Woodbridge players and coaches celebrate after winning the Ryan Lemmon Invitational Wednesday night. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Woodbridge High School’s baseball team captured a tournament championship Wednesday night defeating San Dimas 8-4 in the final on a chilly night at the Great Park stadium.
But it’s not just any tournament title.
This one, the championship of the 2025 Ryan Lemmon Invitational, was extra special for the players and because of who the tournament is named after, the late Ryan Lemmon, an All-CIF Woodbridge outfielder who died in a traffic accident in 1994.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
The tournament has had a few different names and sponsors, but it was eventually named in the memory of Ryan Lemmon. The Ryan Lemmon Foundation, which sponsors the event, is led by Guy Lemmon, Ryan Lemmon’s father and tournament director Dick Owens, also from the foundation.
“I’ve actually been a part of the final three times,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker who used to play at Irvine. “Once as a player with Coach (Bob) Flint and we lost in the final and two years ago we lost to El Modena, so I guess the third time is a charm.”
Woodbridge won the spring tournament when it was called the OC Nissan Classic, defeating El Modena 4-3 under Coach Tim Murray in 2010. Woodbridge lost to Palm Desert in 2011 in the tournament final and to El Modena 7-1 in 2022 under Brucker.
“San Dimas is always a good team and coming in we would have to play well tonight to be able to win. I’m really happy with how we performed throughout the whole tournament,” Brucker said.
“To get this one and win the invitational, and we’re the host school is the first one for me but the first one for the school since it’s been the Ryan Lemmon Invitational. I’m old enough to remember Ryan Lemmon when he played at Woodbridge, this means a lot to our team and the school and our Woodbridge community so it’s a pretty neat thing.”
Woodbridge junior Vincent DeMarco, who earned a win on the mound Monday, was named the tournament MVP. DeMarco hit .636 during the week with nine RBI and on Wednesday, was 3 for 4 with three runs scored and four RBI, one coming in Woodbridge’s five-run third inning when the Warriors moved ahead 5-0.
San Dimas cut the lead to 5-1 in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Jayden Medina. But the Warriors countered in the fifth inning on DeMarco’ s two-run double driving in Caden Camacho and Nolan Stottlemyer, who both singled.
“He’s our guy, he’s really come alive at the bat,” Brucker said of DeMarco.
DeMarco was excited about the award, capping a week in which the Warriors (14-5) went 4-0.
“I’m really honored to be the MVP,” he said after receiving the trophy from Guy Lemmon. “It was a great team effort, nine hits on the board, putting balls in play is huge, it wins ball games. Alex Johnson (starting pitcher) shoved on the mound for five or six innings, that’s all we can ask out of a guy and Kyle Underwood did a great job coming in and closing it out.
“It’s a great time to get hot, it’s the middle of the season and I’m just really stoked for the team.”
Stottlemyer also contributed, going 2 for 3 with two runs scored capping a week in which he batted .600.
“We play at Ryan Lemmon Stadium every day and just being able to win this tournament is just so huge for these guys,” Stottlemyer said. “I think we’re going to rally past it and make a good run this year. We represent it (the Ryan Lemmon name) every day and I feel like we really showed it today.”
Caden Camacho had a big game as well going 2 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI single in the third inning. Henry Uhrik also reached on a bad-hop single that scored two runs in the third inning and Nevan Namgoong had a double in the inning.
Johnson (4-2) pitched the first 5 2/3 innings allowing four runs, three coming in the sixth inning when San Dimas cut the lead to 7-4. Johnson, who struck out five, allowed one run through the first five. San Dimas (10-6) got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Jayden Medina.
The Saints continued to battle, taking advantage of two walks, a hit batter and a balk to score three runs and cutting the lead to 7-4 in the sixth inning.
Woodbridge moved out to an 8-4 lead in the seventh. Stottlemyer walked, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on DeMarco’s RBI single.
Reliever Kyle Underwood came on in the sixth inning and got out of the jam, striking out Jason Almeda to end the inning then pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh to earn the save.
“Alex Johnson gives a good performance, a really strong performance for him and he’s just getting better every time he goes out there,” Brucker said. “I think the sky is the limit for these guys, they’re a young team and they’re starting to come together and we’re hoping to make a run in league.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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