Baseball, Class of 2006

While never playing baseball in high school and being discovered in a Sunday industrial league, Richard "Rick" Ownbey left his impression at Santa Ana College after making the team in 1979. 

In two seasons with the Dons Ownbey ended his career with an 11-2 overall record and a 2.19 ERA. In 1980, Ownbey was selected to the first team All-South Coast Conference and first team All-State. During that same season, Ownbey was also named the Santa Ana College Athlete of the Year. 

Ownbey also left Santa Ana with a handful of records. The individual career records that he held were games started (22), most strikeouts (154), shutouts (4) and hit batters (20). Ownbey also set individual season records for innings pitched (107), least homeruns (1), complete games (8), games started (13) and hit batters (11). Ownbey still holds the record for most career shutouts with the four he compiled in his career. 

He was drafted in the 1980 draft by the New York Mets in the 13 th round. Two years later, Ownbey found himself on the mound against the Cincinnati Reds, becoming the first baseball player in Santa Ana history to play in a major league baseball game. Ownbey finished the season with a 1-2 record in eight games. He pitched a total of 52 innings allowing 44 hits with a 3.75 ERA. 

In 1983, Ownbey was on the Mets roster again but was later traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He also played for the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals. He finished his professional career with a 3-11 record in 43 games. He had a 4.11 ERA in 163 innings pitched with two complete games.