Century League Baseball : Santa Ana Moves Into First-Place Tie With Foothill by Beating Knights

Santa Ana High School moved into a first-place tie with Foothill in the Century League after beating the Knights, 7-3, in a baseball game Tuesday at Santa Ana.

“We feel pretty good now,” Santa Ana Coach Bill Ross said. “We control our own destiny. Friday is the key game.”

Santa Ana and Foothill will play Friday at Foothill.

Santa Ana is 2-1 against Canyon and 1-1 against Foothill, so a victory Friday would give the Saints the advantage if the race ends in a tie.

Santa Ana (13-9, 8-4 in league play) started quickly against Foothill starter Kent Donnelly (3-3), scoring five runs on five hits in the first inning.

Octavio Medina hit the game’s second pitch up the middle for a leadoff single, went to second on a wild pitch and stole third while Donnelly was pitching to the Saint second batter, Phillip Flores.

Flores walked and Julio Vargas lined a single down the third-base line to score Medina and put runners on first and third.

Donnelly couldn’t handle Oscar Luna’s high chopper back to the mound to load the bases with none out.

Bobby Reimers hit a two-run single to right field and later scored with Luna on Jason Harned’s single down the third-base line. Foothill (13-9, 8-4) could never recover.

“They hit the ball and we didn’t,” Foothill Coach Jerry Sedoo said. “We were playing catch-up all day.”

But they continued to fall back as Donnelly surrendered another run the second inning and had to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam to end the inning. Santa Ana added a run in the sixth when Vargas doubled home Medina.

George Carachure (4-1) went the distance for Santa Ana. He struck out five, walked one and allowed six hits.

Foothill, which stranded eight runners, scored two of its runs after runners reached base on errors.

The closest Foothill could get was four runs as it scored once in the fourth and twice in the seventh.

For Santa Ana, Vargas went 3 for 3 with an RBI, Medina went 2 for 3 with two runs scored and Reimers went 3 for 4 with a run scored and two RBIs.

Paul Thornton went 2 for 3 with an RBI for Foothill.

El Modena 4, Canyon 1--Marcus Esposito threw a six-hitter, striking out six, to lead El Modena at Canyon. Matt Neubrand broke a 1-1 tie in the third with a solo home run. Dave Johnson had two hits and two RBIs for El Modena (7-12, 5-7). Joe Furukawa had a solo home run for Canyon (14-8, 7-5).

Villa Park 10, Santa Ana Valley 0--Chris Johnson threw a two-hitter, striking out 11, to lead Villa Park (12-11, 6-6) at Santa Ana Valley. Johnson also had two hits and two RBIs. Danny Alleman, Tom Ross and John Watrous all had two hits for Villa Park. Santa Ana Valley is 3-17 and 2-10.