Baseball : Maund’s Grand Slam Highlights Orange’s 10-3 Win

Orange High School scored eight runs in the third inning, highlighted by Paul Maund’s grand slam, to defeat visiting Trabuco Hills, 10-3, in a Pacific Coast League baseball game Tuesday.

Orange needed the big inning to offset a slow start. Jim Skidmore’s leadoff home run gave Trabuco Hills (8-7 overall, 4-4 in league play) a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Trabuco Hills scored another run when Dave Lowery lined a single off Aaron Van Der Aa’s glove to score John Shetland from third.

But Orange struck back in the third.

With one out, Trabuco Hills starter Ryan Meredith walked Rich Prater and Scott McMahon. Skip Tanner hit a grounder to short, and Shetland threw to second, where Skidmore failed to catch the ball. Prater scored from second on the error.

Tanner, who was 3 for 4, took second on the throw home, and McMahon advanced to third.

Orange tied the score when John Rodriguez grounded out to short, and then got an RBI single, a walk, another RBI single, and another walk to load the bases for Maund, whose towering home run made it 8-2.

“I was just looking to put the bat on the ball,” said Maund, who was 2 for 3.

Orange scored two more in the fifth off Shetland, who came in to relieve Meredith after the third inning.

Van Der Aa (4-1) struggled in each of the first three innings despite striking out six batters. But after taking an 8-2 lead, he settled down. Van Der Aa struck out 12, walked 3 and allowed 5 hits.

“I’ve been a slow starter,” Van Der Aa said. “I don’t know why.”

It was the third consecutive game that Van Der Aa struck out 10 or more batters. He struck out 13 and 12 against Laguna Beach and Costa Mesa in his last two outings.

Orange’s Emilio Avila had two hits as did Trabuco Hills’ Skidmore and Lowery.

In other Pacific Coast League action:

Laguna Hills 17, Woodbridge 7--Visiting Laguna Hills (9-8, 6-2) had 16 hits, led by Mike Helm, who was 4 for 4 and Jun Honda, who went 3 for 5. Eric Brougher was 3 for 4 for Woodbridge (3-5 in league play) had 12 hits.

In the Collegiate League:

St. Margaret’s 9, West Shores 3--Left fielder Kevin Smith singled in two runs to lead a nine-hit attack for St. Margaret’s at Cook Park in San Juan Capistrano. St. Margaret’s (5-7, 1-0) had six extra-base hits and reached base safely on five West Shores’ errors. Winning pitcher Damion Jones (3-2) struck out 10 and allowed only 3 hits.

In the Olympic League:

Capistrano Valley Christian 18, Southern California Christian 6--Kit Bennitt (1-0) struck out eight in five innings and Kevin Kepner went 3 for 4 with four RBIs to lead visiting Capistrano Valley Christian (6-8, 1-4).

In nonleague action:

Claremont 15, Pacific Shores 1--Derek Evans (3-1) gave up only 2 hits and had 11 strikeouts in 5 innings for host Claremont (5-3). Tom Patraw kept Pacific Shores (2-4) scoreless in the final two innings. Mark Sanger went 2 for 2 and Brian Wetsch was 2 for 3 with three RBIs for Claremont.