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Luke Winn: The Alaska Pipeline ""Remember to never take the game home with you." -- Former major league closer Lee Smith, on how a reliever can maintain his sanity  What, however, is a pitcher to do when his team's bullpen is closer to his bed than it is to the dugout? That was the conundrum facing Kevin Camacho last summer on college baseball's last frontier. At 2 a.m. on June 22, not long after the conclusion of the 102nd Midnight Sun Game, many of Camacho's Alaska Goldpanners teammates mounted bicycles and rode off, still in full uniform. They receded like a gang of supersized Little Leaguers into Fairbanks's Arctic glow, which had made the game -- a 6-1 loss to the visiting Oceanside Waves that had begun at 10:36 p.m. under a cloudy tapestry of blues and pinks -- possible without the aid of artificial lights. On the summer solstice the natural light never dies out in Fairbanks, 160 miles south of the Arctic Circle, and on this night Camacho, a California-raised righty, would never leave the confines of Growden Memorial Park, where the centerfield backdrop is the eight-starred Alaskan flag and Take Me Out to the Ballgame is forsaken during the seventh-inning stretch in favor of the Beat Farmers' 1985 country-punk song Happy Boy. Out with the peanuts and Cracker Jack, in with lyrics about a dead dog in a drawer, as well as the most guttural refrain ever to blare from a stadium speaker: "Hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba!"

JUNIOR COLLEGE: Attended Rio Hondo Community College and then Cerritos Junior College where he played for two seasons. He earned first-team all-conference honors both seasons. Helped last year’s team post a 31-13 record. He posted a 7-2 record with a 3.16 ERA. He threw one complete game among his 94 innings of work and allowed 87 hits and 30 walks with 71 strikeouts. Opponents hit .254 off him. He also played some infield and hit .231 (3-for-13 with three RBI.


HIGH SCHOOL: Attended Santa Fe High and graduated in 2004 after earning three letters in football and baseball. In baseball he was a first-team all-league and second-team all-CIF selection as a junior and then a first-team all-league and all-CIF choice as a senior.


PERSONAL: Born July 12, 1986 to Roger and Adela Camacho. He has three brothers, Roger, Mike and Alfonso, and two sisters, Gina and Maria. His brother Roger played college baseball and his sister played college basketball at Kansas State. Kevin was selected in the 47th round by the Atlanta Braves in the professional draft following his senior year in high school, but he elected to go to junior college rather than sign. He spent last summer as a member of the Alaska Goldpanners. He lists his hobbies as Playstation 2 and is majoring in Kinesiology.

2007 Alaska Goldpanners
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102nd Midnight Sun Baseball Classic