2-A/3-A Baseball All-Star Game : Home Run by Canedo the Big Hit as 2-A Wins

It wasn’t your typical high school all-star baseball game. There were five walks by 12 pitchers, only one error and the nine innings were completed in less than three hours.

But there was one element that is usually present in games of this nature. The unheralded kid with nary an offer from the big-time schools comes out of nowhere to show major league scouts and colleges what a grave mistake they might have made.

Hoover second baseman Albert Canedo played the part Saturday at the University of San Diego’s Cunningham Stadium. Canedo, a gangly 6-foot-4 shortstop, smacked a three-run homer off Castle Park’s Juan Beltran in the fifth inning to break a 3-3 tie and lead the county’s 2-A All-Stars to an 8-4 victory over the 3-A team.

Canedo also singled and made a couple fine fielding plays. He has not gone completely unrecognized--he has verbally committed to play at Southwestern College--but the recognition may increase after Saturday’s performance, which was witnessed by Arizona Coach Jerry Kindall and San Diego State Coach Jim Dietz.

“I just wanted to come here and show what I have,” said Canedo, who was an All-City Central catcher last year before switching to shortstop. “Maybe now somebody will see me.”

Canedo hit his homer over the 375-foot sign in left center field after USDHS’s Tony Moeder and Crawford’s Manny Gagliano had singled. Canedo said he hit a high fastball.

“It was right there,” said Canedo, who hit six home runs this season. “When I hit it, I knew it was out.”

The 2-A stars trailed, 3-0, after two innings but tied the game with a run in the third on a RBI double by Grossmont’s Kent Smith and two in the fourth on RBI singles from Kevin Herde (San Pasqual) and Eric Turner (Crawford). All three runs were scored off Poway’s John Uglow.

The 2-A stars, who had 17 hits, added two more runs in the fifth off Byron Klemaske, who went 15-1 for Mt. Carmel this season. Santana center fielder Kyle Sebach followed a walk by Mission Bay’s Tony Lennan with a two-run homer in almost the same place Canedo hit his.

The 3-A stars, after scoring three runs on six hits in the first two innings, were held to just five hits and one run the rest of the way by Carlsbad’s Scott Karl, Mission Bay’s J.T. Thomas, St. Augustine’s Brad Gennaro and Grossmont’s Mark Gapski.

Gennaro ran into trouble in the seventh when a single, a hit batsman and an error loaded the bases. But Gennaro, who led the county in strikeouts this season, struck out Madison’s Al Mendiola and Torrey Pines’ John Lynch to end the threat.

Losing Coach Bob Korzep of Castle Park said he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of play.

“It was a well-played game, especially defensively,” Korzep said. “The pitching was a little shoddy, but a lot of these kids have been overworked lately.”

Mt. Carmel’s John Tejcek, who went one for two, said even though he lost, he enjoyed the camaraderie with players who have been his opponents all year.

“These games are the best,” Tejcek said. “You become friends with a lot of people you don’t know, and there’s no pressure.”

Two of Tejcek’s teammates were Helix’s Rich Haar and Jason Ledford. Two days ago, Helix and Mt. Carmel were involved in a brawl during the 3-A title game, which Mt. Carmel won, 19-14. Tejcek said there were no hard feelings.

“Helix showed a tremendous amount of class,” said Tejcek, who is talking to Arizona and Loyola Marymount. “After the game, we shook hands and talked about it. What happened was part of baseball. We laughed about it and joked about it.”