Five members of Foothill’s baseball team capped a memorable season by playing for the Century League in the Ryan Lemmon Showcase in Irvine last month.
Sean Higgins, Ryan Taurek, Chad Castillo, Griffin Selby and Zachary Yoo all played in the game and helped the Century League defeat the Freeway League 3-2 June 9 at Ryan Lemmon Stadium.
About a week earlier, the players were competing in the CIF Division 1 championship game at Cal State Fullerton, which Capistrano Valley won, 2-1.
In the showcase game, Lee had a single and Selby delivered a two-run double to put the Century League ahead, 3-2 in the seventh.
Taurek, the starter in the CIF finals game, was solid in his two innings while Higgins was also effective in his one inning on the mound.
“For Griffin to come out and get that two-run double (stood out) and Taurek really threw well,” said Foothill Coach Vince Brown.
Brown wasn’t sure if Taurek would want to pitch again.
“He really wanted to shut down and then all of a sudden he’s asking to go for a second inning out there,” Brown said.
“It was great having Ryan go out there and it was nice having Sean do the very last inning and close it down. It was a great game.”
The seniors stood out all season, Brown said.
“Those kids are a special group of kids,” Brown said. “I wish I had more of my guys out here at the same time. It’s always a fun event for these kids to sit in the dugout with guys they’ve competed against and get to talk to them and get that experience being around them.
“I’m very blessed because the kids buy in and they understand what we’re trying to do and the key is that I’m not necessarily the funnest guy to be around all the time but they learned how to have fun and enjoy the game, even though I preach the game about being a grinder and grinding it out and playing hard all the time. They grinded a lot in the last year and now they’re enjoying the benefits and reaping the fun of playing the game in the biggest stages.”
Taurek is headed to St. Mary’s, Higgins is off to Columbia, Castillo is going to Cal Baptist and Selby is going to Sacramento State. Yoo is going to UCLA to study next year, Brown said.
Brown said it was a memorable season for his team, which finished 25-8 and captured the Crestview League title.
“I’m so proud of our guys,” Brown said. “We had a lunch meeting yesterday with all the kids because we did our banquet back on May 15. All of this happened after May 15 and we never had a chance to really talk about and talk about their accolades and the things they accomplished. So the coaches and the players got together yesterday and had lunch and went through all of that.
“I hope they understand and I hope the underclassmen understand how much work they did to accomplish the goal and that goal was a goal they worked extremely hard and they lived a dream and that’s all I could ask for. They never once backed away from what we were talking about. It was really fun and I think everybody is taking a deep breath and appreciating it more now.”
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