Rasmussen Lifts Long Beach Past Metropolitan All-Stars

After the 24th Metropolitan League all-star game Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, announcer Ken Hill asked the crowd of about 400 to stay for the announcement of the most valuable player.

The plea did little to hold the audience, though, because the choice was obvious.

Mark Rasmussen sealed his honor with a two-out, three-run double in the eighth inning to lift the Long Beach 49ers to a 3-2 victory over the league’s all-stars.

Rasmussen was an All-Sunset League outfielder at Huntington Beach High School in 1985. He started in right field for the next two seasons at Orange Coast College, then transferred to Lewis & Clark College. He played on its 1988 National Assn. Intercollegiate Athletics championship team in 1988. He said he sat out the 1989 season for disciplinary reasons at Lewis & Clark.

“I plan to return to Lewis & Clark,” Rasmussen said. “But I’m also keeping my options open.”

The double ended an afternoon of frustration for the Long Beach batters. Before the eighth, the league champion 49ers managed four hits and a walk off five pitchers.

Especially impressive was starter John O’Donahue of the Cypress Dawgs. He struck out the first two hitters, allowed a triple, then struck out the final four hitters he faced.

Erick Gomez of the Pomona Colts followed with two shutout innings. Todd Long of the Huntington Beach Rustlers and Tim Kelly and Matt Lipscomb of the Fullerton Blues each pitched a shutout inning.

“You just get a little more amped pitching in the Big A,” Kelly said. “There’s no doubt it adds another three or four miles per hour to your fastball.”

The all-stars led, 2-0, going into the eighth. Jim Short of Fullerton had an RBI groundout in the fourth and Rob Donlan of the Anaheim Amigos had an RBI double in the seventh.

The 49ers loaded the bases in the eighth on a walk, a single and an error off losing pitcher Shane Romney of the Huntington Beach Rustlers.

Romney then fell behind Rasmussen, two balls and a strike, before giving up the game-winning hit.

“I was looking fastball all the way,” Rasmussen said. “I’d missed a slider on the pitch before and I just told myself I had to wait for the fastball.”