Baseball: Walking on sunshine

Joseph Boo

COSTA MESA - With their red uniforms, Estancia High’s baseball team

probably looked like the side of a barn to visiting Ranch Alamitos.

The Vaqueros proved that their pitchers could hit the side of a barn

Saturday in a nonleague doubleheader with the Eagles. But unfortunately

for Rancho Alamitos, that was all they could hit.

After beaning five hitters in the first game, Rancho Alamitos hit four

batters in the second half and walked nine batters, including the winning

run, to give Estancia a 7-6 come-from-behind extra-inning victory.

After an 11-9 thriller, the Eagles (8-9) got their second comeback win of

the day against the Vaqueros (4-14). With all the free passes it got, the

only thing Estancia didn’t get was $200 every time it passed “Go.”

“One thing we tried to do was make them throw strikes,” Estancia Coach

Doug Deats said. “That’s something our hitters didn’t do all year. They

didn’t like it because they wanted to swing the bat and hit the ball. But

all their hitters were struggling to throw strikes.”

And boy did Rancho Alamitos struggle in that department. It was

especially galling for the Vaqueros in the seventh and eighth innings,

when they walked seven Eagles.

In the seventh, with the score 6-4 in Rancho Alamitos’ favor, Estancia’s

Jordan Hart led off with a bloop single. Casey Gates, Justin Lund,

Armando Ortiz and A.J. Perkins, then walked after Hart’s hit, and that

drove in the Eagles’ tying runs.

Estancia could have won the game in regulation on a deep fly out by C.K.

Green. But a monster throw by Rancho Alamitos right fielder Jake Acosta

forced Lund to scramble back to third.

Reliever Ortiz kept the Vaqueros from scoring in the eighth. In the same

inning, Estancia’s Brent Davis led off with a base on ball. After a

sacrifice bunt moved him to second, Hart reached on an error by the

shortstop. Rancho Alamitos then walked Gates and Lund to drive in

Estancia’s winning run.

Estancia took a 2-1 lead in the first. Ortiz led off with a single, and

Perkins walked. After a failed sacrifice bunt attempt, David Akiva

doubled in a score, and Davis singled to drive in Akiva.

But Rancho Alamitos took a 4-2 lead in the fifth when two hit batters

scored on a single by Frank Delarosa. The Vaqueros added one more in the

sixth when Moe Garcia hit an RBI single. Bradley French crushed a solo

home run in the seventh for Rancho Alamitos’ sixth run.

Estancia stayed close. Lund singled in a run in the fourth, and Akiva

walked with the bases loaded in the fifth to make the score 6-4, setting

up the exciting base on balls segment.

Nonleague

Estancia 7, Rancho Alamitos 6

Rancho Alamitos 110 021 10 - 6 6 1

Estancia 200 101 21 - 7 8 3

Cuevas, Freitas (6), Garcia (7) and Delarosa; Green, Ortiz (6) and Davis.

2B - Akiva (E), Khan (RA) HR - French (RA).