The Stand-In Becomes Star for El Toro

The topic of discussion during Marc Ver Wayne’s English class a few months back was John Steinbeck’s “The Pearl,” a story about a poor-but-happy fisherman named Kino who discovers the world’s most magnificent pearl.

Besieged by dishonest pearl traders and jealous neighbors, Kino eventually decides his discovery has been nothing but a bummer and chucks the small, priceless orb back into the sea. Ker-plunk. The end.

(Hey, if you want more, the Cliff Notes await.)

Anyway, it was in the midst of this literary excitement that Ver Wayne, a sophomore pitcher on El Toro’s junior varsity baseball team, noticed varsity Coach Dan DeLeon poking his head into the classroom.

DeLeon asked Ver Wayne to step outside. He had some news for him. He told Ver Wayne he was needed on the mound--in a varsity uniform. Not just soon, but that afternoon.

Ver Wayne was shocked. He was speechless. He hadn’t dreamed of playing on the varsity as a sophomore.

He went back to “The Pearl,” but his concentration was sunk. During his other classes that day, all his thoughts started with a “V.”

Varsity.

Varsity.

Varsity.

Varsity, that is, for a day. DeLeon had said it was a one-time shot. His pitching corps was thin. He needed Ver Wayne to go three or four innings, max, against Villa Park. Just do your best, DeLeon said, we don’t expect more than that.

Seven innings later, Ver Wayne had a 1-0 shutout.

Back to the JV? No sirree. Ver Wayne is 9-2.

“It’s like, ‘Hello!’ ” DeLeon said of Ver Wayne’s surprising success. “What a shot in the arm for the Chargers.”

A shot? Try a transplant.

Ver Wayne, the No. 2 starter after senior Rob Johnson, filled the hole left by Ryan Filbeck, a senior who transferred to Esperanza in February. Filbeck, who was deemed ineligible in March by the Southern Section Executive Committee because his transfer was ruled athletically motivated, is now pitching for the Aztecs--the nation’s top team, according to the USA Today poll--thanks to a Superior Court judge who tossed out the section’s ruling as if it were stale bread.

But not even the crumbs of that case interest Ver Wayne. He never met the redheaded boy whose place he has filled, and he can’t say that he ever wants to.

“We don’t really mention him, because we don’t need him,” Ver Wayne says. “I think he should’ve stayed. . . . We would’ve had a great team, but we’ve just got to go about our own business now.”

The Chargers have their work week cut out for them. Tuesday, El Toro (18-11) meets South Coast League rival Capistrano Valley (19-10-1) in a semifinal game of the Southern Section 4-A playoffs at Saddleback College. The winner goes to the section championships at Anaheim Stadium--high school baseball’s version of “The Show.”

Ver Wayne, who Tuesday will duel the Cougars’ Travis Burgus (9-2), has a 2.95 earned-run average and allows an average of two walks per game. His fastball is not overpowering, but his curve has frustrated batters all season. Coaches around the league say he spots the ball well and isn’t afraid to throw breaking balls when he’s behind in the count.

At 6 feet 4 and 160 pounds, he’s tall and lanky--besides eating all day, he says he gets up in the middle of the night, every night, to eat more so he can gain weight. His doctors look at his size 14 feet and predict he’ll be stretched another inch or two in height.

More important is this: At 15, Ver Wayne has more poise than most older boys. DeLeon says he has never seen him get flustered or shaken. Even during heated league play, Ver Wayne, who looks a little like “Doogie Howser,” is Mr. Mellow.

True to form, Ver Wayne doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.

“I guess that’s just the type of person I am,” he says. “I don’t see a reason to get mad out there. It only hurts you.”

His father, Hank, says his son has always been level-headed. (Well, aside from those “Sesame Street” years during which he liked to throw rocks at people.) When asked his goals in life, Ver Wayne says maybe he’ll go into sports medicine, passing on the cliche high school athlete answer (pro sports, pro sports, pro sports).

“Right now I’m only a sophomore,” he says. “All that other stuff isn’t really on my mind. . . . I want to have fun while I’m young.”

For Ver Wayne, that’s a pearl worth hanging onto.