PHOTOS: Lifelong memories made at North-South OC All-Star Baseball Game

South players, including Mater Dei’s Brody Connors (with bat), Luke Weston (University) and Beckman’s Zach Ireland (back row, second from left) before the game. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).

Pre-game photos from Wednesday.

Players who competed in Wednesday night’s 56th annual North-South Orange County All-Star Baseball Game have some great memories.

The players were the elite of Orange County and came together for the game, played for the first time at the Great Park.

The South won the game 3-2. Jake Haney (Crean Lutheran) coached the South; Josh Kliner (El Modena) led the North.

The Ryan Lemmon Foundation, led by Guy Lemmon, sponsored the game for the first time. Dick Owens was game director and assisted by Rex Lyon. Scott Pickler, Dave Lamm and Rachel Owens were on the planning committee.

To see the slide show, click on the first photo:

Pickler, a baseball coach at Cypress College, addressed players before the game in the outfield and congratulated them on being all-stars.

“A lot of these kids are going to be in the next stage, Division 1, MLB, whatever it is, there are a lot of good kids here tonight,” said North MVP Justin Tillar from Cypress, who will play baseball next year at Cypress College. “I’m just glad to be one of the ones who stood out the most.”

The game included a number of players from Irvine who got to play in the city in their final high school game: Sho Garcia and Jackson Haney from Crean Lutheran, Anthony DeMarco (Woodbridge), Zach Ireland (Beckman), Casey Euper (Northwood) and Luke Weston (University).

Carter Danz (Corona del Mar) was the South MVP and Tillar the North MVP. Noah Neufeld (Laguna Beach) received the hustle award.

Before the game, the Ryan Lemmon Foundation honored long-time public address announcer John Dahlem, who announced the game Wednesday and Joe Dale, who has been the chair of the Kiwanis Baseball Committee the last six years. The Kiwanis Club of Greater Anaheim had sponsored the game since the start.

Guy Lemmon met with the all-stars after the game and told them how proud he was of them and how pleased he was to be involved in the game. An emotional Lemmon reflected on his son Ryan Lemmon, who was a former Woodbridge High School baseball standout and played in the all-star game. Ryan Lemmon was on the all-star team. He was later died in an automobile accident.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com

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Wednesday’s story, photos:

PHOTOS: South all-stars capture victory over North on a wild pitch in ninth inning