Snyder shines in All-Star game

The Orange County All-Star High School Seniors baseball game played Tuesday at Glover Stadium in Anaheim had a local flavor to it. And a pair of local outfielders had a big hand in the outcome of the 44th annual game, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Greater Anaheim.

Edison’s Eric Snyder clubbed two home runs and Blake Hitchcock of Ocean View homered among his three hits as the South downed the North, 15-5.

Snyder went two for four with a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth and followed with a three-run shot in the eighth. He was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

Hitchcock went three for three with a single, double and home run with three runs batted in and scored three runs. He was named “Mr. Hustle” for the game, Ocean View Coach Shane Borowski said.

Nick Marshall (infielder) and Jake Tillinghast (pitcher) of Marina played for the North, which was coached by Dane Ilertsen of Troy. Huntington Beach Coach Benji Medure served as head coach of the South. Local athletes who had been selected to the South squad included Snyder, Hitchcock, Kevin Klaess (pitcher) of Huntington Beach and Christian Lopes (infielder) and Henry Owens (pitcher) of Edison.

Lopes and Owens, both selected this week in the 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft, didn’t play in the game. Lopes, a shortstop who has signed with USC, was selected in the 7th round (229th overall) Tuesday by the Toronto Blue Jays.

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Track & Field

Huntington Beach freshman Amanda Honn ended her first trip to the CIF State Track & Field Championships with a 16th-place finish in the girls’ 3,200 meters finals Saturday.

The championships started with prelims competition Friday at Buchanan High in Clovis.

Honn finished in a time of 10 minutes, 46.13 seconds. The event was won by another freshman, Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley, who finished first in 10:13.

Local athletes who qualified for the CIF State Meet were Sara Van Dyke (girls’ 800 meters) and Karl Baranov (boys’ 1,600 meters) and Ramon Vargas (boys’ 110 and 300 meter hurdles) of Huntington Beach.

At the prelims qualifying meet Friday, Van Dyke (2:12.14) finished in 11th place in the girls’ 800 meters, Baranov (4:13.88) was 15th in the boys’ 1,600 meters and Vargas placed 15th (14.62) in the boys’ 110 meter hurdles and 16th (39.28) in the boys’ 300 meter hurdles. None of the three advanced to Saturday’s finals.

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Wrestling

Brenton Visnoski, a senior at Edison High, has signed a national letter of intent to wrestle next fall at California Baptist University in Riverside. Visnoski, who will major in biology, also made visits to San Francisco State, Menlo College and the University of Colorado-Pueblo.

In his four-year varsity career, he posted a 158-27 record. In his senior year, he recorded the most team points (223), most takedowns (121), most near-falls points (75) and most wins (47). Visnoski is a two-time Sunset League champion (2010-11), a CIF Southern Section Inland Division champion (2011) and two-time CIF runner-up (2009-10).

He was fourth at the Southern Section Masters Meet and sixth at the State Championships this year. He was awarded Edison’s team MVP honors, the Assn. of Student Body’s Athletic Character Award and will be among Edison athletes inducted Monday into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.