North Takes All-Star Game Again

The celebration among some of Kennedy High School’s baseball players continued Tuesday night only 10 days after the Fighting Irish won the first Southern Section baseball title in the school’s 25-year history.

Pitcher Greg Hansell retired the side with two runners on and nobody out in the eighth inning and teammate Steve Rath drove in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the eighth to lead the North to a 4-3 victory over the South in the 22nd Orange County All-Star baseball game.

A crowd of 1,000 in Anaheim’s Glover Stadium saw the South tie the score, 3-3, with two runs off El Modena pitcher Marcus Esposito in the eighth when Hansell entered the game. Hansell struck out Troy Kopp and got David Lowery and Eric Garcia on infield pop-ups with two runners aboard.

Rath matched Hansell in the bottom of the inning by driving in the winning run, and the North increased its advantage in the series to 12-10, winning for the third straight year.

Rath, who had a double and a single, was named the top hustling player of the game. Hansell, who struck out two and didn’t allow a ball to be hit out of the infield in two innings of relief, was named the game’s most valuable player.

“Hansell did the job all year for Kennedy and we were fortunate to have him as a reliever tonight,” said North Coach Dave Torres of Anaheim. “We were a little outnumbered by the South, but the North takes a lot of pride in playing this game.

“We talked about the two-game winning streak the North had going into the game and how we wanted to keep it going. This game is for fun, but you try to win.”

Rath, who signed a letter of intent this week with Cal State Fullerton, said he hit a high slider for the winning hit. Rath had 117 hits in his four-year career at Kennedy, the fourth-best total in county history.

“This capped a great week for me,” he said. “The coaches at Fullerton saw me play at Dodger Stadium and then came to my home and we talked for a couple of hours before I signed. I’m excited and can’t wait for next season.”

Hansell used the same effective fastball that carried him to a 13-1 record in his senior season to work the North team out of trouble in the eighth. He pitched nine scoreless innings and struck out 10 against Saugus in Kennedy’s 3-A championship game at Dodger Stadium.

“The fastball was good for me all year, why change?” he said.

South Coach Bob Canary of Dana Hills saw his team fall behind, 3-0, after the first inning, but said he never expected to lose in a nine-inning game with such a potent lineup of hitters.

“I looked at our lineup and started thinking, ‘Hey, have some faith,’ ” Canary said. “But then we didn’t swing the bats well. Hansell did the job. It must be nice to have a guy like that as a closer.”

The North scored three times in the first when Western’s Troy Babbitt was hit by a pitch and John Barber of Anaheim and Tim Moore of La Habra followed with base hits. But four South pitchers held the North scoreless until the eighth.

The South managed only four hits until the eighth inning, and only one of those went out of the infield as Hansell and another Kennedy standout, Pete Montera, checked the South hitters.