El Camino Colts channel little league spirit at South City Youth Baseball Festival

The contest was the main event of the daylong South City Youth Baseball Festival, featuring 19 games played between Bob Brian Field and Archie Fregosi Field. The festival showcased all six age levels of South City Youth Baseball, starting with Wiffle Ball and T-ball at 9 a.m.

“We’ve been trying to get a game out here for a couple years, trying to get the community involved with us,” Colts manager Dan Ordonez said. “A lot of the kids grew up here, didn’t actually get an opportunity to actually play here. So, I wanted to fulfill their dreams of actually playing here.”

Backed by a 4 1/3 masterful innings by starting pitcher Quentin Bromaghim, the Colts (12-4) used a four-run fourth inning to take the game in hand.

El Camino senior Alejandro Topete stole the spotlight with two on and two out in the fourth with a ground ball to the left side of the diamond. An errant throw got past San Mateo’s first baseman, allowing both runs to score. Then, with Topete racing to second, San Mateo winged a throw into the outfield, allowing the El Camino senior to motor all the way home for a “Little League home run.”

“I was gassed but I was excited,” Topete said. “A mix of emotions. Very happy.”

Bromaghim and the El Camino bullpen did the rest. The senior right-hander known simply as “Q” fired four shutout innings en route to allowing one run on two hits through 4 1/3 innings of work to earn his first win of the year.

“Q has been a dawg all year,” Ordonez said. “When I’ve got a big game, and I need somebody to throw, I don’t even second guess myself. Q has been my guy for the last two years. He’s got the mentalness. He’s got the toughness. He’s got the dawg. So, it was a very easy decision to let him go tonight.”

Bromaghim ran into trouble in the fifth. San Mateo (12-5) loaded the bases with a leadoff single by sophomore Apollo Lee, and back-to-back one-out walks to Tyce Copus and Christian Louie. After Bromaghim uncorked a wild pitch to score Lee with the Bearcats’ first run, Ordonez summoned senior reliever Adrian Iniguez, who promptly induced a double play grounder to escape the jam.

“I was freaking out because this guy just saved me,” Bromaghim said. “So, I’m really proud he hooked me up.”

Iniguez closed it out with 2 2/3 scoreless innings of work to earn the save. The senior also paced the Colts at the plate, going 2 for 3 with with two RBIs, registering an RBI single in the first to get El Camino on the board. After Carlos Alcala led off the fourth with a double, Iniguez came through with another RBI single to make it 2-0.

Junior right-hander Hudson Brandt took the loss for San Mateo, allowing five runs (one earned) on five hits through four innings. Sophomore left-hander Wilson Morales worked two shutout inning of relief, walking three and striking out five. Morales also turned in the defensive play of the night in center field, chasing down a booming fly ball to right-center with a sprinting backhand to rob El Camino junior Hunter Tamayo of extra bases.

A good day for baseball

Bob Brian Field served as the longtime home of South City High School, until the Warriors relocated to their on-campus baseball field in 2021. Orange Park then underwent a massive refurbishment project, including Bob Brian Field being resurfaced as one of four new synthetic-turf diamonds.

It is fitting Ordonez, a 2003 graduate of El Camino, helped spearhead Saturday’s South City Youth Baseball Festival high school varsity game finale. With legendary coach Bob Brian retiring from South City in 2001 after coaching at the school for 46 years, Ordonez played against him at Orange Park as a sophomore.

“He was one of the best,” Ordonez said. “Taught his guys right. Correctly. Very good coach. One of the legends around here — along with (former El Camino coach) Carlos Roman.”

Ordonez arrived Saturday at approximately 6 p.m. to witness the South City Youth Baseball Festival in full swing, with a 12U game being played at Archie Fregosi Field and a 14U game concurrently on Bob Brian Field.

“Just to see the future playing before the big guys, and then them watch what’s going on now, was pretty special,” Ordonez said.

Start of a new tradition

Dropping to the lower-tier Peninsula Athletic League Lake Division this season for the first time since 2017, El Camino passed a good test Saturday in defeating non-league San Mateo of the middle-tier PAL Ocean Division. The Colts are currently 7-0 in PAL Lake play, and looking for a quick return to the Ocean Division.

“We were pretty disappointed we got put in [the PAL Lake] with our roster for this season,” Ordonez said. “So, we want to make teams know and remember us when we play. So, our goal is to get right back up in the Ocean where we belong.”

As a member of the South City Youth Baseball board, Ordonez said he hopes to make an annual event of the high school varsity game closing the South City Youth Baseball Festival.

The reaction in El Camino’s dugout during Topete’s “Little League home run” was a good start.

“It probably brought them back down to being 10U players again,” Ordonez said. “They got to live the dream of being out here on this field, which none of them thought they’d ever be able to play out here. Just to see that happen, it probably brought them back to being 10, 12 years old again, which is awesome.”