolen bases and a 22-game hitting streak. He batted .373 and has accepted a full scholarship to Texas Tech, a top 20 program. He also has until a week before the major league draft to sign with the Kansas City Royals, who drafted him last spring.

“I finally learned to play hard,” Muncy said. “People used to say that if he didn’t get a hit his first two times up, Mike Muncy was done for the day. I used to be a Cadillac player, but I’ve grown up.”

Others have noticed. “In our last game against Ventura, I finally saw what Mike Muncy was all about,” Pierce Coach Bob Lofrano said. “I saw the player everyone projected him to be.”

Batting second . . . Ernie Diaz.

For a 5-foot-9, 160-pound infielder, Diaz has shown surprising power at L.A. City College this season, batting .380 with nine home runs and averaging a run scored and a run batted in per game.

Just goes to show what a player can do when he steps into the batter’s box with a bat rather than a rake. As a Cal State Northridge redshirt last year, Diaz excelled at manicuring the home-plate area between innings.

Bill Kernen, the Northridge coach, recruited Diaz out of Crescenta Valley High in 1991 as a “preferred walk-on.” Translation: Perform first, then we’ll talk scholarship money for the following season--maybe.

Attending a Division I school as a preferred walk-on has become a common practice. Why would a player accept such a one-sided arrangement?

“It was a pride thing,” Diaz said. “Basically I was selfish. I wanted to make sure everyone knew I was Division I material.”

Diaz became a redshirt, “a cheerleader, always supporting the team, but never playing.” He left rather red-faced.

“It was depressing. I thought I had made a decision that was right but it turned out to be the opposite,” he said. “I felt bad about it.”

Diaz was contacted by L.A. City Coach Daniel Cowgill, who could have said I Told You So, having recruited the second baseman in high school, but instead he said Let’s Play Ball.

Which, it turns out, is something Diaz does quite well. “He will spend one more year with us then step right in and play at a Division I school,” Cowgill said. “It will be his job to lose rather than to win.”

Batting third . . . Jason Cohen.

Some lessons cost more than others. For Cohen, a “preferred walk-on” arrangement with USC in 1991 cost his parents $21,500--a year’s tuition.

The lowlights form a familiar litany: redshirt season, little chance to prove himself, soul-searching, bounce back, degrading nickname.

Cohen, the former El Camino Real High standout with the American Legion World Series championship ring, was tagged “Big League” by his Pierce teammates last season.

“It was a shock to the ego, that’s what it was,” Cohen said. “It was very difficult for me to be there. Then they started throwing that nickname. They all realized I was having trouble adjusting.”

Fast-forward to happy ending. Two seasons, 407 plate appearances, .365 batting average 87 RBIs later, Cohen has received an attractive financial aid package from Pepperdine, the defending national champion. The opportunity to prove he belongs on the same field with the Trojan starting nine is on the horizon: The Waves will play a three-game series against USC next Feb. 4-6.

Batting fourth . . . Andy Shaw.

Rarely does bouncing back work as neatly as it has for this power-hitting first baseman.

A year after limping away from Cal State Fullerton, Shaw helped Canyons run away with the Western State Conference championship and helped himself to a scholarship to Northridge.

Shaw suffered a torn tendon in his right knee at Fullerton early in the fall season of 1991, his freshman year. Although Shaw said the medical staff at Fullerton gave him excellent care, he missed the entire 1992 season.

“I never had the opportunity to establish myself,” Shaw said. “Then they didn’t really show any interest going into this year. They were upfront with me, telling me I might get 15-20 at-bats.”

By transferring to Canyons, Shaw increased his playing time tenfold and his statistics reflected it. He finished the regular season batting .425 with a team-high 12 home runs and 52 RBIs. He had 27 extra-base hits for an .876 slugging percentage and had an on-base percentage of .599.

“I needed to play after the layoff,” he said. “Canyons was an ideal opportunity. This ordeal was hard on me and my family but it couldn’t have worked out any better.”

Resilience characterizes the rest of the area bounceback lineup: Canyons left-hander Jason Chandler played one year at Fullerton; Moorpark left-hander Scott Barkman returned from Indiana.

From Pierce, a bounceback boom town, there are outfielder Josh Smaler, shortstop Bryan Corey and pitcher Adam West. Smaler attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after Agoura High, then came to Pierce and has accepted a scholarship to Northridge. Corey attended Washington State, bounced halfway back to Lassen College in Susanville last season, is batting .303 for Pierce and has signed a letter of intent with Grand Canyon. West, a bounceback from NAIA power Lewis-Clark, will play one more season at Pierce.

Last season, Pierce advanced to the state final behind power-hitting bouncebacks Brian Smith, Robby Welles and Cohen. Staff ace Mike Eby was a refugee from UCLA.

“They instantly help your program,” Lofrano said. “I definitely want to continue to incorporate bouncebacks into my program. Their maturity level has risen dramatically.”

But bouncing back can be bruising, and the ordeal often causes a player to reflect on precisely why he keeps putting on a uniform.

“I’ve learned to just keep my mouth shut and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Corey said. “Some of the guys straight out of high school are all mouthy. I can’t believe the talk about things that have absolutely nothing to do with the game.”

Our benchload of highly decorated high school seniors can draw two stunningly different lessons from these tales:

* Unless I get a very attractive scholarship offer from a Division I school of my choosing, I’ll save myself a whole lot of grief and head straight for my friendly neighborhood junior college.

* I believe in myself and I’ll prove to everybody that I can play Division I right now. And if I fail, I can always bounce back to my friendly neighborhood junior college.

Our typical high school standouts lean toward the second option primarily because they do indeed believe in their ability. Why four-year colleges aren’t beating down their doors with fistfuls of cash baffles them.

“I figure I should be getting a scholarship. I feel like I am being overlooked and I can’t understand why,” said Jeff Tagliaferri, Kennedy’s first baseman and owner of a .451 batting average, 18 extra-base hits and 29 RBIs. “I am good enough to play Division I right now. I could hit 10-15 home runs and hit over .300. Hitting is me. I’m a hitter.”

Tagliaferri’s teammate, catcher David Bourne, is nearly as flabbergasted. He quit football last fall to concentrate on becoming a Division I baseball prospect. Despite his batting average (.425), size (6-4, 195 pounds) and academics (3.5 grade-point average, 1,040 score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test), his best offer is to become a preferred walk-on at UCLA.

“A lot of it is pride,” he said. “Baseball players are cocky and arrogant. From what I’ve seen, JC programs are exceptional and a step up from high school. Some guys use it as a steppingstone to a four-year school, some to the pros.

“Still, I’d prefer to go to a four-year school.”

Forced to bite their tongues are the junior college coaches. Telling a high school star that he’s flat-out not ready for Division I is a good way to get the telephone slammed in your ear.

So, although Canyons Coach Len Mohney believes “a lot of guys think they are a lot better than they are, they seek a Division I school without thinking it through, then they wake up and smell the coffee,” he’s more apt to tell a prospect, “Explore your options and know that we’re here for you.”

Most often, those options are shockingly limited. The area high school seniors able to generate a bidding war among four-year schools this season can be counted on one hand: Suppan, Cey, Lamb, Fullmer, Leppard. Several others have accepted partial offers.

The perception that a stellar high school baseball career automatically translates into a scholarship is a myth. Unlike a top football or basketball program, baseball rarely produces revenue for a college. Money is tight and coaches are reluctant to hand any to a player who is not a certain starter.

“We can’t afford scholarship money sitting on the bench,” said Kernen, who nevertheless prefers having players in his Northridge program for four years. “My first choice is freshmen, but the reality is that I have immediate needs that must be filled by experience.”

An NCAA rule makes bouncing back more viable for baseball players than their football or basketball counterparts: Spring-sport athletes may transfer one time from a Division I school without losing a year of eligibility providing the coach signs a release.

Northridge has benefited from transfers who bounced back to home turf--Scott Sharts of Simi Valley left Miami in 1989 and became the Matadors’ all-time home run leader; Keyaan Cook of Montclair Prep transferred from Louisiana State last year and is batting .297.

Sticking it out at a Division I school far from home also can take a toll, according to Ryan Kritscher, a former Thousand Oaks High player who leads Southern Mississippi in hitting as a sophomore.

“The first year is tough, being away from home, especially somewhere as different as Mississippi,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

Kritscher, a part-time starter as a freshman, returned home last summer and played a leading role on the Newbury Oaks American Legion World Series champion team, winning the Legion postseason batting championship. The day after winning the title in Fargo, N.D., the team boarded an airplane for home. Kritscher, however, took a separate flight to his Hattiesburg, Miss., campus because he was a week late for school.

“That was depressing,” he said, “I really wasn’t able to celebrate with everybody. But I’ve grown. We have a good team and I’m pretty happy here.”

Also pleased are Muncy, Diaz, Cohen and Shaw, bouncebacks who found solid competition and room to mature close to the nest: All four live with their parents while attending junior college.

“Playing in this area, you are not going to be overlooked by scouts,” Valley Coach Chris Johnson said. “It’s not like playing in the boondocks. If you can play, somebody will be on you.”

What’s in store for Tagliaferri and the rest of the best of this year’s high school crop? Will Bourne someday be born again as a bounceback?

If so, he’ll be welcomed.

“I’ll provide a place to play and to learn,” Ventura Coach Gary Anglin said. “Second chances are something junior college baseball is all about.”