Angelenos back for more

Aside from going independent after severing ties with the California Collegiate League last winter, the Glendale Angelenos didn't change a whole lot about their approach to fielding a summer collegiate baseball team.

Most of the frontline players from last year's inaugural season are back and General Manager and Coach Tony Riviera has continued to heavily mine talent from Glendale Community College's ranks to fill in the rest of the lineup.

"Probably the most important part of baseball is consistency, so what I wanted to make sure of is that we had the opportunity to put up a really talented season," said Riviera, whose team will once again play its home games at Stengel Field, where it opens the season at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against the EastL.A. Dodgersof the Norwalk Santa Fe Springs Baseball League. "We do that by bringing in the players that we know we can count on and we know are true, solid baseball players."

Back is the core of the batting order, hitters Nos. 2-4, in first baseman Ellis Whitman, catcher Chad Nacapoy and utility Sako Chapjian and starting infielders Matthew Tellesco (Fresno College) and Ruben Padilla (GCC) are back for another go.

Whitman and Chapjian, a Hoover High graduate, both starred at Glendale college during its 2011 run to the state semifinals before moving on to play at Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2012, while Nacapoy, a Crescenta Valley alum, just concluded his career at Cal State L.A.

Chapjian led last year's Angelenos, who went 24-26 overall and 11-25 in the CCL, with nine home runs and 31 runs batted in and was a CCL All-Star along with Nacapoy and Whitman.

The pitching staff brings back its top two starters from last year in Sean Wardour (CSUDH) and Greg Fowler (CSUDH), who each won four games and made the All-Star team, while All-Star reliever Thomas Korn (York College), another former Vaquero, is also back.

"We have a lot of returners, so that is really nice," Whitman said. "Everybody that is returning, we're all excited to see each other. We know we can play well together and, to be honest, we're ready to go and have fun."

The list of returners is bolstered by some promising new talent, including Occidental College standout Scott Hong, who will bat leadoff, and GCC's Matt McCalister, who will anchor the infield defense at shortstop.

"Matt McCalister is probably one of the top middle infielders in the state," Riviera said of the UNLV-bound Vaquero. "He brings a tremendous amount of defense and just good baseball savvy."