PREP ALL-STAR BASEBALL GAME : Despite Missing Standouts, North Team Defeats South

Shawn Holcomb of El Dorado High School, considered the North’s best player, already had signed a contract with the Angels and was ineligible to play.

The North’s top pitcher, Brandon Hoalton of Garden Grove, had opted to play in the state all-star game at Clovis West High in Fresno.

And the North faced the prospect of opening the 25th Orange County all-star game Friday against Jon Ward, the first-round draft pick of the New York Mets with the 90-m.p.h. fastball.

So what happened? The North jumped on Ward for two early runs on a homer by Ryan Roskelly of Valencia and outplayed the South for a 7-5 victory in front of 1,500 at Glover Stadium.

The North, which also won the boys’ and girls’ all-star basketball games, leads the baseball series 13-12.

Ward, who led the county with 109 strikeouts, struggled in the two innings he pitched. He struck out three, but gave up a two-run homer to Roskelly that sailed over the 352-foot sign in center field.

“We either hit the ball hard off Ward or didn’t hit it at all,” North Coach Steve Hiskey of Brea-Olinda said. “Ward presented a great challenge and I thought the players responded. Roskelly’s homer was a big momentum swing.”

The North led, 4-1, after four innings behind Roskelly’s homer, an RBI triple by El Dorado catcher Brian Loyd and a double by La Habra’s Mark Picco.

The North scored in the fifth, when Katella’s Kyle Evans and Anaheim’s Corey Dean-Yeager opened with consecutive walks off Santa Margarita pitcher James McGrath. McGrath retired the next two batters, but the North added two runs when South shortstop Joe Fraser of Ocean View threw wildly to first on a ground ball by Sunny Hills’ Mark Veronda.

Capistrano Valley outfielder Scott Patton was the South’s lone bright spot. He walked twice, singled and stole four bases, one short of former Garden Grove star Lenny Dykstra’s record of five set in 1981.

Patton, who was drafted in the fourth round by the Chicago White Sox, had just returned from a recruiting trip to Arizona.

“I didn’t expect a game like this because coming to the park I felt tired,” Patton said. “I didn’t get much sleep the past couple of nights. But when I got on base, nobody was holding me and I said, ‘I’m out of here (stealing).’ ”

La Quinta third baseman Chad Leckie also had a big game for the South. With one out in the sixth, Mater Dei’s Cale Carter doubled to left-center off Matt Hendren, and Leckie followed with a homer to center that closed the gap to within 6-3.

Leckie singled in the eighth inning but lined out into a game-ending double play in the ninth with two runners on and his team trailing by three.