Santa Ana Elks Baseball Tournament : Mission Viejo Defends Title by Beating Diamond Bar, 4-0

Mission Viejo High School probably would like to play in the Santa Ana Elks tournament all season.

For the third consecutive year, the Diablos won the tournament title Tuesday as junior right-hander Troy Kopp fired a four-hitter en route to a 4-0 shutout of Diamond Bar at Rancho Santiago College.

Mission Viejo, which finished fifth in the tough South Coast League last season, has a 10-2 record. Diamond Bar is 10-5.

“This is becoming a good habit,” said Mission Viejo Coach Ron Drake, who has 12 consecutive tournament victories. “This is the best Kopp has thrown against a quality team.”

Kopp (4-1) allowed two singles in the first and two in the fourth. But he was aided by his defense. Center fielder Jon Hayes made a diving catch to stop Bascom Mellon from getting a hit in the third inning. In the top of the seventh with two outs, left fielder Scott Parrott robbed Frank Delgadillo of an extra-base hit as he made a diving catch toward the outfield fence to end the game.

“There was no better fielding than you saw today,” Drake said.

The Diablos scored all four runs in the second inning off left-hander Jim Edmonds. Two errors and a misplaced fly ball led to Mission Viejo’s big inning.

“We would have still been playing if Diamond Bar hadn’t been so sloppy in that one inning,” Drake said.

Steve Guenther hit a bases-loaded double down the third base line to score Parrott and Kopp for a 2-0 lead. Shortstop Eric Ekdahl later singled home Hayes for a 3-0 lead. Guenther then scored on a comebacker to the mound by third basemen Derek Gingerich.

Irvine 16, Saddleback 7--Irvine won the third-place game at Rancho Santiago College. Irvine is 9-3, Saddleback 9-4.

Villa Park 11, Banning 6 (8 innings)--Banning pitcher Chico Limas had a no-hitter for 5 innings in the seventh-place game at Villa Park. But Villa Park tied the score in the sixth. In the eighth inning, Chris Bell doubled in his second and third RBIs for Villa Park (7-7). Kevin Ehl, pitching three innings in relief and striking out five, got the victory. Banning’s John Otte was 3 for 4 with a home run and two RBIs.

In the consolation round:

Los Alamitos 9, El Toro 7--Los Alamitos (12-2) trailed, 5-4, going into the seventh inning but scored five runs to win the consolation championship. Sal Mancuso singled with two outs to tie it, 5-5. Bob Callaway singled in two runs and Tony Muser hit a two-run home run to give Los Alamitos a 9-5 lead. El Toro (5-6) scored two runs on a single by Joe Guerra in the seventh inning, but Bob Gaskins was thrown out trying to advance to third on Guerra’s single.

Laguna Hills 18, Santa Ana Valley 2--Mike Helm, Jason Thompson and Rob Milo had three hits each for Laguna Hills (4-8), which had 16 hits. Ron Kortman pitched four innings with six strikeouts and gave up four hits for the victory.