BASEBALL NOTEBOOK: SERIES TRIP SURE BEATS A VACATION.

Byline: Heather Gripp Staff Writer

Only 11 players were available for the North San Gabriel Valley baseball all-star team's trip to the Babe Ruth Pacific Southwest Regional - and that was after additions were made for the tournament.

The team was not expected to play deep into the summer, and many players had scheduling conflicts. But convincing the members of the team of 16- to 19-year-olds to change schedules for the next few days wasn't very difficult. By winning the eight-team regional in Watsonville, North San Gabriel Valley earned a berth in the World Series, which begins Sunday and runs through Aug. 21 in Newark, Ohio. North San Gabriel opens pool play against Newark.

``We thought we'd be on vacation two weeks ago,'' said coach Phil Torres, who guided the North San Gabriel Valley team that was eliminated in the regionals last year. ``We just happened to get hot at the right time.''

Blake Gailen, an incoming sophomore left-hander at Glendale College and a former El Camino Real of Woodland Hills standout, was named MVP of the regional, where he earned two victories. Gailen is among 11 college players on the team that also features players from Crescenta Valley of La Crescenta and St. Francis of La Canada high schools.

``I'm pretty fired up about it,'' pitcher/outfielder Blake Gailen said. ``It's an honor to be going.''

Although the team believed it was talented, particularly on the mound, advancing this far was not expected.

Among the leading contributors are Glendale College's Billy Spottiswood (3-0), who is the probable starting pitcher Sunday, as well as Joe Billheimer, Dan Bonilla, Scott Hodson and Mark Simmons, who all earned all-tournament honors at the regional.

Bonilla, an outfielder from the University of La Verne, joined the team for the regionals to help compensate for the absence of leading hitter Trevor Bell. Bell, the Crescenta Valley standout who was at the Area Code Games during the regional, is among those who rejoined the team for the World Series.

--Almost another in Series: The La Crescenta Babe Ruth 15-year-old all- stars came within a win of the World Series. La Crescenta was eliminated with a nine-inning, 11-9 loss to El Segundo on Tuesday in the Pacific Southwest Regional final.

La Crescenta (6-2) forced extra innings when Michael Barajas doubled in the tying run in the seventh. Andrew Sember sparked the comeback an inning earlier with a three-run home run.

--Pitching in: Andy Marquardt hadn't pitched in nearly six weeks, but when he was called up because of a shortage of arms, North San Gabriel Valley discovered it had another reliable pitcher. Marquardt, an incoming senior right-hander at St. Francis who had been used as an outfielder, pitched two scoreless innings of relief in the winner's bracket final at the regional to earn the victory in a 2-0 win over Watsonville.

--Everybody's all-star: Although Bell wasn't with the North San Gabriel Valley all-stars last week, he did play in an all-star game. He was selected to the all-star game at the Area Code Games in Long Beach, a showcase featuring many of the top high school players in the nation. Despite suffering a bruised thumb that kept him out of a later game, Bell started in the outfield and went 1 for 3.

Heather Gripp, [phone]

heather.gripp(at)dailynews.com