Booth Improves After Changing Stance, Diet

Jeremy Booth, a sophomore first baseman at Cypress College, is well aware of his baseball role.

“I’m 6 feet 5 and weigh 235 pounds,” he said. “I’m supposed to hit home runs. I’m supposed to drive in runs.”

The problem was for much of this season, Booth wasn’t doing either with much regularity.

But after he altered his stance by moving about five inches more off home plate on the advice of the Cypress coaches and a Chicago White Sox scout, he has emerged as one of the hottest hitters around.

Cypress is one of two four-team regional sites in Southern California, and the Chargers (35-11) host Riverside (29-17) at 11 a.m. today. Saddleback (28-13) meets Mt. San Antonio (27-18) at 3 p.m.

Booth’s late surge helped Cypress to the Orange Empire Conference title. He also had three home runs in two games as Cypress swept San Bernardino Valley in the first round of the playoffs.

In his last eight games Booth, who carries Ted Williams’ book “The Science of Hitting,” everywhere he goes, is 18 for 26, with eight home runs, four doubles and 19 runs batted in. He is hitting .373 with team highs in doubles (17), home runs (12) and RBIs (45).

Before the adjustment to his stance and the successful work of Cypress’ staff to remove the loop in his swing, Booth was caught in a four-for-32 slump.

“It was ridiculous,” he said. “I woke up one morning and said I had to take control of it. Once I stopped trying to hit the ball out and decided to let it happen, it did.”

Booth, from Beverly Hills High, initially signed with Loyola Marymount. It wasn’t discovered until after his first semester at the school he lacked a unit of core math and was academically ineligible.

He didn’t want to sit out a season, so the Loyola Marymount coaches recommended Cypress, which was coming off a state championship.

It took Booth a while to adjust to the Cypress program and he split time at designated hitter and learning to to play first base and the outfield. He was a catcher in high school.

Cypress assistant Bill Pinkham worked hard to convince Booth he no longer had to carry the team as he did in high school. Instead, he could just be part of it.

Booth hit .378 with five home runs and drove in 23 runs last season. He took four summer-school classes and considered transferring back to Loyola Marymount. But about midway through the summer, he decided he would rather stay at Cypress.

He wanted to turn himself into the best player possible in hopes of getting drafted by a professional team this June.

He started with his weight, which had crept as high as 280 thanks to a mostly fast-food diet. By changing his eating habits and working out often, he has lost 45 pounds and increased his quickness and foot speed.

“You have to give the kid a lot of credit for working hard,” Cypress Coach Scott Picker said. “Last year he was too big and slow to play defense for us. The biggest pair of pants we have is a 38 and he was poured into them. This year, they fit him comfortably.”

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Home-run happy: Rancho Santiago, the defending state champion, usually has advanced this far because of its strong pitching.

Not this year. The Dons have muscled their way along, hitting a school single-season record 68 home runs. Coach Don Sneddon said he believes the mark to be a state record but none are kept.

Derek Baker, a transfer from USC, leads with 14 homers and Mike Brambilla, a transfer from Cal State Fullerton, has 10. Tony Zuniga has nine and Erik Sobek eight. Ryan Fullerton and Kevin Duck each have seven.

Rancho Santiago (33-12) opens with Cerritos (30-15) at 11 a.m. today at Citrus College in Glendora. L.A. Harbor (28-14) meets Citrus (36-7) at 3 p.m.

Playoff Notes

This is the second consecutive year Saddleback has gone this far in the playoffs. The Gauchos are led by Jon Lauderdale, who has 12 home runs and 60 RBIs and Paul Day, who has 10 home runs and 48 RBIs. Chad Wanders is 6-1 as a starter and Ryan McDermott is 7-3 with three saves.

The winners meet at 11 a.m. Saturday at both regional sites. The losers at Cypress play at 10 a.m. at Fullerton College and the Citrus losers play at 10 a.m. at Azusa Pacific. The championship game is at 11 a.m. at each site Sunday.

The Northern California regionals are being held at Lassen College in Susanville and at College of the Sequoias in Visalia. At Lassen: Modesto (31-8) plays American River (32-12) and Merced (31-15) meets Lassen (31-8). At Sequoias: Canada (32-12) takes on Sacramento (38-5) and Sequoias (33-11) plays Fresno (31-15).

The winner of each of the four sites moves on to the state tournament May 25-27 in Fresno.