Fountain Valley baseball cannot solve Will Laws in loss to Los Alamitos

It does not take much to tip a Sunset League baseball game in favor of one team or the other.

The league standings show one team stacked on top of the next. Fountain Valley, Los Alamitos and Newport Harbor sat in a three-way tie for second place entering Wednesday’s action.

Then Fountain Valley welcomed Los Alamitos to its field, and the game itself would prove how razor-thin the margin between the teams can be.

Barons second baseman Cedrick Perez delivered an errant throw attempting a potential inning-ending double play, and three runs came across for the Griffins in the top of the fifth.

Los Alamitos went on to win the game 3-1, evening the season series with Fountain Valley.

The rubber match between the schools will take place on Friday at Los Alamitos. First pitch is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.

Fountain Valley (11-7, 3-3 in league) opened with a 1-0 lead after senior right fielder Conrad Villafuerte came around to score following his lead-off single in the first inning.

Junior Jackson Ouellette made the one run stand up until the top of the fifth. Ouellette became wild, hitting two batters and allowing a single to AJ Mayeda to load the bases.

It looked as though Ouellette had an opportunity to get out of the inning when Brayden Englert sent a grounder near the second base bag. Sophomore shortstop Sebastian Murillo went to his knees to glove it. He flipped the ball to Perez, who hurried to make the turn, and his throw evaded senior first baseman Noah Amenta.

Two runs scored after the throw went into the Fountain Valley dugout. Griffins first baseman Corey Patterson dropped a single into right field that drove in Englert for the Griffins’ third run.

“That comes down to us playing the game hard,” said Los Alamitos coach Matt Nuez, whose Griffins (11-7, 4-2) are two games back of first-place Huntington Beach (17-3, 6-0). “Sliding hard into a bag, be highly competitive moving up to the next bag, forcing a little anxiety on the opponent.

“That’s one of the things we constantly speak about. Never taking plays off. If we do that, in time, you’re going to make your own breaks. You’re going to create your own bounces, and I’m proud of them for doing that.”

Senior right-hander Will Laws made the start for Los Alamitos. The Concordia University commit threw a complete game, allowing four hits and one run while striking out three.

Shea Adame, Jake Brooks, Villafuerte and Perez each had a hit for the Barons.

Laws had some help along the way. In the second inning, his infield completed a 4-6-3 double play behind him.

“That double play was huge,” Laws said. “It gave us some momentum. It gave me some confidence, and I took off from there.

“I just wanted to get this win for my team and have them help me out, too, along the way.”

Cole Wentz was robbed of a hit in the third inning by a diving Kenui Huey in right field. The same happened to Murillo when Mayeda left his feet in center field to catch a sinking line drive.

Barons coach Deric Yanagisawa thought his team played well enough to win, but he had to give the Griffins credit.

“Defensively, they made a couple of diving catches that kind of took the wind out of our sails, but that’s what it takes to win Sunset League baseball games,” Yanagisawa said. “Los Al deserved to win today.”

The Barons face Foothill at Angel Stadium tomorrow at 6 p.m., but with a critical league game looming on Friday, Yanagisawa said neither ace Nathan Wilson or Brooks would take the mound in the nonleague game against the Knights (14-4).

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner