Rancho Santiago Beats Cypress, Takes Three-Game Lead

Rancho Santiago took a major step toward the Orange Empire Conference baseball title Thursday while visiting Cypress was left to wrestle with what could have been.

Rancho Santiago did all its scoring in the first four innings then hung on for an 8-6 victory that put the first-place Dons three games up with six left.

“It was a big win for us,” Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon said. “You want to have a big lead with the high talent level in this [conference].”

Cypress had beaten Rancho Santiago (33-4-1, 15-3) Tuesday and another victory would have left Cypress and idle Saddleback a game back of Rancho Santiago.

Instead, the Chargers will concentrate on the second-place battle with Saddleback. Cypress (29-8-1, 12-6) plays at Saddleback (29-6, 12-6) at noon Saturday in the first game on the Gauchos’ refurbished field.

Rancho Santiago’s Matt Ward and Heath Bell, the most lethal pitching teammates in the conference, combined to hold off Cypress Thursday. Ward worked into the seventh, giving up seven hits and five runs, three earned, to improve to 9-0 including 6-0 in conference.

Bell replaced Ward with a runner on first and no out in the seventh. He gave up a single to Scott Daeley, who had three hits, including his first home run, and Craig Kuzmic then reached on an error. But Bell got Greg Jacobs to ground into a double play.

After a hit batter, Randy Case flared a single to left for another run to cut Rancho Santiago’s lead to 8-6.

Bell got Junior Rodriguez to look at a third strike for the final out. He then gave up only a single in the next two innings for his sixth save and his fifth in conference.

Joe Secoda had a two-run home run in the first, his third homer in the last four games, for Rancho Santiago. Rick Gonzalez added a run-scoring single in the inning as the Dons opened a 3-0 lead.

Gonzalez was in right field because Charlie Moreno, who usually hits third and plays the outfield, hurt his right elbow throwing a ball during warmups. Sneddon said Marino, who spent the game wearing a sling, would be examined today.

Rancho Santiago scored twice more in the third on four walks, a wild pitch and a passed ball.

Erik Sobek and Kevin Burford had run-scoring singles and Gonzalez had an RBI double as Rancho Santiago scored three in the fourth.