ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASEBALL : Garden Grove League : Garden Grove Survives Shaky Spots to Win, 5-4

It was too weird. It went on too long. It should have deep fried Mark Lung’s confidence for good.

Lung, who says his season has been a psychological roller coaster, remained in control to lead Garden Grove High School over Santiago, 5-4, in nine queasy innings Wednesday at Garden Grove.

He did this in spite of a bizarre fourth inning in which he walked three straight batters and gave up four runs.

“When you have confidence you can throw strikes all day,” said Lung (9-13), who finished with eight strikeouts. “When you don’t it’s a pain just trying to find the strike zone.”

Lung must have been hurting in the fourth. After the three walks, he struck out the next two batters. But Carlos Leon singled in two runs to cut the lead to 3-2. The other runs scored on a passed ball and an error, giving Santiago a 4-3 lead.

Santiago’s rally came on the heels of a similar error-plagued one just one-half inning earlier as Garden Grove scored three runs on a mishmash of failed fielding and wild throws in the third.

With one out, Garden Grove had runners on first and second thanks to errors by first baseman Willy Hernandez and third baseman Paul Crippen. Isidro Maldonado then doubled to score Greg Lorenzo and Tim Terco. Maldonado, who went to third on a single by John Webber, then scored on a passed ball.

After the fourth, though, Lung said he regained his confidence.

In the seventh, Turco singled in Wade Elliot to tie the score, 4-4. Two extra innings later with the bases loaded, Jim Rawls signed to drive in Maldonado, who walked. Johnny Cisneros, who relieved Sean McCorry after eight, was the losing pitcher.

The victory gave Garden Grove (7-7, 13-12) a one-game lead over Santiago (6-8, 9-13).

Rancho Alamitos 4, La Quinta 2--The Vaqueros (6-7-1, 9-13-1) broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning with a run on a fielder’s choice to upset the first-place Aztecs (13-1, 21-3) at La Quinta. Steve Jenkins entered the game in the fourth inning and didn’t give up a hit and struck out three for the victory.

Bolsa Grande 10, Los Amigos 2--The Matadors (8-6, 13-9) scored five runs on four hits in the first inning at Los Amigos (1-12-1, 2-20-1). Rick Hollis had two triples and drove in three runs and Tony Beal (7-4) struck out seven.