Fil-Am ace to join Philippines nine?

MANILA, Philippines — University of San Francisco (USF) Fil-Am star Riley Ornido, whose split-finger fastball may be the deadliest pitch in US college baseball today, has reached out to PABA secretary-general Pepe Muñoz to inquire if he could join the Philippine team in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifiers that were reset from the original schedule of March 20-25 in Tucson, Arizona.

Ornido, 21, was a walk-on freshman reliever with the USF varsity in 2017 then won his first eight starts to eventually lead the Dons staff in ERA, strikeouts and opponents’ batting average as a sophomore. In his starting debut, he threw seven shut-out, no-hit innings and conceded only a walk to power USF to a 10-0 romp over San Jose State. The 6-4 whiz continued to sizzle as a junior, receiving the Bill Russell USF Most Outstanding Athlete award and this year, was on the way to another breakout when the pandemic cut short the season.

Ornido recently earned an economics degree with honors at USF and decided to play one last year with the Dons as a graduate student to make up for the cancelled season. He is represented by Excel Sports Management, which handles Tiger Woods, and will enter the Major League draft next year as a likely high pick.

Ornido’s father Celerino and mother Josefa Hatol were born in Manila. The third of four children, he started playing baseball at five and starred at Saint Francisco High School in Mountain View after honing his skills under coach R. W. Wedinger in the Stanford University Junior Cardinals program. Saint Francisco won three state championships in Ornido’s four years with the team.

“Riley has not been back to the Philippines since he was eight or nine,” said Celerino. “At 10, he was playing baseball all year round so there was no time to visit home. We plan to visit Manila in the summer if conditions allow.” Celerino said playing for the Philippines would be “a great add-on” to his career. “Riley is probably the best collegiate 100 percent Pinoy baseball pitcher in US college baseball today,” he continued. “He throws the fastball in the 90s. It was his late grandfather’s dream to see him play for the Philippine team. I’ll need to check with his agent and school if Riley can do it but he’d love to.”

Ornido’s idol is Fil-Am former major leaguer Tim Lincecum. “He’s often called Big Tim by San Francisco sports fans,” said Celerino. “He throws identical, is a bit taller than Lincecum and unlike Lincecum, is 100 percent Filipino. They share the same split-finger strike-out pitch. Riley’s also a big fan of Tim Tebow.” The news of Tebow playing for the Philippines in the WBC qualifiers spread like wildfire as the former pro football quarterback committed to the national team.

Muñoz said he’ll inquire if Ornido is qualified to suit up for the Philippines in the WBC qualifiers. “We want to establish his eligibility in the WBC as a first step,” said Muñoz. “He doesn’t carry a Philippine passport but if he does, he’ll even qualify for the Asian Games. A lot of foreign-based players with Filipino heritage or who were born in the Philippines are reaching out. We may recruit two more Filipino-Japanese players aside from Yuki Takayama and Jonhil Carreon.”

The Philippines is bracketed with the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Panama, Spain and the UK in the WBC qualifiers with the top two finishers advancing to the main WBC tournament in March next year. The Philippine coaches are Bill Picketts of Los Angeles, Wilfredo Hidalgo and Keiji Katayama. “With more players coming in, our coaches, (PABA president) Chito (Loyzaga) and I will have some tough choices to make in finalizing our lineup.”

No date has been set to reschedule the WBC qualifiers.