Baseball: Estancia’s hit parade

Joseph Boo

COSTA MESA - “Smack!”

That sound kept ringing during the first game of Saturday’s nonleague

doubleheader between host Estancia and Rancho Alamitos High’s baseball

teams.

You could hear it when the Vaqueros smacked the ball around to build an

8-0 lead, when the Eagles hit the ball to erase that lead, and when the

ball hit the Eagles. As the Beastie Boys said, both teams “got more hits

than Sadaharu Oh.”

Eventually, Estancia scored 11 runs in the final four innings to pull out

an 11-9 victory. This was after the Eagles (8-9) spotted Rancho Alamitos

an 8-0 run after two innings.

“When our kids went down, 8-0,” Estancia Coach Doug Deats said, “The came

back. We went into that deficit with a pretty good approach.”

The Vaqueros (4-14) put up two runs in the first inning, and then

exploded in the second. Mohammed Khan led off that inning with a double,

and an error allowed him to score. Two more runs came in on singles, and

the inning was capped off by back-to-back home runs from Bradley French

and Frank Delarosa.

Surprisingly, Estancia starter Jordan Hart, making his first start, did

not come out of the game. Deats left him in to finish the game.

“Originally, I was going to let him throw three or four innings and then

come back with C.K. (Green),” Deats said. “But after we went down, 8-0, I

decided to save C.K for the next game. I just told (Hart) to go out and

compete.”

After the rocky start, Hart handcuffed Rancho Alamitos for the last five

innings. He only gave up one more run and three more hits. And his

teammates’ comeback allowed him to pick up a nine-run, 12-hit,

complete-game victory.

And about that comeback. The Eagles’ comeback was less an offensive

explosion and more a walk in the park. Rancho Alamitos dished out seven

base on balls, excluding five hit batsmen.

Estancia immediately jumped back in the game with five runs in the third

inning. Estancia loaded the bases with no outs when Armando Ortiz walked,

A.J. Perkins doubled, and Green got hit by a pitch.

The next batter, cleanup hitter David Akiva, walked. Brent Davis then

crushed a double into the right-center field gap to clear the bases. He

later scored on a wild pitch.

Estancia scored one in the fourth when Green came home on another wild

pitch. In the fifth, the Eagles’ Casey Gates got hit by a pitch. The next

batter, J.B. Goff, singled. They both came in on consecutive fielder’s

choices.

Down by one run heading into the sixth, Green led of with a double. After

Davis was hit by a pitch, Matt Mueller tied the game with a single. An

out later, Gates was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game.

After a fielder’s choice, Justin Lund and Ortiz walked to drive in the

winning runs.

Nonleague

Estancia 11, Rancho Alamitos 9

Rancho Alamitos 260 100 0 - 9 12 0

Estancia 005 123 x - 11 8 4

Donnely, Acosta (3), Garcia (5) and Delarosa; Hart and Davis. w - Hart,

1-0. L - Garcia. 2B - Perkins (E), Green (E), Davis (E), French (RA),

Delarosa (RA), Khan (RA), Bonillas (RA). 3B - Goff (E). HR - French

(RA), Delarosa (RA).