Empire League : Umpires Delay Start, El Dorado Cancels Offense

The start of Friday’s Empire League baseball game between El Dorado and Loara high schools was delayed 20 minutes because there were no umpires.

Continuing the wait, El Dorado soon found out, would have been a much more palatable way to spend a Friday afternoon in Placentia.

Loara took advantage of El Dorado’s lousy fielding (five errors) and lousy pitching (six walks) and added 14 hits of its own to win, 13-2.

“It was a big win but they all seem to be big in this league,” Loara Coach Ray Moore said. “It was nice to see us get out there and put the bat on the ball.”

The Saxons did just that. Trailing, 2-1, in the fourth inning, the Saxons chased El Dorado starter Dave Rice en route to a six-run, five-hit inning that broke the game open.

Rice allowed the first four batters to reach base and reliever Frank Ricco was responsible for the remaining five runs, three of which were charged to Rice.

El Dorado was able to put runners at first and third with no outs in the fourth inning but Loara reliever Jeff Patterson worked out of the inning. The Golden Hawks didn’t get another runner to third until the last inning.

Patterson, who relieved starter Mike Golia in the second, struck out El Dorado’s No. 3 hitter, Chris Saito, and then got cleanup hitter Jeff Petredes to hit into a double play to stop that fourth-inning rally.

Petredes started the game with nine consecutive hits, but managed only a walk in three tries against Loara.

“He came in in a tough situation and got us a couple ground balls,” Moore said of his reliever. “All of our pitchers are working at their (pitch) locations more this year.”

Rice, however, was wild early, giving up three walks and a run in the second inning before yielding to Patterson.

With the bases loaded and only one out, Patterson got El Dorado’s Doug Sipple to hit into a force out at the plate and then retired Saito on a dribbler back to the mound.

El Dorado took a 2-1 lead in the third inning when designated hitter Tim Goff drew a walk off of Patterson, went to second on Rob Wojcik’s single and to third on a passed ball.

Goff scored on a fielder’s choice by Bret Boone. The Golden Hawks were taken out of the inning when Loara first baseman Sal Capraro made a diving grab of Joe Cribari’s sharp ground ball near first base.

Following its fourth-inning outburst, Loara added one run in the fifth inning and five more in the seventh.

El Dorado never mounted a serious rally the rest of the game against Patterson, who gave up only five hits in his 5 innings.

“Good teams just don’t get beat 13-2,” El Dorado coach Steve Gullotti said. “We’re a long way from being a good team.”

El Dorado, which lost its league-opener to Katella on Tuesday, fell to 0-2 in league and 5-4 overall.

Loara evened its league record at 1-1 and raised its overall record to 6-3.

In other Empire League action:

Los Alamitos 13, Cyress 5--Cypress (1-1, 5-5) committed seven errors to help host Los Alamitos (1-1, 9-2) win easily. Rickie Nene went 3 for 4 with two RBIs to lead the Griffins, while Gary Renko and Robbie Katzaroff each had two hits. Gary Loe pitched four innings to get the win for Los Alamitos, which had 11 hits.