Empire League Baseball : Turnabout Is Fair Play as El Dorado Hitters Sack Los Alamitos’ Hopes, 15-5

The El Dorado High School baseball team felt a degree of vindication Friday in beating Los Alamitos, 15-5, and helping snuff the Griffins’ last chance of advancing to the Southern Section playoffs next week.

The Golden Hawk attitude was: What goes around, comes around--even if it takes six months.

A debt originally measured in yards, first downs and touchdowns was repaid with interest Friday in extra-base hits, RBIs and runs.

A little background: In the last minute of the last regular season football game last fall, Empire League co-champion Los Alamitos unveiled a dazzling trick pass play to beat the Hawks, 24-21, and rob them of their coveted playoff berth.

Eleven veterans of that memorable game met on the baseball field at Los Alamitos Friday, including the main engineers of the heist, Griffin quarterback/first baseman J.T. Snow and receiver/center fielder Robbie Katzaroff.

Facing them were five Golden Hawks who hadn’t forgotten a detail of the disappointment of Nov. 15. “They’re famous for upsetting us,” said Doug Sipple, the Hawks’ fullback/catcher.

But the cleat was on the other foot Friday.

The Golden Hawk baseball team (11-3, 19-6), which finished the season in second place, had a playoff berth clinched, while the Griffins (7-7, 17-10) were the guys hoping to slip into the last available spot.

“It was the same situation (in reverse),” said Sipple, who doubled, singled and scored three runs. “They beat us and so we couldn’t get to CIF, and we kind of returned the favor.”

The Golden Hawks were armed with their weapon of choice--baseball bats--and contemplating an outfield fence 325 to 375 feet away. Only a power-hitting lineup like El Dorado’s would consider that sight provocative. These are not the conditions under which any team relishes facing the Hawks, who have homered 24 times this season.

With the image of football season engraved in their minds, El Dorado clobbered three Griffin pitchers for 19 hits, including three homers and seven doubles.

“That was our main motivation,” said lineman/outfielder Jeff Petredes, who delivered his share of the revenge by going 2 for 2 with a homer and a double.

“I’ll never forget that football game. It was the worst loss I’ve ever had,” said Rob Sporrer, a receiver/first baseman. He unburdened some pent-up frustration by going 2 for 3 with a single, a double and an RBI.

Griffin starter Brooks Peters retired the side on strikeouts in the top of the first inning, but only after everybody he didn’t fan--Shawn Blankenship, Petredes and linebacker/third baseman Doug Yates--got a hit.

Petredes’ two-run homer to left field, his fifth of the season, was the initial hint of things to come.

“Petredes just murders us,” said Griffin Coach Mike Gibson. “He homered off us a couple times last year. We felt if we could score four or five runs against them today, we might be in the ballgame, since it was 2-1 (El Dorado) last time.

“But that homer seemed to take a lot of the wind out of our sails.”

The avalanche came in the second when the Hawks batted around on the way to an 8-0 lead. Steve Gill, Blankenship and Yates each drove in a run, and pitcher Scott Holcomb’s double to left scored three more.

Gill, batting ninth, went 3 for 3 with a homer, double, single, four RBIs and two runs scored.

“They’re the better team,” Gibson said, graciously. “We hoped to win today, but I have a feeling the three best teams (Esperanza, El Dorado and Loara) are going to the playoffs to represent the Empire League.

“Holcomb’s one of the best pitchers around, and then they can throw Petredes in relief--last year’s league MVP.”

Entering the bottom of the sixth with a 14-1 lead, Holcomb (10-0) had allowed four hits and struck out six to raise his season total to 95.

But his earned-run average, 1.48 before the game, took a slight surge after Katzaroff got an infield single, Rick Paul walked and Mark Wolfe singled to load the bases with one out.

Kevin Jeanotte, another football veteran, then hit a grand slam to retain some measure of respectability for the Griffins, whose scorekeeper had long since given up posting runs on the scoreboard. Mark Wolfe reached base three times and scored twice for Los Alamitos, which finished in fourth place, 1 1/2 games behind Loara.

In other Empire League action:

Loara 7, Esperanza 4--The Saxons (8-5-1, 17-9-1) upset the league champions and the county’s No. 2 team to earn the league’s third playoff spot. For Loara, Sal Capraro was 2 for 3 with a home run, single and four RBIs, and Wade Clester went 2 for 3 with a homer. Saxon Jeff Patterson (4-4) picked up the win. Steve Halweg (11-2) took the loss, the first at home for the Aztecs (12-2, 20-3-1) since 1984, breaking a string of 27 straight victories. Aztec Larry Nix hit a three-run homer, and Bart Goldman was 2 for 4.

Cypress 9, Katella 4--Kevin Bumgarner pitched a three-hitter for the Centurions (3-11, 12-14) at Boysen Park, striking out six. Jason Friedman, who is hitting .588, had two hits and drove in three runs, and John Gerringer went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. For the Knights (5-9, 13-13), Jeff Repoz hit a two-run double.

Kennedy 6, Pacifica 5 (8)--The Fighting Irish came back from a 5-2 sixth-inning deficit to win in the bottom of the eighth on John Christensen’s RBI-double. Christensen, who went 3 for 4, also scored on a Mariner error in the seventh to force the game into extra innings. Kennedy (6-8, 9-14-2) won more games in 1986 than in the past three seasons combined. David Christensen contributed two RBIs, and Glenn Mares hit his fourth homer of the season for two RBIs. The Mariners, who finished 3-10-1, were led by Toby Christopher, who went 2 for 3 with a homer.