Century League Baseball : Kent Donnelly Picks Up Win and Game-Winning RBI for Foothill, 4-3

Pitcher Kent Donnelly hit a two-out two-run home run in the fifth inning to lead Foothill High School to a 4-3 victory over Santa Ana Tuesday in a Century League baseball game at Foothill.

Donnelly, a sophomore who had missed 2 1/2 weeks this season with an ankle injury, made his second start and scattered six hits to improve his record to 1-1 with 2 saves. Donnelly’s home run gave Foothill (8-6 overall, 3-1 in the Century League) a 4-1 lead.

“(Donnelly’s) home run was probably about 338 feet,” Foothill Coach Gerry Sedoo said. “It’s 320 down the line, so you know he hit it pretty far.”

Santa Ana (7-7, 2-2) took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Octavio Medina singled in Ruben Gomez.

But Foothill came right back in the bottom of the inning. Ashby Jones tripled to the right-center alley to score Adam Chambers with one out. Jones then scored on Paul Thornton’s sacrifice fly to right field.

The next inning, Donnelly’s homer drives in Mike MacKannon.

“We’ve been struggling at the plate,” Sedoo said, “but we swung the bat well today.”

Both teams had six hits and Santa Ana looked as if it might come back to tie the score on two occasions.

With one out in the fourth inning, pinch-runner Randy Ozuna reached first when Thornton, the Foothill third baseman, committed a throwing error. Ozuna took second on a passed ball and moved to third on Medina’s single.

Mark De La Riva then hit a line drive down the left-field line. Foothill left fielder Cory Parker dove for the ball but missed, allowing the ball to roll to the fence. Both runners scored to make it 4-3, and De La Riva ended up with a triple.

But De La Riva was stranded. Santa Ana also stranded a runner on third in the sixth inning and a runner on second in the seventh.

Foothill could not build on its lead as George Carachure shut the Knights down after he entered the game in the fifth inning.

“I thought their pitching was good,” Sedoo said.

Villa Park 4, Santa Ana Valley 2--John Watrous (2-3) struck out eight, walked one and gave up only four hits in his complete-game victory for the Spartans (8-7, 2-2). Watrous also had two hits. Villa Park’s John Genova hit a 2-run home run in the first inning and went 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs.

El Modena 6, Canyon 5--Marcus Esposito (4-1) gave up seven hits, struck out six and hit a home run in the fourth inning to lead the Vanguards (4-6, 3-1) at home. Mike Vermillion had a double and drove in two runs for Canyon. John Cummings gave up six hits in the loss and hit a home run for Canyon.