Empire League : Esperanza Makes Itself at Home : Aztecs Beat Loara, 2-1; Remain Undefeated on Own Field

It appeared the Esperanza High School baseball team had some kind of home-field magic working in its favor Friday.

Thanks to a slight-of-hand by a Loara outfielder, the Aztecs were able to defeat the Saxons, 2-1, in an Empire League game played at Esperanza.

With the score tied, 1-1, in the bottom of the seventh inning, Esperanza’s Emmitt Cohick doubled down the right-field line with two outs and was replaced by pinch-runner Jeff Von Rader.

Aztec Coach Mike Curran then called on Tim MacNeil to pinch-hit for Ron McMillian, and MacNeil lifted Jeff Patterson’s first pitch to short-center field.

After a lengthy chase, Loara center fielder Wade Clester lunged forward, slid on both knees and got his glove on the ball for what appeared to be a catch to send the game into extra innings.

But the ball bounced off the heel of Clester’s glove, and Von Rader easily made it home with the winning run.

That’s the way things have gone for the Aztecs on their home field, which has been somewhat of a charm for them this season. Esperanza is undefeated (7-0) at home but is only 2-7 on the road.

“For some reason, things just seem to work out at home,” Curran said.

If the Aztecs could get their magic act on the road, they might be able to challenge for the Empire League championship.

Esperanza is now tied for second with Los Alamitos at 4-2 in league, two games behind first-place Katella (6-0). Loara drops to 2-3 and 8-7.

It was Clester who made a diving catch to preserve Tim Hopper’s no-hitter when the Saxons defeated the Aztecs in the Loara Tournament in March. But Clester couldn’t come up with a similar feat Friday.

Patterson’s pitching performance, however, was nearly comparable to Hopper’s. The sophomore right-hander, who effectively mixed his fastball, curve and slider to keep the Aztecs off balance, threw a four-hitter and struck out four.

But this was not a good day to be pitching against Esperanza senior Dave Salcido. Salcido, a right-hander who has all of Patterson’s pitches plus an excellent changeup, outdueled the sophomore with a three-hitter and four strikeouts to improve his record to 7-1.

Loara scored its only run in the third inning without the benefit of a hit. Curtis Henson walked and Clester reached on an error, and both runners advanced on Carlos Vargas’ sacrifice bunt. Henson scored on Ray Odegard’s sacrifice fly to center field.

Esperanza answered with a run in the bottom of the third when Cohick doubled to left-center field, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an error.

With Cohick on third, Tom Redington ripped a grounder to the left of Henson, the Saxon third baseman. Henson made a nice, diving catch but got up and threw the ball well over catcher Brian Roberts’ head in an effort to catch Cohick.

In other Empire League action:

Los Alamitos 9, El Dorado 8--With two outs and no one on base, the Griffins rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat the Hawks at Los Alamitos.

Four straight singles (three of which didn’t leave the infield) by Robbie Katzaroff, J.T. Snow, Travis Tarchione and Gary Renko accounted for one run.

Hawk pitcher Jeff Rice, who relieved starter Shawn Blankenship in the third inning, then hit Ricky Nen with a pitch for the tying run and walked Brooks Peters with the bases loaded for the winning run.

Nen hit a two-run home run and had three RBIs for Los Alamitos, while Katzaroff went 3 for 5 with three RBIs. Jeff Petredes was El Dorado’s leading hitter with a single, double, home run and two RBIs.

Pacifica 3, Kennedy 2--The Mariners scored a run in the top of the sixth inning and held on to defeat the Irish at Kennedy High. Tony DeRosa led off the sixth with a walk for Pacifica and later scored on Greg Tupa’s sacrifice fly. The Irish scored in the bottom of the sixth to make it 3-2, but could not tie the game.

Tupa pitched a complete-game five-hitter with three strikeouts for Pacifica, which scored single runs in the first and third innings. Fred Aguilar tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the first and scored on a double steal in the sixth.

Katella 10, Cypress 3--The first-place Knights collected 14 hits and beat the Centurions at Katella for their 12th win in 13 games. Abe Lewis, John Paboojian, Mike Connolly and Steve Bennett led the Katella offense by getting two hits each. Chris Doll (4-0) pitched four scoreless innings to get the win.