County's top senior baseball players display skills one final time
West downs East, 8-3
By Steve Ames Special to the Acorn

Friendships were renewed between coaches and among players and new ones were formed before Sunday's annual Jim Parker East-West Baseball All-Star Game, played for the first time at George "Sparky" Anderson Field at Ullman Stadium on the Cal Lutheran University campus.

The pregame home-run hitting competition was won by East team member Jason Brooks of Oaks Christian. The Dartmouthbound slugger hit two over the fence.

"You can't try to hit it out. You have to take your normal swing," Brooks said. "When you get in trouble is when you try to hit it out."

West team member Chasen Santiago of Oxnard High won the base-running competition. Santiago, who plans to attend Ventura College, covered the 360foot sprint in 15.3 seconds.

After splitting the pregame events, the West won the ultimate bragging rights by prevailing 8-3.

While Buena Bulldogs head coach Anthony Espitia, who managed the West, was happy with the outcome, he said the best part about the game was allowing the seniors to showcase their skills for the local audience one last time.

"The main goal is to get all the kids in and have fun," the coach said. "The kids did that. They were loose and played loose."

Espitia was pleased to have five players on the team from Camarillo. The Scorpions advanced to the CIFSouthern Section Division II championship game, losing 1-0 to Vista Murrieta.

"It was very nice to have those Camarillo kids," Espitia said. "They are a very special group of kids. Overall, it was fun and that's all you can expect. I was definitely happy."

Moorpark Musketeers head coach Scott Fullerton managed the East team.

He said the game is about getting guys on the field and making sure everybody gets their at-bats.

"Managing that lineup gives us a lot of flexibility," Fullerton said. "We can just throw a guy in wherever we want. It was fun watching some of these kids we read about all the time."

The West, batting first, got on the scoreboard in the first inning as Camarillo's Garrett Rau (Cuesta College) singled to right off Moorpark's Cory Goldsmith (Los Angeles Pierce) and scored from first when Oxnard's Erick Hong's (Ventura) grounder past third base resulted in an error.

But the East came back with two runs in the bottom of the first, with four of its six hits in the game on singles by Fillmore's Jonathan Avila, Brooks, Oak Park's Ty Muller (Cuesta) and Royal's Kenny Walden (Moorpark College). The hits came off Oxnard starting pitcher Justin Shutt.

During the top half of the fourth inning, with Thousand Oaks' Byron Minnich (Cal Lutheran) pitching, two runs and two of the East's four errors in the game put the West ahead 3-2 and Espitia's team never looked back.

Ventura's Nick Locke (San Diego Christian) doubled, as did Rio Mesa's Alex Ramirez (Ventura), scoring Locke. Buena's Andrew Rodriguez reached first on an error, and Ramirez scored the second run of the inning.

In addition to hits by Rau, who pounded out a single and a triple, Ramirez, Hong and Locke all doubled. Ventura's Jorge Rubalcava and Channel Island's Greg Gonzalez (Ventura) both contributed with singles.

Contributing to the East's six hits in addition to Brooks, who had a single and a home run, were Avila, Muller, Walden and Thousand Oaks' Collin Lavoie.

Brooks, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound .391 batter with eight homers this season, holds the Oaks Christian school record of 16 home runs.

While playing right field, he started a relay throw that resulted in a tag out of West runner Mike Yingling (Oxnard) at home plate. Yingling was Camarillo High's starting catcher this season.

"They are some of the top county defensive players," Fullerton said. "You expect to see that kind of stuff. They can play."

Reflecting on the players' enthusiasm for competing in the annual game, Fullerton said it's all about the love of the sport.

"What's fun is these kids," he said. "If you turn your head some of them are back on the field because they just want to play baseball. These are kids who love the game. You love to see kids like this who just want to come and play some more baseball."