Baseball: Pitching trio earn All-America honors

A trio of Falcons earned All-America honors
A trio of Falcons earned All-America honors

In a very rare occurrence, a trio of pitchers from the same team have been named All-America by ABCA/Rawlings. Freshman starting pitcher Derek Valdez (Los Alamitos HS) and sophomore closer Calix Armijo (Mary Star of the Sea HS) were named 1st Team All-America, while sophomore starting pitcher Franky Lopez (Dominguez HS) received 3rd Team All-America recognition. All three were also voted Pacific Association Southern California All-Region 1st Team. It marks the first time in recorded history that a team had three players named All-America and first time three were selected 1st Team All-Region since 2013 when Marin College had two 1st Team selections. The three Falcons are also the first All-America selections since shortstop Ramon Bramasco was a 2nd Team pick in 2018 and first time three were selected in the same season since 1988.

There are five total pitchers named 1st Team All-America, with Cerritos named to two of them, while they were named to three of the five that are voted 1st Team All-SoCal.

For Valdez, who was also named the Southern California Pitcher of the Year, he concluded the season with a 13-2 record and 1.50 ERA, which led the state in both categories. He also tossed 120.1 innings on the season and completed five games - both also state best - as he helped the Falcons to a 38-10 record and South Coast Conference championship. He won a pair of starts in the postseason, and aside from the 3.2 innings he pitched in his first start of the season, went at least 6.1 innings each start the remainder of the season. He pitched consecutive complete game shutouts during the season and at one point, tossed 28 consecutive shutout innings.

Armijo set a new school record with 13 saves and posted a 1-2 record with a minuscule 0.47 ERA, which is the second lowest in school history with at least 35 innings pitched. He allowed just 16 hits and two earned runs in 38 innings, while he struck out 32 batters. Armijo didn't earn his first save until the ninth game of the season and had two streaks of four appearances in a row where he recorded a save. Armijo broke the old record of 11 saves by Mickey Manzo (2000), Nick Padilla (1998), Jason Marr (1995) and Steve Morales (1991).

Lopez concluded the season with a perfect 12-0 record, which tied for the second most wins in the state, while his 1.88 ERA was the third lowest in the state, as were his 105.1 innings pitched. He's also the first pitcher in school history to win at least 12 games and go undefeated since Rick Bethke went 14-0 in 1973. His 95 strikeouts also led the Falcons and were the 10th most in the state. Lopez earned the winning decision in his last 10 starts of the season, while he allowed one run or less in eight of his starts. Quite possibly his biggest win of the season came in the playoffs when he shut out Long Beach City College for the final eight innings after allowing four runs in the first inning.