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Los Alamitos and Esperanza played in one of the final games of this year’s Ryan Lemmon Invitational Thursday under mostly sunny skies at the Great Park. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Coaches appreciate tournament
Coaches seem to appreciate all that tournament director Dick Owens and Ryan Lemmon Foundation Founder Guy Lemmon did in coordinating the 2024 Ryan Lemmon Invitational. It was the largest field in tournament history, 36 teams, but it also had the most rainouts with most of Saturday and Monday’s games called off, hurting attendance.
Owens scrambled to make up games, but it was made more difficult when two of the fields at the Great Park were still unplayable Tuesday and Wednesday due to the heavy rains.
OC high school coaches helped out. Games were moved to other high school baseball fields in Orange County and the tournament was extended by a day with six games. All the teams were given the opportunity to play on Thursday. Some already had commitments.
“It such a good tournament, Dick does such a good job, this has been hard with all that rain,” said Trabuco Hills Coach Michael Burns after one of the games.
“We’ve seen rain, but I haven’t seen that much rain that short of a time in the tournament,” added Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker, praising the efforts of Owens and Lemon, who wound up at the ticket booth for Thursday’s games.
No tournament champion was awarded this year due to the the rainouts and because not all the teams got in four games.
Owens showed relief at the end of the tournament, but as always, he kept his spirits up and remained a great ambassador of baseball in Orange County The future of this tournament appears bright, even if the weather this year did not cooperate at the start of the event.
Warriors look to finish strong
Woodbridge High School’s baseball team, after finishing 1-2 in the Ryan Lemmon Invitational, resumes Pacific Coast League play with a big three-game series beginning Tuesday with Irvine.
Northwood leads the league, Beckman is second and Woodbridge and Irvine are tied for third place with 7-5 records. Woodbridge won the league title the last two years.
“I like where we are, if we play defense well and we execute well, if we can find a way to have better at bats with runners on, I think we’re going to be OK,” said Brucker, the Woodbridge coach.
“I think we’re in position where if we play well coming down the home stretch, we can make the playoffs and stay in contention. We have to keep taking it one game at a time and this tournament will be a good opportunity for us to see who can contribute to that as we get into the last three weeks of the season when we get back from break.”
The teams play Tuesday at Irvine, Wednesday at Ryan Lemmon Stadium and Friday again at Irvine.
Davis Darts made most of trip
The Davis High School Darts from Utah were probably expecting better weather when they arrived to a rainy Southern California last week.
“I felt like we were the jinx, we brought the rain with us, it’s been raining a lot,” said Davis Coach Josh Godfrey after his team’s win over Woodbridge.
His team did manage to play four games, including a couple makeup contests and on the days off, took in some sporting events.
“Went to the Elite Eight game on Saturday, we went to the Dodger game on Sunday, so it was fun to finally play some baseball,” Godfrey said.
Pacifica had solid week at tourney
Pacifica, coached by Mike Caira, was one of the top teams in the tournament, winning its first three games before losing to Trabuco Hills 2-1 on Wednesday. Caira said his team depends on pitching and defense and it’s worked so far in Empire League play. The Mariners (13-6, 4-0) are the only undefeated team in the league.
Pacifica has a non-league game Saturday at Fullerton, then hosts Tustin Tuesday and plays at Tustin Wednesday in league play.
Los Al returns to league action next week
Los Alamitos High School’s baseball team resumes league play next week.
“It’s nice to win, but the way the league works, it’s all about the last couple weeks of the season so this just kind of gets us ready for the last few weeks where it’s for all the marbles,” said Griffins Coach Tony Fusco.
The Griffins play at Palos Verdes Saturday, then meet Edison in two league games. Los Al has started league play 1-2.
Most original nicknames in tournament
That has to go to the Davis Darts and the Yucaipa Thunderbirds, who were among the 36 teams.
Almost fittingly, light rain fell on last day
It was almost fitting that light showers fell Thursday evening as the tournament was wrapping up but officials were able to get the games in.
“It got pretty misty a couple times, but we got them in,” Lemmon said.
At the microphone as the public address announcer was Eric Spivey, who superbly worked all the games of the tournament. Spivey is also the voice of the Irvine Vaqueros.
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—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
