Orange County All-Star Baseball Game : South Gets Only 3 Hits, but Lasher’s Homer in 9th Is Game-Winner
The South baseball team squeezed all it could out of three hits Tuesday night to defeat the North, 4-3, in front of an estimated 1,500 fans in the Orange County High School All-Star game at Anaheim’s Glover Stadium.
Bill Lasher of Dana Hills hit a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth off Western’s David Tellers to give the South a come-from-behind victory and a 10-9 lead in the series.
Lasher’s hit, which barely cleared the 342-foot sign in left-center field, scored Fountain Valley’s Terry Reichert, who had blooped a single to right.
The South scored its other two runs in the seventh when Mission Viejo’s Bob Doran looped a two-out double down the right-field line. It was the South’s first hit.
Reichert, who had reached first on a fielder’s choice, and Lasher, who walked, were in position to score on Doran’s hit, thanks to a wild pitch by Western’s Rich Lodding.
Until then, the North, which had eight hits, dominated behind the pitching of El Dorado’s Scott Holcomb, Troy’s Mike Greer and Sonora’s David Bird. The three combined to no-hit the South over the first six innings.
The North scored one run in the fourth inning and added two in the fifth on home runs by Tim Churchill of Valencia and Paul Bunch of Buena Park. Both came off El Toro lefty Richard Faulks.
Robbie Katzaroff of Los Alamitos opened the fourth with what appeared to be a routine fly ball to right, but Foothill’s John McTaggart lost it in the lights, and the ball fell about 20 feet behind him for a triple. Katzaroff scored on Sonora shortstop Rob Stuart’s groundout.
Huntington Beach left-hander Jeff Haack, who allowed two hits and no runs over the final two innings, was the winning pitcher.
For losing pitcher Tellers, Lodding, and North Coach Dave Bowman of Western, the game marked the second disappointment in the last 10 days. On May 31, Tellers was the losing pitcher in the Pioneers’ 5-3 loss to Rio Mesa in the Southern Section 3-A championship game at Dodger Stadium.
“Three runs has been a bad number for me,” Bowman said. “We lost in the stadium with three, and now this. I’m tired of hearing these ‘almosts.’ ”
Lasher was selected the game’s Most Outstanding Player and Katzaroff received the Most Hustling Player Award. Churchill was the only player with two hits.
Tustin lefty Steve Surico started and pitched three shutout innings for the South. He was followed by Irvine’s Brian Snoddy (in the fourth), Faulks (in the fifth), Laguna Hills’ Wayne Helm (in the seventh) and Haack (in the eighth).
Steve Halweg, who pitched Esperanza to the 4-A championship, threw the eighth inning for the North, allowing no hits or runs.
All-Star Notes Of the 44 players on the two All-Star rosters, eight were known to have been selected in last week’s free-agent professional baseball draft. A ninth, El Dorado pitcher Scott Holcomb, wasn’t quite sure. Santiago Coach Myron Pines, who also is a scout for the New York Mets, called Holcomb’s teammate, pitcher Jeff Petredes, on Friday to get Holcomb’s phone number, but Holcomb hasn’t heard from Pines since. “Everyone said I got drafted, but I’m not sure,” Holcomb said. . . . Other players drafted were Esperanza catcher Eric Cox (Baltimore), Laguna Hills pitcher Wayne Helm (Philadelphia), Western pitcher Rich Lodding (Houston), La Quinta shortstop Troy Paulsen (New York Yankees), Valencia outfielder Andy Ruscitto (Houston), Sonora shortstop Rob Stuart (Atlanta) and Tustin pitcher Steve Surico (Toronto). . . . Stuart will decide Wednesday whether he will sign or accept a scholarship to UC Riverside. Ruscitto, a linebacker who is weighing football scholarship offers from Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State and Cal State Fullerton, said his chances of signing with the Astros “are pretty good.” Ruscitto hasn’t received any baseball scholarship offers. Helm (Arizona) and Surico (Loyola Marymount) said they will definitely go to college. Cox and Paulsen will probably attend Stanford, and Lodding, who had narrowed his college choices to Cypress and Rancho Santiago, said he will talk with the Astros on Monday. . . . The information sheets that were filled out by each player before the game provided announcer John Dahlem (former Loara wrestling coach) with some entertaining material. Some notable responses in the Girlfriend category included Foothill outfielder John McTaggart: “Laura . . . but she doesn’t like me.” Paulsen: “Undecided.” Helm: “Undeclared.” Petredes: “Wish I had one.” . . . Paulsen’s hobby? “Collecting cardboard people.” Holcomb listed his hobbies as “sleeping, eating and playing the ponies at Hollywood Park.” . . . In the Person You Look Up To Most category, Western pitcher David Tellers listed: “Bono, lead singer of (rock group) U2.” Surico’s reply was “Sid Finch,” the mythical pitcher and subject of Sports Illustrated’s 1985 April Fools’ Day article, who supposedly could throw 160 m.p.h. . . . Canyon shortstop Mike Sliemers, obviously influenced by a coach, had this reply in the Goal In Life category: “To give 110% and strive to be the best at whatever I do.” Los Alamitos outfielder Robbie Katzaroff replied in more simple terms: “To be successful.” . . . Ocean View outfielder Billy Daymude, of the South team, is suffering from mononucleosis and was unable to attend the game.
