If what happened to the reel-life Rigo Sanchez is an omen, things will work out fine in the end for the real-life Rigo Sanchez.

In the 2012 movie “Trouble with the Curve,” an unheralded hurler by that name gets a tryout only because he is discovered via a fluke. When he gets his chance, he earns a pro contract after a can’t-miss prospect can’t hit any of his pitches.

The flesh-and-blood Rigo Sanchez is the kicker and punter for the University of Hawaii football team. Like his cinema namesake, he’s an extremely talented athlete who doesn’t get the attention he deserves.

In 2015, the junior college transfer was consistent on field goals. This season, his senior year, he was flawless.

But perfection wasn’t enough for most of the voters to recognize Sanchez for either of the Mountain West first or second teams, which were announced Tuesday.

Sanchez, who was good on all 12 of his field-goal tries this season, did make it as an honorable mention.

John Baron of San Diego State and Luke Strebel of Air Force were named to the first and second teams — probably because they made the most field goals, Baron with 17 and Strebel with 19.

But Sanchez never missed. Baron did twice and Strebel did three times.

Many UH fans will remember Strebel’s first miss of the season. His 32-yard try on the last play of regulation against visiting Hawaii went wide right. If he’d made it, Air Force would’ve won, 23-20. Instead, it went to overtime, and Hawaii won 34-27.

By the way, Sanchez made two field goals in that one.

The opportunity never came for him to win any games for Hawaii with a dramatic, late-game kick. That never happened for Baron or Strebel, either.

Sanchez is the Invisible Man in the Mountain West field-goal percentage statistics at the mw.com website. Only reason I can think of is his 12 attempts is below a minimum requirement, perhaps 1.0 per game. New Mexico’s Jason Sanders is second on the list with 11 of 12, but he was in just 12 games to 13 for Sanchez. UNLV’s Evan Pantels tops the list with 13 of 14.

Sanchez was also perfect on extra points until he missed his final one Saturday in UH’s victory over UMass. Perhaps that cost him some votes. Fortunately for the ’Bows, it didn’t cost them the game (and a bowl game), as they stopped the Minutemen’s final drive and won 46-40.

That would’ve been a recurring nightmare of irony. Sanchez’s miss of a short fourth-quarter field goal in 2015 allowed an opening for New Mexico to rally with a final drive and win a game UH had controlled most of the way.

Unlike many of the conference’s other kickers, most of Sanchez’s work was done at sea level. Footballs don’t fly as high and far here as in the mountains. The 55-yarder he made at Michigan — the longest field goal by any Mountain West kicker this season — was accomplished at 800 feet elevation.

“My guess why he didn’t get all-conference as a kicker was because he was only 2-for-2 from 40-plus,” UH media relations director Derek Inouchi said. “His punting stats were good, but we did allow a lot of return yards.”

Sanchez was second in the conference with 44.6 yards per punt. He did that on a MWC-leading 67 attempts. He also handled kickoffs.

Inouchi said he doesn’t know why Sanchez never appeared on even the watch list for the Groza Award, which goes to the nation’s best kicker.

I asked a Mountain West publicist how the postseason all-star teams were chosen.

“The methodology is up to each individual voter,” Mountain West Assistant Director of Communications Stuart Buchanan replied in a text.

The league’s 12 coaches and 24 media members do the voting. In our market, Rainbow Warriors TV play-by-play announcer Robert Kekaula and Star-Advertiser columnist Ferd Lewis represented the media this year. Both voted for Sanchez as first-team kicker and conference special teams player of the year.

“You could make a case for him as the team’s MVP,” Lewis said. “He was also valuable in terms of field position.”

I’m curious if the voters who cover and coach Air Force voted for a kicker who missed a field goal that cost the Falcons a game.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.