Saratoga News

Former Saratoga football star Pat Sende with his children, Lauren and Connor.

Where are they now?

Erickson headed to the Series

By Dick Sparrer

Every kid who has ever put bat to ball thinks about it. Every kid who has ever collected baseball cards, played in the Little League or watched a game on TV dreams of it--making the major leagues and playing in the World Series.

Only a select few actually realize that dream and play baseball in the majors, and fewer still make it to the World Series.

For some, though, that dream comes true. And it could this year for Scott Erickson

Erickson, a local prep star at Homestead, is a starting pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, and he and the O's are having quite a year.

The Orioles currently hold a six-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East, and Erickson is playing a key role in that championship season.

The former Mustang star boasts 15-5 record with a 3.28 earned run average. He ranks fourth in the league in wins and boasts the AL's 10th best ERA.

He's already started 26 games for the division-leading O's and has gone the distance for a pair of shutouts. He has struck out 102 and walked just 47 in 181 innings pitched.

Erickson is one of three area players currently active on major league rosters. Bill Hasselman of Saratoga and Ken Caminiti of Leigh are other former local prep stars playing in the big leagues.

Hasselman, a 1983 graduate of Saratoga, is a starting catcher for the Boston Red Sox.

The former Saratoga sensation is hitting .244 for the Sox, with a .390 slugging average and a .292 on-base percentage. He has blasted four homers and cracked 13 doubles to drive in 22 runs in 54 games for Boston.

Hasselman was also the quarterback for the Saratoga football team during his high school days.

Caminiti, like Hasselman a baseball and football star in high school, is the starting third baseman for the San Diego Padres.

The former Leigh standout was the most valuable player in the National League a year ago and was the league's starting third sacker in the All-Star game.

Caminiti currently boasts a .271 average and has clubbed 18 homers and 23 doubles this season on his way to knocking in 63 runs. His slugging average is an impressive .474.

But Erickson, Hasselman and Caminiti are not the only local players currently active in professional baseball. Ryan Hancock of Monta Vista, Bret Hemphill Cupertino and Dave Tuttle of Los Gatos are each enjoying promising careers in professional baseball.

Ryan Hancock, a 1990 graduate of Monta Vista, is currently playing Triple-A baseball for the Las Vegas Stars in the Pacific Coast League.

Hancock, who went on to play football at Brigham Young University following his high school graduation, was drafted by the Anaheim Angels and actually made it to the big club last season. He went 4-1 for the Angels in 1996 but started this season in Triple-A.

He was traded to the San Diego Padres this season in the deal that sent Rickey Henderson to the Angels, and he is currently assigned to the Stars.

Hancock is now 3-3 with a 4.25 earned run average in the PCL. He has a couple of saves, and has struck out 62 in just 78-plus innings of work this season.

Bret Hemphill became the first Cupertino High School graduate to make a major league roster and play in a major league exhibition game when he played for the Anaheim Angels this spring.

Hemphill ripped his first major league hit when he cracked a single for the Angels in an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs.

He was sent down to Midland, a double-A club in the Texas League, following spring training and was having a sensational year before suffering a shoulder injury.

Hemphill was hitting .308 with 10 homers and 63 runs batted in in 266 at-bats before the injury. He'll miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The former Cupertino star had quite a year the season before when he hit .297 in the second half of the campaign to help the Lake Elsinore Storm to Class A league championship. He blasted 17 homers for the Storm during the year.

Hemphill, 25, played at Cal State Fullerton after graduating from Cupertino, and he was selected in the 14th round of the 1994 draft by the Angels.

Dave Tuttle is looking forward to playing in the major leagues for the expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is currently pitching in the California League for the High Desert Mavericks, an affiliate of the Diamondbacks.

Tuttle was a star pitcher at Los Gatos before graduating in 1988. He went on to star as a hurler at Santa Clara University where he was named the West Coast Conference pitching of the year in 1991. He played for Team USA in the Pan Am Games in 1991 before moving on to the professional ranks.

Tuttle pitched in the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers organizations before joining the Mavericks as the club's closer. He currently boasts a 4-3 mound record, with 17 saves and a low 2.59 earned run average. He has struck out 55 and walked just 22 in 59 innings on the hill.

But the local professional baseball stars are not the only area high school graduates to enjoy success after high school. There have been many more.

Where are they now? Well, here are a few:

Sende

Pat Sende, who starred as a football player at Saratoga, went on to play football for four years at Santa Clara University.

He graduated from Santa Clara in 1987 with a degree in mechanical engineering and is now an engineer. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Shannon, and their two children, Lauren, 3, and Connor, 1.

Menold

Jeff Menold of Saratoga, a former football and baseball sensation at Lynbrook High School, had an outstanding junior season on the baseball team at Linfield College.

Menold was hitting .438 through April and on pace to set the school's single-season record for best batting average.

The third sacker finished the year earning a place on the Northwest Conference All-Star team honorable mention list.

Renteria

Lisa Renteria, a graduate of Westmont, went on to star on the track for the women's team at West Valley Community College.

Renteria finished second in the 1500 meters at the Northern California finals to qualify for the state meet for the Vikings.

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