Villalobos leads Mexicali to Ortega title
By Bob Otto/Oceanside, CA

His shirt was dry. His breathing relaxed. His grunts, growls and strains were barely audible. Alejandro Villalobos was in "the zone." And for San Diego Fast Pitch that spelled doom.

Villalobos completely shackled San Diego with a four-hit, nine strike out gem in leading Mexicali, Mexico to a 4-0 victory over San Diego in the championship game of the third annual Ron Ortega Memorial tournament in Oceanside, California, Sunday.

It was his fifth game of the tournament. And his best. But even more impressive, it was fresh off the heals of a 10-inning, 2-1 thriller over the Yucaipa Bombers in the semi-final round of play. "Tired after 17 innings of back-to-back work?"  "No," said Villalobos with a grin. "The more I throw the stronger I get.
When I finish first game, I feel powerful."

And powerful enough to carry the team, said Mexicali Manager, Victor Gorosave. "He's our best pitcher. He was really tough this weekend."

And Villalobos needed his "A" game against San Diego. Especially in the early innings, because San Diego's Darren Strang, flown in from Richmond, BC, Canada, matched Villalobos pitch-for-pitch. Through three innings, Strang blew Mexicali away with hard, sharp breaking rise balls. Holding the hard-hitting Mexican team to three hits and notching six strikeouts. But then came a game-deciding mistake. Strang changed tactics, abandoned his rise ball, and fed Jose Mendez and Gorosave drop balls in the fourth
inning.

It proved to be a huge, tactical error. Mendez drilled an inside drop down the third base line for a stand up double, and Gorosave followed by launching another drop deep into the right-centerfield alley for a triple.
Edgar Presicali then lifted a fly ball to left just deep enough to score Gorosave with the second run.

"That was a bad mistake," said Strang, 26. "Those drop balls were right down the middle. We kept them on their back foot until then." "I just wanted to hit a fly ball to score the run," said Gorosave. "I got
the ball right in the middle of the plate."

"They're a good hitting squad," said Strang who pitches for the Stealers, a NAFA AA team out of Richmond. "I could have been a little more sharper. I had a month and a half layoff after NAFA (World Series AA tournament) and had a little tired arm today. I couldn't quite snap it."  Strang finished with 11 strikeouts, allowed five hits, and gave up but two  earned runs. Good enough to win on most days, but not on this day. Not with Villalobos near perfect.

Mexicali tacked on two tainted runs in the sixth when San Diego second baseman Vic Cervantes dropped an infield pop up while back peddling with two outs. That allowed Alfonso Acosta and Jose Mendez to score easily from third and second.

And that was all Villalobos needed. Mixing his hard drop and sharp breaking curving rise ball, the right hander held Sand Diego to four harmless singles. Two in the third, and one each in the fourth and fifth.  "He's a very good pitcher," said designated hitter, Cary Weiler, who singled and walked off Villalobos. "Our young guys would have to see pitchers like him more often to hit pitching of that caliber."

Villalobos, 29, is an imposing pitcher at 220-pounds and 6-foot-1. He's rated as an Open pitcher in Mexico and is fresh off hurling Baja California to a second place in the Mexican National Tournament in Monterey. "He was 3-0 for Baja," said Gorosave.

With his 5-0 record, Villalobos was selected the tournament's Most Valuable Pitcher. Weiler, 53, coming off an ASA 45-Over Masters championship, picked up the Most Valuable Player award. Weiler won two games for San Diego and led the team in hitting, said San Diego's Brian McNaughton.

The win gave Mexicali its third tournament championship of the season along with a second and third place. "It's a good year for us," said Gorosave. "We will hold a tournament in Mexicali Oct. 26  27, and go to Las Vegas in November."

In semi-final play, the Bombers Sean Barker nearly got the best of  Villalobos. Picked up by the Bombers for the weekend, Barker held Mexicali to five hits while striking out nine in the Bombers ten inning, 2-1 loss. Barker, also from Canada, collected two of the Bombers four hits off  Villalobos. Barker's second hit down the first base line in the ninth tied the game. But in the tenth Mexicali's Alberto Villalobos drove in Gorosove from second to end the battle.

"Sean threw well, he (Villalobos) threw well," said Bombers Manager, Fred Roybal. "It was a good old fashioned pitchers duel. They got their bunt down (tie-breaking 10th inning), we didn't. That was the difference."  San Diego reached the championship by thumping Santa Ana Raymar 10-5 in the semi-finals. Jay Crawley was perfect at the plate with a home run and three doubles in four at bats to lead the San Diego offense. Weiler allowed nine hits to pick up his second win of the tournament.
 

Outside the Lines: If not for Chuck Vranich , Cary Weiler, Brian McNaughton and Joe Salcido,
the tournament most likely wouldn't have come off. All are well past 50 with McNaughton leading the group at a very youngish 70. And McNaughton, pitching for San Diego Fast Pitch as well as serving as the
tourney's organizer, showed the kids he's still effective by defeating the  Corona Rebels 9-3. After getting roughed up for three runs in the first, McNaughton allowed but one hit over the final six innings.

Clyde Bennett and Roy Stout were part of the umpiring crew. After the final  pitch, they rushed off to meet Robert Hernandez, southern Calif. ASA Commissioner, about forming an ASA Class A/B travel league. You could write a novel about Bennett and Stout's contributions to men's fastpitch.

Stout was busy recruiting for his St. George, Utah Red Rock Invitational in May. Hot on his list was Mexicali. They would hold their own, he said. And if Villalobos throws as he did in the Ortega, he will keep Mexicali in the game against the big boys. Mexicali just comes to play. Put the bases down, mark the circle and let's get dirty.

Rumor has it that the SoCal Bucks, California's only entry into the ISC World Tournament the past three years, may fold. If so, a member of the team is said to be entertaining the thought of piecing the team back together.  What a steeped tradition. Santa Ana Raymar is now into its 28th year. And  they are loaded with young, fast, aggressive talent. And fresh off their first ever ASA and NAFA national tournament appearances. With a squad  loaded with 20-ish age talent, it's sad they aren't developing young pitching. Veterans Chuck Vranich and Joe Salcido certainly perform well for them, but what happens to this young team if they decide to retire, or worse yet, suffer career-ending injuries?

It was Darren Strang's first trip from Canada to southern California. The caliber of play? "Really good hitting, not much pitching," he said. After the final pitch, McNaughton rushed Strang to the airport to catch his flight home.

Speaking of flights. Roy Stout says a problem is developing for teams with  heavy airline travel. A flight could be rescheduled with minimal cost if a tournament was behind schedule. But not anymore, said Stout. Now airlines want full fair. If that holds true, championship game times will surely have to be moved up to mid-day to eliminate costly rescheduling. The Yucaipa Bombers may field two teams next season, says Fred Roybal, the  team's field manager. One squad will comprise the Masters 40-Over team, the other a much younger team as they unveiled for The Ortega. Roybal said that Bombers owner Ralph Trejo is busy scouting for young pitching talent. With the influx of Canadian pitchers into southern Calif this season with the likes of Sean and Greg Barker, and Travis Parker, is Trejio looking north?  Young "home grown" pitchers don't exist in California, so for the foreseeable future, as with states such as Wisconsin, in order to compete, the supply line leads to Canada and New Zealand.

The Ron Ortega Memorial will move up to the end of July next year, say tournament organizers. With the late September date, most teams have closed shop for the season, and the pickings were extremely slim this year. With an original goal of 12, the field finally funneled down to six. The goal is  to attract a larger field of Class A to Open rated teams. When will team managers and owners realize that I don't have a photographic memory? I need COMPLETED rosters or line up cards folks. Just writing in "Fonzo" or 27 doesn't cut it. I want full names spelled correctly, and legibly. And don't give me the excuse that you don't know some of your players last names. (I actually was told that this past weekend.)

If I'm to travel to the tournament, write the story, shoot the pictures, then the least you team managers and owners can do is give me a completed roster: Full names, numbers and positions. Really, is that too difficult to do? You guessed it. This is my number one aggravation at the ball yard.

Bob Otto
mailto: bobotto@gte.net