Baseball: Lots of SoCal players make U16 trials

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Southern California is well represented among the 39 players selected for the USA Baseball U16 trials that will take place Sept. 25 through Oct. 6 in Houston. The team will end up being 20 players.

Players were chosen based on their performances at tournaments in Florida and Arizona.

Among the players selected are well-known high school standouts such as shortstop Rio Ruiz from La Puente Bishop Amat, shortstop Chris Rivera from Placentia El Dorado, catcher Jeremy Martinez from Santa Ana Mater Dei, pitcher Lucas Giolito from North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, pitcher Jayson Balades from Oxnard and infielder Tim Lopes from Huntington Beach Edison.

Of course, Ruiz might have a slight problem. He’s also the quarterback for Bishop Amat’s football team. And the team selected will compete in the Pan Am Championships in Mexico Oct. 8-17.

‘We haven’t decided,’ Ruiz’s father, Rudy, said as to whether his son would choose to miss three football games to play baseball. ‘He really wants to play football this year and start at quarterback. I don’t think he wants to let his team down.’

-- Eric Sondheimer