Column by Rick S. Alvord

Sports Editor

Rewind to last April, when R.A. Long pitcher Jake Look was on a flight to a strange land — OK, it was Alabama — to have his left shoulder repaired after sustaining an injury in the weight room.

The promising Lumberjacks southpaw entered the 2008 season with high hopes of making a varsity splash, but had to take a seat when the pain got to be too much.

“We were devastated,” Lumberjacks head coach Jason Castro said. “We were real excited to have this sophomore kid coming up, but we had to shut him down.”

Fast forward to Tuesday, when the Jacks clashed with cross-town rival Mark Morris on a comfy, partly cloudy afternoon at the R.A. Long Lumberyard.

There was no doubt in Castro’s expansive baseball mind who he’d hand the ball to.

“Putting him on a stage like this, with the whole town watching, I had a lot of confidence that he’d get the job done,” said Castro, moments after Look and the Lumberjacks handled the defending Greater St. Helens 2A League champion Monarchs, 9-4.

“When he’s relaxed, he’s tough,” added the RAL skipper. “He just has to relax.”

Look admitted to being nervous before the game, which, for this cool customer, probably consisted of taking one nibble at a fingernail. He thought the butterflies had vanished when the first batter wearing a baby-blue jersey strolled into the box.

He was wrong.

“It was definitely more intense than any of the other games I’ve pitched this season,” said Look, who improved to 2-0 with Tuesday’s win. “I didn’t really settle down until Spelly (RAL pitching coach Pat Spellmeyer) came out and talked to me.”

Look surrendered a run in the first inning and put the first two Mark Morris batters aboard in the second.

That’s when Spellmeyer, a former Lumberjack catcher, paid a visit to the mound.

“Coach Spellmeyer went out and told him a knock-knock joke, which seemed to work,” Castro said. “That’s the first time all season that he’s struggled.”

In a testament to the joke-telling abilities of his pitching coach, Look promptly stranded both baserunners and put up goose eggs in the third, fourth and fifth frames.

“Spelly just told me to relax and have fun, that it was just another game. He said I was putting too much pressure on myself,” said the junior southpaw. “After that, I guess I was more myself.”

A standing-room-only crowd witnessed the first Civil War baseball matchup of the spring, with two more to come — including today’s home-and-home series finale at MM, scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

Castro hopes his squad doesn’t take so long to shake off the nerves today.

“I guess we’re still intimidated by the name on the front of the jersey,” Castro said, a postgame recording of “Ghostbusters” blaring on the ballpark P.A. system. “But today was huge for us. It gave us confidence to know that we can play with them.”

The Jacks definitely possess the offense to make a solid run at dethroning the Monarchs and winning the league title. They entered Tuesday’s contest with a .372 team batting average, and averaging 9.5 hits per game.

They also play smart baseball. A perfectly executed hit-and-run to score a run in the fifth inning comes to mind, along with just one error in the field.

With Look, Paul Harris and Sam Barbee chewing up innings as starters, and Carl Johnson in the closer role, RAL also has enough pitching to make a playoff push.

But it looks — er, appears — like Look will be the workhorse for Castro. That’s really saying something, considering the scary events of last April.

“I had a tear in my labrum (shoulder joint) and bone spur calcification in the back,” explained Look, who underwent the surgery in Birmingham, Ala. “James Andrews was my doctor. He’s really good, a guy who’s done a lot of those (surgeries). I feel great right now.”

And what about the game-changing joke from Spellmeyer? Was it even funny? Jerry Seinfeld funny?

“Don’t remember,” Look said with a grin.

Couldn’t have been that good. But it’s hard to argue with the results.