PREP BASEBALL 1992 / FREEWAY LEAGUE : Sunny Hills

1991 RECORDS OVERALL LEAGUE 21-7 14-1

COACH RECORD AT SCHOOL Doug Elliott 108-76

RETURNING STARTERS YR. POS. B-T Steve Ashton Sr. OF R-R Brent Howes Sr. SS R-R Steve Mellano Sr. 1B-P R-R Erren O’Leary Sr. C R-R Mark Veronda Sr. 2B-C R-R

TOP RETURNERS YR. POS. B-T David Fox Jr. CF-P R-R Brian Volpp Jr. P-1B R-R

TOP NEWCOMERS YR. POS. B-T John Ferraro Jr. 3B-SS R-R Kevin Garrand So. P R-R Eric Smith Jr. 3B-LF R-R Bobby Sunderland Jr. P-UTL R-R

OUTLOOK

Who’s the ace of Sunny Hills’ pitching staff? “That’s a good question,” Elliott said. “It’s a tossup between Volpp and Mellano. Last year, Chris Looney and Rick Orr completed every league game they started except one. This year, we’ll pitch by committee.” Mellano has thrown only five innings the past two seasons because of elbow problems. “If he comes around, it will be a big plus for us,” Elliott said. Sunny Hills will likely use six pitchers in the Loara tournament. Ashton, Howes and Veronda were second-team all-league selections last year and will be the cornerstone of this year’s team. Most of the newcomers are up from last year’s junior varsity team, which finished second to Troy in league play. Elliott, on the league race: “I can see the league champion finishing with an 11-4 or 10-5 record, because no one has a lot of pitching this year.” Elliott, who led Sunny Hills to three league titles in the past seven years, is picking La Habra to win the title. Looney, the most valuable player in the league last year, is now at Princeton.