Prep talk: Fremont, once best in City Section baseball, plays for Division III title
First-year baseball coach Dino Flores of Fremont High teaches health, and for the entire semester, he had a freshman from Venezuela, Roiber Colmenares, sitting in class.
One day, Colmenares asked Flores a strange question.
“Hey Mr. Flores,” he said in Spanish. “Do you know how I can join the baseball team?”
“Yes I do,” Flores said.
Colemenares told him playing baseball was all he did in Venezuela.
Then Flores had Colemenares show him how to field a ground ball with an imaginary ball in class.
“That’s when I knew we had something special,” Flores said. “Just his movement you could tell he’s a baseball player.”
With Colmenares leading the way, Fremont has advanced to face Hamilton in Friday’s 2:30 p.m. Division III final at Stengel Field. The Division II final will have South East playing Roosevelt at 5:30 p.m. at East Los Angeles College.
“He’s our best hitter and best pitcher,” Flores said of the 5-foot-8, 140-pound freshman.
Fremont used to be a baseball power, having won five upper-division City titles, the last in 1963. There also was a 3A title in 1992.
“The history is well documented,” Flores said.
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