ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASEBALL : Empire League : Brown, Defense Ground Los Alamitos

Mark Brown has thrown well this season, but a lack of defensive support has kept the Cypress High School pitcher from an impressive record.

Because Brown (4-4) relies on ground outs rather than strikeouts, defense is even more important.

But Wednesday, Brown got all the support he needed in a two-hit 5-1 victory over Los Alamitos. The Centurions handled 15 ground outs without an error.

Brown had a perfect game into the fifth inning before Greg Pirkl bounced a single of the glove of second baseman David Lopez.

“We’ve had some good pitching performances, but what we got today to make it noticeably good was that we played great defense,” Cypress Coach Don Rayl said. “The problem in other games was that we’d boot three of those ground balls, and all of a sudden they would have a big inning.”

The victory keeps the Centurions (4-6-1, 11-12-1) in contention for the final playoff spot in the Empire League.

Cypress is tied with Los Alamitos (4-6-1, 8-12-1) for fourth place with three league games remaining, a half game behind third-place Katella (5-5).

Should Cypress tie Los Alamitos for third, Cypress would earn the Southern Section playoff berth because it holds a 1-0-1 record against Los Alamitos this season.

Still, Rayl said the Centurions will probably need to win their final three games--and hope Katella loses once--to finish third.

Cypress scored twice in the first inning on RBI singles by Brown and Steve Winterburn, who was 2 for 4 with a run and stolen base.

In the third inning Cypress added two runs on infield singles by Winterburn and Friedman and a two-run bloop single by Jason Friedman.

Troy O’Leary drove in the final run in the fifth inning with a single to left to score Friedman, who had doubled.

Los Alamitos turned to the bench to produce its only run. With two out in the sixth inning, Bobby Sylvia drove in the run with a doubled to left.

Esperanza 18, Pacifica 0--Jason Moler (5-1) allowed one hit through five innings and was 2 for 3 with three RBIs and a home run to lead the Aztecs at Esperanza. Tom Redington was 2 for 3 with a home run, a double and three RBIs, and Kevin Webb was 3 for 3 with two home runs and five RBIs to help Esperanza (11-0, 19-1). Pacifica is 4-7, 9-10.

El Dorado 6, Loara 4--Bret Boone hit a grand slam in the fifth and Rene Alala added a solo home run in the seventh for the Golden Hawks (9-2, 17-3) at Loara.

Losing pitcher Jeff Patterson hit a grand slam in the fifth for the Saxons (3-8, 13-9). Ken Schula picked up the victory for El Dorado, which is two games behind first-place Esperanza.

Katella 5, Kennedy 4--Kevin Shaw doubled with one out and scored on a single by Mark Gerdes in the seventh for the Knights (5-6, 11-13) at Boysen Park. Shaw (8-5) pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts to up his county leading total to 108 for Katella. Kennedy is 3-8, 8-15.