Baseball Tournament Honors Fallen Firefighters
A baseball tournament established in honor of a firefighting crew that perished battling a 2006 arson blaze in Riverside County took place over the weekend, with teams from across the region playing for charity.
The third annual ?Engine 57 Memorial Baseball Tournament? was held at two locations: Noble Creek Park in Beaumont, 38900 Oak Valley Parkway, and the Diamond Valley Sports Complex in Hemet, 1801 Angler Ave.
Four dozen teams from Southern California ? and one from Las Vegas ? took part in the two-day event, which included a half-hour tribute to the five fallen members of U.S. Forest Service Engine 57.
The Idyllwild-based crew ? Capt. Mark Allen Loutzenhiser, 43, and firefighters Pablo Cerda, 24, Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, Jason Robert McKay, 27, and Jess Edward McLean, 27 ? died battling the 41,000-acre Esperanza wildfire on Oct. 26, 2006.
The men were trying to defend a home north of Twin Pines in the early hours of the blaze, which swept over them before they could deploy their fire shelters.
Raymond Lee Oyler, a former Beaumont mechanic, was convicted of igniting the fire and killing the men. He was sentenced to death in June 2009.
Josh McLean, Jess?s brother, organized the tournament in his sibling?s memory.
According to McLean, the funds raised from teams? entrance fees will go to scholarships for aspiring firefighters in training programs at Mt. San Jacinto College in San Jacinto and Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa.
?It is our hope that this is only the beginning and that ? someday the scholarships handed out are to players who previously played in this tournament,? McLean said on his website, www.usfs-engine57.com.
