Dos Palos’ Del Rio repeats as Sun-Star Baseball Player of the Year

With names like Dave Henderson, Leonard Davis and Cody Martin passing through its program, Dos Palos High School has a rich baseball tradition.

That said, it remains very much a football school. Every able-bodied male athlete is pretty much expected to don the Broncos’ horseshoe helmet, and Efrain Del Rio is anything but your typical high school athlete.

At 6-foot-7 and 290 pounds, Del Rio is a physical specimen any football coach would covet. And as the senior continued to sprout during his high school career, the pleas for him to try DP’s favorite sport steadily grew with him.

“I think I was about 6-foot-1 when I came in as a freshman and was up to 6-foot-4 by the end of my sophomore year,” Del Rio said. “I got asked to play football all the time, but my answer was always no. I played basketball, but that was mainly just to get me in shape for baseball.

“That’s always been the sport for me.”

It’s hard to argue with the results. Even with most teams trying to pitch around him, Del Rio led Dos Palos with a .505 average, 46 hits, 18 doubles and 39 RBIs. He also set a school season record with 11 home runs. Del Rio was just as good on the mound, going 7-4 with a 1.35 ERA and 105 strikeouts against 11 walks in 83 innings.

He’s the Sun-Star Baseball Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.

“There’s not enough words to describe what a pleasure it’s been coaching him the last four years,” Dos Palos coach Kevin Jones said. “We could never find anybody to consistently hit behind him, so teams did their best to pitch around him. That makes what he did this year all the more impressive. He was very patient, and if they made a mistake, he crushed it.”

Del Rio acknowledged a good portion of his attention was on his pursuit of Dos Palos’ home run record after falling one short a season ago.

The first eight came quickly, as Del Rio launched at will in the first two months of the season. Things got tougher as the Broncos got into West Sierra League play, however, and opposing pitchers became more careful with Del Rio.

He went without a homer in April but secured the record with three in three games to open May. Del Rio tied the record on the final day of the regular season and broke it in Dos Palos’ Central Section Division IV first-round playoff win over Fowler.

“Tying the record in the last game of the regular season took a lot of the pressure off,” Del Rio said. “Then the one I hit against Fowler, I don’t know if it’s come down yet.

“Breaking the record meant a lot to me. There’s a lot of good players that have come through Dos Palos. That’s something they’ll remember me for.”

Jones helped ensure Del Rio’s legacy won’t be forgotten by retiring his No. 20 at the end of the season.

“As soon as he broke the record, the other coaches and I got together and agreed he’d earned it in his four years,” Jones said. “He’s a great ballplayer and just a great kid. He’ll be missed around here.”

This story was originally published June 21, 2015 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Dos Palos’ Del Rio repeats as Sun-Star Baseball Player of the Year."