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Sports

Mustangs' Collins Makes Sharp Move Forward

After a slow start at the plate, the Mira Costa High junior has hit .458 over the past 20 games, putting in extra work on his craft every step of the way.

How many swings can one take in an hour? A couple of hundred, easy; each pitch, each swing, a lesson. And one night last week, Mira Costa High junior Bret Collins was at the Beach City Baseball Academy to closing, learning more about what he has learned so well this season.

Soft toss - thwack. Put the ball on a tee - thwack. Live pitching - thwack.

He is stinging the baseball, one after another. Hands inside the ball, sharp compact swing - there's a line drive up the middle, another to the left, another back through the box.

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''It has helped a lot. We don't hit as much in practice as I'd like to,'' Collins said, no doubt meaning the Mustangs do not hit every minute of every practice.

It has, Coach Cassidy Olson said, helped turn Collins into a force in a very short time for a Mira Costa team that on Tuesday will face Cypress in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

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It was about nine weeks ago, in a March 17 loss to Santa Monica, that Collins came up to bat in the sixth inning with one out, the bases loaded. He struck out, took a called third strike on a pitch that might have been a little high and a little outside.

He was scuffling some then, as were all of the Mustangs' hitters; Collins, perhaps, more than most because he was in his first month on the varsity on a veteran team with high expectations, feeling his way and fighting to find a comfort zone at the plate.

But just one week after that, there was a breakthrough. One week later, another one. And when Mira Costa opened the CIF playoffs against Santa Barbara San Marcos it was Collins who was inserted into the No. 3 spot in the lineup to replace Jake Jelmini, the Mustangs' best hitter, who was out after suffering a broken jaw in a practice mishap.

''You saw him kind of mature as the year went along,'' Olson said. ''We obviously loved his swing in batting practice, but it was a matter of him being confident that he could do it at this level, getting the butterflies to fly in formation as opposed to flying around all crazy.''

Collins, the Mustangs' left fielder, said that he does not remember that strikeout in the loss to Santa Monica - ''I was young then … young mentally,'' he said.

But he does remember the breakthrough game against Temecula Valley in the 60th Lions Invitational in San Diego when he went 3 for 3 in a 12-3 victory, and he remembers an 10-pitch at-bat that he had a week later in a romp over Leuzinger that ended with a RBI single in a situation similar to the one where he took the called strike against Santa Monica.

Collins, in a very short time, gained that comfort level and started driving the baseball. In the Mustangs' first eight games, he was batting .250 (6 for 24) with four RBI. But in the 20 games since then he has hit .458 (27 for 59) with 11 RBI.

The extra work that he did, going to the cages with Jelmini two or three times a week before he was injured when accidentally hit with a bat during practice, has been a key piece to the puzzle.

''Basically, it's a matter of getting a process across to him, understanding that the approach to the hitting part of this is to make sure you keep your hands inside the ball and drive the ball middle opposite,'' said Dean Jelmini, the Mustangs' hitting coach and Jake's father.

''He's worked really hard. He and Jake and usually there's at least one other guy, they'll go over to the batting cage at least three nights a week and they'll hit and they'll continue the process.''

It will continue through the season and it will continue on through the summer, two or three times a week. 

''If there's one thing that he's still a little lacking, it's that he's just a real free swinger. He hit .400, so you can't argue with that,'' Olson said. ''But he only had two walks the whole year. If he can kind if reign that in a little bit … you don't want to take away his aggressiveness, but if we can get him to always hit his pitch he can be a force. He is a force.''

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