South Coast League Baseball : Irvine Uses Its Power to Beat Dana Hills, 10-8

Irvine High School defeated Orange County’s top home-run hitting team--Dana Hills--at its own game Thursday when catcher Scott Vollmer hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally the Vaqueros to a 10-8 victory in a South Coast League baseball game Thursday at Irvine.

Dana Hills, which has a county-leading 19 home runs, including two Thursday, was unable to overcome Irvine (7-2 overall, 3-0 in league play). Relief pitcher Jim Huntsberger (2-0) held down Dana Hills (7-3, 2-1) to gain the victory.

“Dana Hills is the best hitting team we’ve faced,” Irvine Coach Bob Flint said. “Other than one bad pitch (a home run in the sixth), Huntsberger threw well today.”

Irvine scored three runs in the third inning, but Dana Hills third baseman Chris Delfs hit his fifth home run of the season, a three-run blast in the fifth off Irvine starter John Bretza, to tie the score, 4-4.

Irvine then added four in the fifth to take an 8-4 lead. But catcher Lance Marks got his sixth home run of the season, a three-run homer off Huntsberger in the sixth, to tie the score, 8-8.

But Vollmer’s home run to left off Jeff Mote in the sixth gave the Vaqueros a 9-8 lead, and Irvine added an insurance run in the inning when Rudy Martin singled home Terry Rahmatulla from third.

Dana Hills had 13 hits, Irvine 9. Craig Lombardi added three hits for the Dolphins and Vollmer and Rahmatulla had two each for Irvine.

Mission Viejo 9, San Clemente 0--Troy Kopp (3-1) threw a four-hit shutout and had three RBIs to lead Mission Viejo (6-2, 1-2) over host San Clemente. Matt Balsz went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and Jeff Hawkins went 2 for 5 with three RBIs for Mission Viejo.

Capistrano Valley 15, El Toro 3--Winning pitcher Jim Kemper (2-3) gave up 3 runs and struck out 2 in 5 innings at Capistrano Valley. Bill Bardens was 2 for 4 with 5 RBIs, a double and a three-run home run for Capistrano Valley (3-6,1-2). Teammate Brian Walker was 2 for 5 with a two-run homer and Matt Spence was 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs and 2 doubles.