Martinez Strikes 20 Blows for Undersized With Record

There’s no simple explanation for tiny Chris Martinez of Chaminade High becoming the state’s single-season record-holder in home runs.

“He’s a freak of nature,” Coach Scott Drootin said. “He’s an optical illusion. I can beat him in arm wrestling. I don’t see a muscle on his body, but he can hit the ball far.”

Martinez, 5 feet 7 and 165 pounds, hit seven home runs last week to raise his season total to 20, breaking the state mark of 17 set by Brian Johnson of Oakland Skyline and Leo Daigle of Spring Valley Monte Vista.

“I wish I could tell you,” Martinez said when asked how he was hitting so many home runs. “It’s a lot of hard work. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to go down and through the ball and it’s been jumping off the bat. It’s a lot of luck.”

Martinez, who bats from the left side, hit five home runs to right field, including two grand slams, in a doubleheader sweep of host Big Bear on Saturday. He drove in 15 runs.

“The air helped a lot,” he said of Big Bear’s location, 7,000 feet above sea level. “Once you got the ball up in the air, it took off.”

Big Bear’s field dimensions are 310 feet down the lines, 335 in the gaps and 355 to center.

“He crushed the ball,” Big Bear Coach Brad Rice said. “They would have been out of most ballparks.”

For those who think Martinez has benefited from playing at Chaminade, which has a short right-field fence, take note: Only seven of his 20 home runs have come at the West Hills campus.

The fact he has broken Chaminade’s school record of 16 home runs set by catcher Ryan Hamill last season is surprising. Hamill hit 16 home runs this season as a freshman at Nevada-Las Vegas.

“Hamill is one of my best friends, and to break his record, I can’t even explain it,” Martinez said. “I’m still kind of in shock. I didn’t expect to do this.”

Martinez, a returning all-Mission League second baseman, signed in November with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He’s batting .404 with a region-leading 52 runs batted in.