2024 35+ National

Montebello Angels 11, Silverton Red Sox 1 

Submitted by Robert Oskin, Angels’ manager

‘Montebello Angels Three-peat for the 35+ National Championship’

Once again, the Montebello Angels came out for the MSBL Kickoff Classic and finished 2-1 in round-robin play. The two wins were thrown by Tony Cabrera and Rudy Rizo, who did superb jobs for the wins. Josh Levine threw the third game and kept them in a battle but came up short in some really gusty wind weather, which did not help.

The playoffs came and we sent out one of our horses, Andy Torres, who took the mound and defeated a very good Houston Gamblers team to advance us to the championship game. Torres not only threw a complete game but also helped out in the win with outstanding hitting, along with Lalo Saldivar and Ruben Hernandez.

Steve Connally was called upon for the championship game against the Silverton Red Sox and did not disappoint. Connally was on fire. He had had some really good performances for us lately, but that day he just looked unstoppable while throwing a complete game, winning 11-1 while giving up only seven hits and striking out six. Steve was backed with outstanding defense all day.

The Angels were led offensively by Gustavo “Google” Corona, Luis Rivas, Rizo, Manny Miranda, and Steve Macias who all did excellent at the plate that day. Daniel Arruda and Saldivar did a great job for the combination of the catching duties for our pitchers to excel and perform so well.

“As long as the guys want to keep coming back, we’ll keep doing it. We all know it’s not easy and getting harder and harder with expanding families, jobs, and costs. But these guys are all really special and they realize how blessed they are to have such an amazing group of men, friends, and family that are able to play and win together so often. We look forward to coming back next year and defending our crown once again.”