Empire League : Weems Gives Esperanza Long-Distance Relief

Roger Weems came a long way--6,100 miles, to be more precise--for his first high school pitching victory.

Only a year ago, Weems was finishing his freshman year at Seoul Foreign School in South Korea. On Wednesday, he pitched 3 innings of scoreless relief to help fourth-ranked Esperanza defeat top-ranked Loara, 4-2, in an Empire League opener at Esperanza.

Weems, who lived in Maryland for six years before he moved to South Korea in 1977, had played Little League baseball overseas through age 12 and on traveling teams for the next two summers. But his high school didn’t have a baseball program.

Weems didn’t want his career to end, and neither did his family. They had been planning to move to Southern California. After reading about Esperanza’s Southern Section 4-A championship team in newspapers and hearing about the Aztecs from relatives in Los Angeles, they decided last June to move to Yorba Linda.

Esperanza Coach Mike Curran figured Weems would start on the junior-varsity team, but after four successful relief performances, the sophomore right-hander is shaping up as the Aztecs’ top pitcher.

Weems, who turned 16 Wednesday, replaced starter Jason Moler to begin the fourth inning after Moler had allowed Loara to cut Esperanza’s lead to 3-2 in the third. Using a fastball, curve, slow curve and changeup, he retired nine of the next 12 batters, three on strikeouts.

After Loara’s Danny Rodriguez singled with one out in the seventh, Curran pulled Weems in favor of Doug Saunders. He got Jeff Patterson to ground out and walked two batters before striking out Joey Pactwa with the bases loaded to end the game.

“His fastball was getting up and he had thrown a lot of pitches,” Curran said of Weems. “But he held down one heck of a team.”

Weems’ motion is so smooth it appears as if he’s pitching with little or no effort. And because most of his pitches are off-speed ones, his fastball seems even faster.

“He really pops the ball--it’s in on you before you know it,” Curran said. “And he has command of all his pitches.”

Patterson, the Saxon starter, also pitched a strong game, going the distance on a six-hitter and striking out seven. But he got off to a rough start, allowing three runs in the first inning, and suffered his first loss of the season. Patterson is 3-1 and the Saxons are 6-1.

Patterson struck out Bart Goldman to open the game, but Brent Bish, who had been hitting about .200, caught up with a fastball and knocked it over the right-center field fence for a home run. Tom Redington singled, Saunders doubled and Moler dropped a single into short right field that scored two runs.

Patterson then retired 16 of the next 18 batters before Jim Short hit a home run to left field in the sixth for Esperanza (7-1).

Loara scored its runs in the third inning when Brian Malavar walked, Rodriguez singled and Patterson lined a two-run double off the right-center field fence. The Saxons went on to load the bases, but Moler got Carlos Vargas to ground out and end the inning.

Katella 4, Cypress 3 (8 innings)--Kevin Shaw pitched a two-hitter and doubled in the winning run in the eighth inning for the Knights at Boysen Park. Mark Geider opened the eighth with a single, moved to second on an error and scored on Shaw’s two-out double. Geider had two singles and a double for Katella (4-4). Cypress is 3-6.

El Dorado 11, Los Alamitos 5--The Golden Hawks (9-1) got five walks in the fourth inning to score seven runs at Los Alamitos. Steve Gill (4-0) pitched six innings for the victory. Keith Schula hit a solo home run in the fourth and was 2 for 3 with two RBIs, and Chris Fasione went 1 for 3 with two RBIs for El Dorado. Los Alamitos is 4-6.

Pacifica 9, Kennedy 5--Todd Long (3-0) gave up six hits and struck out three in four innings for Pacifica at Kennedy. Jeff McKenzie relieved Long in the fifth and gave up six hits. Bobby Thome went 3 for 5 with two singles and a triple RBI in the seventh inning for the Mariners (1-0, 5-3). Ernie Franco hit a two-run home run in the second to lead the Fighting Irish (0-1).