Prep Baseball : La Quinta Isn’t Playing Like a Last-Place Team

La Quinta High School, picked to finish last in the Garden Grove League in a preseason balloting of the league coaches, continued to make short work of opposing baseball teams on Wednesday afternoon.

The Aztecs pounded out 14 hits and scored in all but the last inning to roll to 10-1 win over Buena Park in their final tuneup before league play begins on Friday. La Quinta improved to 6-1 while Buena Park slipped to 1-5.

La Quinta has qualified for the playoffs in seven straight seasons under Coach Dave Demarest, but apparently that statistic didn’t impress Demarest’s league rivals when they sat down to vote for the league favorites several weeks ago. After the ballots had been counted, the Aztecs finished in a tie with Santiago for last place in the six-team league.

Some great fielding, good pitching, aggressive baserunning and timely hitting has carried the Aztecs in the early going. Demarest started the season with a young pitching staff that had no varsity experience.

Three pitchers--Joe Wilson, Rich Boren and James Marques--allowed only five hits as the Aztecs played their seventh straight game in under two hours. Wilson (1-1) allowed only two hits and struck out five in three innings of work. He also hit a towering home run that carried about 365 feet in the second inning.

But the most impressive part of La Quinta’s game was the play of infielders Jim Ingram, Troy Paulsen, Trung Nguyen and Steve Hunt. Paulsen, a junior shortstop, is an excellent prospect with a good arm. He also showed he can hit, getting a double, a single and driving in two runs.

Catcher Denny Spradlin added a single, a triple and drove in two more runs, while left fielder Joe Dunn added a single, a double and two RBIs. Dunn had the key hit of the first inning, a two-run single up the middle, as the Aztecs scored five runs.

“Our pitching and defense were outstanding again today,” Demarest said. “We played a doubleheader with Long Beach Wilson last weekend that took only two and a half hours to play. We’ve been getting the job done and getting it done quickly.”

The only bright spot for Buena Park was shortstop Reggie Brown. Brown scored the Coyotes’ only run in the first inning and also doubled in the fifth. He made the defensive play of the game in the sixth inning when he went far to his left to snag what looked like a sure hit and threw out the runner at first base.

In other nonleague action:

El Dorado 4, Servite 3--Chris Saito and Rob Wojcik each had RBI singles in the bottom of the fourth inning to give the Golden Hawks a come-from-behind victory over the Friars at El Dorado. Dave Rice, who pitched two innings in relief of starter Frank Rico, got the win.

Servite had scored two runs in the top of the first inning and one in the second to take a 3-0 lead, but the Golden Hawks (5-2) scored single runs in the second and third innings and twice in the fourth.

Troy 14, Esperanza 9--The Warriors overcame 5-0 and 7-2 deficits to defeat the Aztecs at Troy. Winning pitcher Greg Nelson’s grand slam highlighted a six-run fifth inning, while Jeff Roaro-Jasso’s three-run homer keyed a six-run third. Tony Godfrey also homered for the Warriors, who improve to 4-2.

Santa Ana 7, San Clemente 2--Shaun Sterling and John Torres each hit two-run home runs in the top of the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie and give the Saints the win over the Tritons at San Clemente. Jaimi Franco added a solo homer in the fourth inning for Santa Ana (3-1).

San Clemente scored its only runs in the bottom of the fifth inning when Brad Zell hit a two-run homer.

Tustin 16, Corona del Mar 2--Dave Staton had two hits, including a three-run homer in the second inning, to lead the Tillers to an easy win over the Sea Kings at Tustin High. Jimmy O’Connell added two hits and two RBIs, while Dean Roberts went 2 for 5.

Steve Surico allowed two hits and struck out five in four innings to earn the victory and also had two hits for the Tillers (4-1).

Orange Lutheran 9, L.A. Lutheran 0--John Cummings, a freshman left-hander, pitched a complete-game, two-hitter with 16 strikeouts to lead the Lancers past the Lions at Orange Lutheran High. Cummings also hit a two-run homer in the second inning and had an RBI single in the sixth to help the Lancers improve to 3-2.

Matt Zaun went 2 for 3 with an RBI for Orange Lutheran.

LOARA TOURNAMENT

Laguna Hills 6, Huntington Beach 1--Wayne Helm, a junior right-hander, went the distance on a three-hitter and struck out 11 to lift the Hawks to a win over the Oilers in the fifth-place semifinal in the tournament at Laguna Hills.

Steve Fesperman, Howard Gasser and Sean Hardy each had two hits and an RBI for the Hawks (5-4). Laguna Hills scored three runs in the third inning. Huntington Beach dropped to 6-3.