Prep Baseball : Empire League : El Dorado’s Wait Comes to an End With 11-9 Win Over Los Alamitos

For two days, the baseball game between the top two teams in Orange County was postponed because of rain.

And for six innings on Friday, top-ranked El Dorado High School’s reaction to No. 2-ranked Los Alamitos also was delayed.

But in the seventh inning, El Dorado, which had trailed, 8-2, at one point, snapped into gear. The Golden Hawks scored five runs and won the Empire League game, 11-9, on a wind-whipped Los Alamitos field.

The win evens this season’s series between the schools at one game each. The final regular-season matchup will be played today at El Dorado at 1 p.m.

“This was a big win for us,” said El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti, whose team--voted No. 1 this week by the Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn.--improved to 16-2 overall, 7-1 in league play. “We just didn’t make the plays early in the game.”

El Dorado jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Los Alamitos came right back to score one run in the bottom of the inning and five runs in the second.

The second-inning scoring was capped by a two-run single by Los Alamitos catcher Greg Pirkl, who was 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs. The Griffins scored two more runs in the fourth, giving them a six-run lead behind Bob Calloway’s pitching.

But Calloway started to struggle, giving up two runs on three hits in the fifth inning, including a solo home run to El Dorado’s Chris Olsen, who was 4 for 5 with 2 singles, a double, a home run and 2 RBIs.

Calloway then walked Scott Tonko and gave up a double to Travis Dondell to start the seventh inning and was replaced by second baseman Tony Muser.

Both Tonko and Dondell scored before Muser got out of the sixth inning, Tonko crossing the plate on a balk.

Then, in the seventh inning, El Dorado not only tied the score but took what proved to be an insurmountable lead. It scored five runs on four hits and was helped by sloppy fielding by the Griffins, who were charged with two errors in the inning, and another balk call on Muser.

Reliever Robert Coons got his first win of the season for El Dorado.

Los Alamitos is 15-4, 6-2.

Esperanza 7, Loara 3--Jim Short had 2 hits and 3 RBIs and Roger Weems pitched a complete game for visiting Esperanza (12-5, 6-2). Craig Clayton and Joe Pactwa hit home runs for Loara (7-9, 2-6).

Cypress 2, Katella 0--John Trejo (3-6) threw a three-hitter, striking out seven, for host Cypress (5-13, 1-7). Kevin Smith had 2 hits and 2 RBIs for Cypress. Katella is 8-10, 2-6.