Prep talk: Fremont, once best in City Section baseball, plays for Division III title

Freshman baseball coach Dino Flores of Fremont High teaches health, and all semester he had a freshman from Venezuela, Roiber Colmenares, sitting in class.

One day, Colmenares asked Flores a strange question.

“Hey Mr. Flores,” he said in Spanish. “Do you know how I can join the baseball team?”

“Yes, I do,” Flores said.

Colemenares told him that playing baseball was all he did in Venezuela.

Then Flores asked Colemenares to show him how to line up a ground ball with an imaginary ball in class.

“That’s when I knew we had something special,” Flores said. “Just by his movements, you could tell he’s a baseball player.”

With Colmenares leading the way, Fremont advanced to face Hamilton in the Division III final Friday at 2:30 p.m. at Stengel Field. The Division II final will see South East take on Roosevelt at 5:30 p.m. at East Los Angeles College.

“He’s our best hitter and our best pitcher,” Flores said of the 5-foot-8, 140-pound freshman.

Fremont was once a baseball powerhouse, having won five upper-division City titles, the last in 1963. There was also a 3A title in 1992.

“The history is well documented,” Flores said.

This is a daily look at positive happenings in high school sports. To submit news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.