Local Baseball Standouts Featured in Tournament

The Area Code Games, an annual showcase for the best high school baseball players entering their senior seasons, is scheduled today through Saturday at Blair Field in Long Beach.

More than 200 of the top players from every region of the country, grouped by area codes, are expected to compete in front of 250 college coaches and pro scouts. Admission is $5 per day.

Major league teams sponsor the tournament. The Angels sponsor three teams, including one representing the 714 area code.

Pitchers Chris Ponchak and Luke Hudson of Fountain Valley High, and power-hitting outfielder Eric Valent of Canyon are members of the team. The 714 team is scheduled to play at 5 p.m. today, at 5:30 Wednesday, at 8:30 Thursday and at 5:30 Saturday.

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Jason Boyce and Steve Patterson, former Orange County prep soccer standouts, have been selected to the U.S. Under-20 National Team that will compete in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the 1995 FIFA Youth World Championship in Nigeria.

Boyce, a forward from Corona del Mar High, attends Washington. Patterson, a former Foothill midfielder, attends Fresno State. The tournament begins Wednesday and continues through Aug. 28 in Honduras.

Two of the 12 teams in the tournament will qualify to play in Nigeria next spring.

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Kerry O’Bric, daughter of Edison High girls’ track Coach Karen O’Bric, won gold medals in the 100-meter high hurdles and javelin during the California State Games Aug. 13-14 at Chaffey College in Ontario.

O’Bric, a member of the Pegasus track and field club in Huntington Beach, won the hurdles in 15.1 seconds, and the javelin with a mark of 108 feet 5 inches.

Several other members of the club also were successful in the games. In the young women’s division, Erin Zimmon won gold in the 100 high hurdles, javelin and triple jump. In the youth division, Ashleigh Homberger won the high jump and Katy Zimmon the triple jump. In the midget division, Rachel Ziemann won the 80 hurdles and her twin sister, Bianca, won the high jump. Justin Wright won a silver in the young men’s division in the 110 high hurdles and 400 hurdles, and Meghan Watson won a silver in the intermediate girls’ division long jump and shot put.

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Lanee Butler of Aliso Viejo, a member of the U.S. National Sailing Team, won the 1994 Boardsailor of the year top-female competitor award. Butler, who also won the award in 1991, is the only two-time winner.

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Pitcher Mike Boucher, formerly of Mission Viejo High and Saddleback College, has signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Boucher would have been a junior at Wyoming this season. His fastball has been clocked at 90 m.p.h.

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Richard Butcher has been hired as an assistant women’s basketball coach at UC Irvine.

Butcher, a 1988 graduate of Harvard, was an assistant at Rindge & Latin High in Cambridge, Mass., last season. He was the head coach at La Jolla Bishop’s High from 1989-93.

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The Salsa loaned forward Jose Vasquez, a graduate of Santa Ana High, to the San Diego Sockers of the Continental Indoor Soccer League for the remainder of the indoor season.

Vasquez, 25, a key Salsa reserve, will be getting his first professional indoor experience.

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The Tustin Bobby Sox softball team remained undefeated in the national tournament for 10- and 11-year-olds by beating Roseville of Sacramento, 10-0, in a six-inning mercy-rule game.

Led by Sarah Boardman, who drove in two runs, Tustin jumped ahead early by scoring four runs in the first inning. Laura Miklos pitched a three-hitter.

Tustin, along with two other teams, will try to keep its winning streak going when they meet Mission del Norte of Mission Viejo today.