Plenty of familiar faces for Angelenos

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — In assembling the Glendale Angelenos' inaugural roster, coach and team president Tony Riviera gathered college baseball players from up and down California and even from across the country. But, for the foundation of the first-year California Collegiate League squad, Riviera had to look no further than the team's own backyard, so to speak, at Stengel Field.

Of the 40 players that will open the season on the team's roster, 11 are fresh off carrying the Glendale Community College baseball team, which also calls Stengel home, to the finest season in program history, one that ended one win shy of the title game of the California Community College Athletic Assn. State Championships.

"It certainly was a good audition [for the Angelenos]," Riviera said of the Vaqueros' epic season.

Vaqueros position players included on the roster will be infielders Sako Chapjian and Ellis Whitman and outfielder Sean Spear.

Glendale college pitchers Ryan Sherriff, Thomas Korn, Michael Noteware, Greg Astor, John La, Gus Garcia, Michael Sherwin and Jamie Rosales have also been added to the club.

Eight of the current Angelenos, including Chapjian, Whitman, Sherriff and Spear, a USC transfer who was also selected in the Major League Baseball Draft by the Washington Nationals last year, played for Riviera with the SoCal Cardinals of the Southern California Collegiate League in 2010.

"We wanted them acclimated in the city of Glendale because we felt that would make a big difference in getting a joint venture, for lack of better words, with Glendale college," Riviera said of the former Cardinals turned Vaqueros, and now Angelenos. "We've got a very solid working relationship [with Glendale college] and we'll feed them players and they'll feed us players."

Riviera has also formed a pipeline with the University of Arkansas. Outfielder Franco Broyles, who was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 2009, pitcher Randall Fant (Boston Red Sox, 2009) and pitchers Jeff Harvill (Philadelphia Phillies, 2010) will represent the Razorbacks.

"We've got three of their top guys that would be impact players for them next year," Riviera said. "They've all been drafted. …I think any time you're playing in the SEC, you're a big-time college player. But I also think that on any given day, any of these guys that are on the [team] today could play in the SEC."