Garden Grove League : It’s Payback Time as Santiago Beats Garden Grove, 13-5

It was two days after the fact, but Santiago High School baseball Coach Brian Kerwin was having trouble ridding himself of the memory of Wednesday’s 13-6 loss to Garden Grove. The Argonauts scored 11 runs in the fifth inning for a 13-6, come-from-behind win.

“We were ahead by five runs with eight outs to go,” Kerwin said. “The sky opened up, and we just got rained on. It was a game we just should not have lost.”

The teams met again Friday at Santiago, and the results were enough to make Kerwin forget all about Wednesday’s disaster. This time, it was Garden Grove Coach Jim Rawls who must have felt as if the sky was falling.

Santiago scored five runs in the second inning--all with two outs--and rallied for six more in the sixth en route to a 13-5 win over its most disliked Garden Grove League rival. The win moves Santiago (5-4, 8-8) into a tie with Bolsa Grande for third place in the league standings. For Kerwin, the freshman coach at Santiago last year, it was sweet vindication.

“Victories like this mean that much more,” he said.

Said Santiago right fielder Harvey Cotton, on the rivalry that exists between these schools: “They’re about a mile away from us. We brawled with them in football and everything.”

Garden Grove pitcher Jeff Kanegae was having such a peaceful second inning. He struck out leadoff hitter Anthony Candelas, then got Edmond Perez to ground out to first base. But it didn’t take long for things to get noisy.

Joe Marquez singled to center, Harvey Cervantes doubled down the right-field line, and David Petrutis walked to load the bases. Kanegae then walked Ben Tananuu to force in the game’s first run.

That brought up Eddie Correa, who drove a Kanegae pitch deep to the gap in right-center. There is no outfield fence at Santiago, and that meant a long chase for Garden Grove right fielder Mark Kiefer. Correa didn’t stop running until he had a grand slam that gave Santiago a 5-0 lead.

“I knew I hit it pretty well in the gap,” Correa said. “I just heard the coaches yelling ‘Go,’ so I kept running.

“The past three games, I’ve been in a slump. I’ve been hitting the ball hard, but right at people. It felt good to finally see one go where there was no one to catch it.”

Santiago added two runs in the third, with the help of a pair of two-base errors committed by Garden Grove. A single by Rick Burns became the equivalent of a triple when Kiefer let the ball get past him in right. Candelas then singled to score Burns, and scored when catcher Jerry Canada’s pickoff attempt was high and went off the glove of first baseman John Weber and into right field.

Garden Grove ace Keith Mowdy had to get Kanegae out of more trouble in the fifth. Mowdy was moved from shortstop to pitcher with no outs and runners on first and second, and got out of it unscathed, thanks to a fine defensive play by second baseman Donnie Lockman. Lockman dove to his left to grab a line drive hit by Cervantes, then threw to second to complete an inning-ending double play.

But trouble seemed to follow Mowdy and Garden Grove in the sixth. Santiago used four hits, three walks and two Garden Grove errors to score six runs. Candelas, who was 3 for 4, and Perez had back-to-back, two-run singles to spark the rally.

The lone bright spot for Garden Grove was the production from the top third of its lineup. Kanegae, Lockman and Kiefer combined to go 7 for 12. Kiefer had the most success, going 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs.

Sophomore right-hander Trinidad Cisneros got the complete-game win, holding off fatigue in the late innings. Cisneros gave up eight hits, struck out four and walked four.

“He started getting tired,” Kerwin said. “But for a sophomore, he’s already given us more than I ever expected this year.”

In other Garden Grove League action:

Los Amigos 5, Bolsa Grande 3--Sophomore right-hander Kenny Luckham pitched four innings of hitless relief to lead the Lobos past the Matadors at Bolsa Grande. Luckham struck out two to improving his record to 2-4. Wes Lang led the Los Amigos offense by going 2 for 4 with two doubles and two RBIs and Jeff Houck added two hits.

La Quinta 9, Rancho Alamitos 5--Trailing, 2-1, going into the fifth inning, the Aztecs scored three runs in the fifth and added five in the seventh to pull away at Rancho Alamitos.

Troy Paulsen went 2 for 5 with two runs and two RBIs and Steve Hunt added three hits and two RBIs for La Quinta. Both, had RBIs in the five-run seventh. The Aztecs needed the large cushion because Rancho Alamitos’ Tom Tryon hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh.