The last Major League Baseball player to pitch a perfect game was Felix Hernandez—pitcher for the Seattle Mariners—in 2012. To pitch a victory in which no opposing player reaches a single base is a rare feat for minor league games as well, like those organized by the Santa Maria Westside Little League (SMWLL).
But 12-year-old Westside pitcher Richie Robles managed to accomplish just that at the District 65 All-Star Baseball Tournament at Nipomo Community Park. Robles—who first joined the SMWLL at age 5—played for the Westside All-Star team this year and threw a perfect game on June 23.
“This is a very rare accomplishment, especially at the 12-year-old level,” Coach Bob Ferrel, Manager of the SMWLL, told the Sun. Ferrel has been Richie’s coach for the last three years.
“What makes it even more impressive is the fact that the level of play in the All-Star tournament is very high,” Ferrel continued. “The teams that we’re playing against are very well-coached.”
Richie—an 8th grader at Tommie Kunst Junior High School—struck out 13 out of the 18 batters he faced, Ferrel said. He threw a total of 68 pitches, with 54 strikes and 14 balls. With Westside defeating Northside 6-0, Richie’s team earned its spot in the tournament’s final bracket.
But last month’s victory is only one of Robles’ proudest moments of his baseball career so far, he said. He has played for both the Westside Tigers and occasionally the Westside All-Star team throughout his 7 years with the SMWLL.
“My favorite baseball memory? That’s actually very hard to choose,” Robles told the Sun. “It’s between last year’s All-Star championship, which we won, and the city tournament we won in 2014.”
Pitching aside, another favorite memory of Robles’ is hitting the very first home run on the new Westside field right after it opened in 2016. Richie still has the home run ball, which was signed by David Garcia, President of the SMWLL.
“He has always been an accurate thrower, ever since he was able to pick up a ball,” Richard Robles, Richie’s father, told the Sun.
Richard and his wife, Valerie, let Richie start playing T-ball for Westside when he was 5, Richard said. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Watching him develop over the years, all of his coaches believe he can go far with his talents and have encouraged him to do so,” Richard said. “We have always seen great potential in Richie and believe in him too.”
This article appears in Jul 6-13, 2017.
