Column: Virgen’s View: Estancia baseball player doing his best amid great adversity

Something special occurred during the Battle for the Bell baseball finale at Angel Stadium on Monday afternoon.

Estancia High senior Jeffrey Alai, who has endured a trying season, including the death of his father in January, delivered the game-winning RBI double that gave the Eagles a 7-6 win over rival Costa Mesa. After celebrating with his teammates, Alai spoke to me about the loss of his father, Jamie.

“It was really hard for us as a family,” Alai, who is 18, said. “I definitely became a stronger person from that.”

Alai said he didn’t want to go into much detail, only that his father died from cancer. My heart sank because I could feel his pain. When I was 18, my father died of leukemia. My dad, Julian, was 50, and when he left our family, life would never be the same.

But all you can do is continue to live that life. Alai is experiencing that. Baseball has been a sport that he has always loved and shared with his dad. Alai’s walk-off RBI double was something out of a storybook.

Alai drove a 2-2 pitch to the right field corner with two outs and runners on first and second. Alai was a hero amid a high-pressure situation. He could remember what his father told him about baseball: “Just relax and have fun.”

Jamie Alai was 54 when he died of bile duct cancer, a rare form of the disease. He was diagnosed two years prior to his passing.

He worked as a vice president of development for a self-storage facilities company. He enjoyed coaching his sons, Jeffrey and Jake, 16, a sophomore who plays on the Estancia junior varsity baseball team.

“Jamie was always willing to be an assistant coach,” Julie Alai, the wife and the boys’ mother, said. “On many of their teams, throughout Little League, he was helping out.”

Julie Alai said this has been an incredibly difficult time for her family, and that they miss Jamie every day. Through the sadness, Jeffrey and Jake have been strong, Julie Alai said.

“They have continued to have positive attitudes about life,” she said of her sons. “They are still getting straight As and just living life. Obviously, it has been devastating to our family. I don’t know what to do. I just try to be there for them and let them know that I’ll always be there for them.”

The Estancia baseball program and many of the families have been there to support the family. That could be seen on Monday, as those familiar with the Alais couldn’t help but cry when Jeffrey belted that tremendous double.

Jeffrey made the most of that situation, a great lesson.

After Estancia, he’ll go on to UC Santa Barbara, where he will major in economics. His high school years were difficult and challenging, but he also had memorable experiences, like the one at Angel Stadium.

As he said, he has become stronger.

“It did make him realize just how precious life is and just enjoy every minute of it,” Julie Alai said of how Jeffrey has dealt with the death of his father. “He’s a doer. He tries to make every minute count. He realizes that life can be short and unpredictable. You never know.”

Indeed.

STEVE VIRGEN is sports editor of the Daily Pilot.

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Twitter: @SteveVirgen