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Former Poway Little Leaguer Now an East Coast All-Star

Pitcher Brett Bochy moved to Poway when he was a kid—now he's following in the footsteps of his famous father.

Reading, PA — Brett Bochy is 3,000 miles from his Poway roots but he still gets asked about his father Bruce, the former Padres manager now at the helm of the San Francisco Giants.

“It has been going on since I was growing up. Guys always ask about your dad. People are interested in that so I am happy to answer questions about it,” Brett Bochy said.

The younger Bochy is trying to make a name for himself in pro baseball. He is a pitcher for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, a Class AA farm team of the Giants in the Eastern League based in the Virginia capital.

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In his first full season of pro baseball he was named to the Eastern League All-Star game that was held Wednesday in Reading, Pa.

“It is a tremendous honor. It has been a great experience so far. It has been great,” Bochy said while attending a luncheon that was held for the players and fans in Reading the day of the All-Star game.

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Bochy allowed two hits but no runs as he pitched the eighth inning for his Western Division team that lost 5-4 to the East, as Mets’ prospect Eric Campbell hit a walk-off single in the last of the ninth before close to 10,000 fans.

Bochy, 24, moved to Poway when he was in the fourth grade and played youth baseball in the . Even though he grew up in California, his father has ties to Virginia, as he spent part of his youth in Northern Virginia with his military family.

His son was drafted in 2011 by the Giants in the 20th round out of the University of Kansas. Last year he pitched for Augusta (Ga.) in the low Class A South Atlantic League, where he had an ERA of 1.38 with 10 saves in 35 games out of the bullpen.

He made the jump to Richmond and ended the first half of the season with 10 saves, the fifth-best mark in the league. He held opponents to an average of .148, the best mark among relievers in the Eastern League.

He was 5-2 with an ERA of 1.40 in 28 games through July 12.

“Things have gone fairly smooth so far. It has been a fun experience. Once you get to this level it picks up the intensity a little bit,” he said.

He was not listed among the top 30 prospects, according to Baseball America, in the Giants’ system prior to this year, but that may change before the 2013 season.

“I try to have command with four pitches and attack the strike zone,” he said. “The hitters are great. They have great discipline and they are proven hitters at this level,” he said.

His brother, Greg, played at Cal-Poly and in the San Diego farm system.

Other Eastern League All-Stars from California include Washington prospect Jeff Kobernus (San Leandro), who played in college at California; Thomas Neal (Inglewood), an outfielder in the Cleveland system who went to Poway High; Justin Friend (Tracy), who is a pitcher in the Philadelphia system; and Erik Davis (Stanford), a pitcher in the Washington system.

There is a good chance Bochy can work his way back to the West Coast. If he advances one more level in the Giants’ system he will be with Class AAA Fresno of the Pacific Coast League.

“Hopefully I will be on the West Coast next year,” he said.

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