LAKE ELSINORE -- When Visalia Rawhide starter Wes Roemer took the mound Friday night against the Storm, he did so with a heavy heart and considerable concern for two fallen friends.

Roemer is a product of Cal State Fullerton, where he was teammates for three seasons with Jon Wilhite, the lone survivor of the Thursday morning car crash that killed Angels rookie Nick Adenhart and two others in Fullerton.

Roemer was also a close friend of Courtney Stewart, the driver of the car that was struck by an alleged drunk driver who reportedly ran a red light.

Wilhite was reportedly in critical but stable condition in an Orange County hospital Friday (Stewart did not survive the crash), and he and Stewart were at the front of Roemer's mind in his first outing this season. Roemer, who wore the letters "JW" and "CS" on his cap, managed to focus long enough to pitch five scoreless innings and deal the Storm a 5-3 loss in front of an announced crowd of 3,333.

It wasn't easy, he said.

"I wanted to dedicate my game to them tonight," Roemer said, clearly shaken. "It definitely gave me that extra drive to get through the game. When things got tough, I just stepped back and took a deep breath.

"You've got to go out there and perform. You've got to go on with it. It was tough -- I'm not going to lie. Coming to the field today, it was in the back of my head -- (Wilhite) was my catcher for three years."

Roemer and Wilhite were teammates during the 2005-07 seasons at Fullerton.

Partly because the Titans have had so much success over the years and also because they have alumni on major-league and minor-league rosters in nearly every organization, the program is like a family, Roemer said.

Roemer plans to visit Wilhite this weekend, as the Rawhide remain in Lake Elsinore to play the Storm on Saturday and Sunday.

"He was one of those guys on the team that nobody ever said anything bad about," Roemer said. "He loved everybody, and everybody loved him. It was an unfortunate thing that happened, but God works in mysterious ways."

Roemer said he had called Stewart on Tuesday but didn't reach her. When he heard the news Thursday on the bus ride to Lake Elsinore, it hit him hard.

Stewart had made the trip out to Rancho Cucamonga to see him pitch last season, and he had hoped to see her sometime on the Rawhide's season-opening six-game road trip to Southern California.

"She was a sweet girl and had the world ahead of her," Roemer said.

The crash that killed Adenhart and injured Wilhite greatly saddened the baseball community, which Roemer said is tight-knit because players from organization to organization have so many connections.

"It does hit close to home when somebody in major-league baseball (is killed)," Roemer said. "It makes you stop and think -- it could have happened to anybody.

"It's a tough situation -- I wish people wouldn't drink and drive."