COME TOGETHER —Moorpark High baseball student manager Benedict Yaspelkis IV, right, welcomes teammates as they run off the field against Oak Park on April 5 at home. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
Benedict Yaspelkis IV got hit by a pitch in his only at-bat in three years.
It happened during a Moorpark High baseball summer league game against Crescenta Valley on July 12, 2018, two days before his 16th birthday.
“The first pitch was right at my head. The second one came right at the ribs,” Yaspelkis said of the near-misses. “Third one hit me right in the foot.”
The Musketeer doesn’t think the pitcher was trying to hit him: The guy was just wild. Either way, there were no hard feelings.
“I’ll take it to get on,” Yaspelkis said. “You have to take one for the team.”
This Musketeer is all about the team.
Moorpark’s third-year student manager, Yaspelkis doesn’t get any playing time but he hustles more than any Musketeer during the spring.
Yaspelkis, better known as “Benny” or “Benihana” by teammates, has subscribed to the “All For One” mindset Moorpark skipper Scott Fullerton preaches to his players.
STAYING LOOSE—Moorpark right fielder Daniel Reyes, left, and student manager Benedict Yaspelkis IV joke around before the Musketeers’ Coastal Canyon League game against Oak Park on April 5 at home.
“His oar is always in, even if some of ours are out,” senior right-handed pitcher Kieran Sweeney said of Yaspelkis. “He’s always helping the team get better. I don’t know if we’d be the same team without him.”
“He doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves,” said Zac Camel, a junior shortstop. “He doesn’t have to be out here. He chooses to be. We appreciate him for that.”
At practice, Yaspelkis waters the infield dirt, helps set up nets and operates the fly ball machine Fullerton said most assistant coaches can’t seem to figure out. He also started throwing batting practice.
Prepping for game day, Yaspelkis writes the lineup on the white board in the Musketeer dugout, slides offensive and defensive cards into wristbands, powers up the scoreboard, pops in the pregame music playlist and helps players get loose by playing catch with his personalized glove, embroidered with “Yaspelkis IV.”
Fullerton can often be heard screaming “Where’s Ben!?” to give the junior another task that needs to be completed.
BE COOL—Benedict Yaspelkis IV, the student manager for Moorpark High’s baseball team, sprays down the dirt infield before an April 5 game. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
“I’m going to have to retire after he graduates because he really does take a load off of my plate,” Fullerton said, tongue in cheek.
During the game, Yaspelkis is up on the dugout railing keeping stats on a tablet and motivating his peers. He also runs to the foul pole with teammates between innings.
“He’s as important as anybody else,” the skipper said. “He’s like a fifth team captain. The guys appreciate all the stuff he does.”
The Musketeers show their appreciation by showering Yaspelkis with gifts.
They got him his first jersey, which has the number “00,” during his sophomore year. He wore a collared Moorpark shirt as a freshman.
The Musketeers paid for Yaspelkis’ ticket to homecoming this year.
“I had no plans on going to that,” Yaspelkis said. “It was a lot more fun that I thought it would be.”
The team recently chipped in to buy Yaspelkis a fresh pair of green-and-gold turf shoes.
ONE OF THE DUDES— Moorpark’s Benedict Yaspelkis IV, left, and Connor Scofield talk before the Musketeers’ game against Oak Park. Yaspelkis, a junior, has been the student manager for three seasons.
“He helps us out, so we want to help him out too,” Sweeney said. “He gives us a lot. It’s nice to give him something back.”
Yaspelkis said the gifts are unnecessary. Being welcomed as a team member is all he ever wanted.
He is a baseball fanatic who wanted to stay around the game by any means necessary after getting cut during tryouts his freshman year.
He said his teachers recommended he ask about becoming the team’s manager.
“I was always wearing my baseball gear to class—still do— and two of my teachers recognized that,” said Yaspelkis, who owns 250 baseball caps, 18 jerseys and 24 T-shirt jerseys. “I emailed (Fullerton) and went to his class every day for a week.”
Fullerton gave Yaspelkis a month trial in December 2016.
“After a month, he didn’t tell me if I was on the team or not so I just kept coming,” Yaspelkis said.
STAND TALL—Moorpark’s Benedict Yaspelkis IV, third from left, stands with his teammates during the playing of the national anthem before the Musketeers’ game against Oak Park on April 5 at home.
He comes from a baseball-loving family. His father, Benedict Yaspelkis III, a professor of kinesiology at Cal State Northridge, took the Musketeer to watch a Blue Jays’ game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto in 2011. The Musketeer’s mother, Suzanne, a Colorado native, is a huge Rockies fan.
The junior’s younger sister, Stasja, an 11-year-old Mesa Verde Middle School student, helped Moorpark Little League’s U-11 squad claim a California Section 1 Championship in March. Stasja has played baseball for five years.
“It’s awesome, especially being the only girl out there smoking the boys,” the older brother said. “It doesn’t get better than that.”
If the family’s purebred Australian shepherd, Maximus, could talk, he’d probably say his favorite baseball players are Mike Trout and Carl Edwards Jr., just like Benedict Yaspelkis IV’s.
Yaspelkis cherishes every day on the diamond. He considers it a privilege to wear the green and gold.
“I’m really thankful for the coaches for letting me be out here,” he said. “A lot of people can’t say they’re still in the game of baseball. Even with what I’m doing, I’m still in the game. I’m grateful for that.”
After high school, the Musketeer plans to trade in his Moorpark cap for a Cal State Northridge cap. He wants to serve as a student assistant before one day becoming a coach.
He’s said he’s likely done as a player.
“I got my one AB,” he said. “That’s about all you need.”
As for the summer day Yaspelkis got on base, that erratic pitcher threw a wild pitch to the next Moorpark batter.
An eager Yaspelkis—trying to get in scoring position for his beloved teammates—took off for second base.
“Let’s just say my foot speed wasn’t there,” he said with a smile.
Follow Jonathan Andrade on Twitter @J_ Andrade_.
