Prep Baseball : Empire League Roundup : Los Alamitos’ Wosikowski Finds His Swing Just in Time

Friday was not shaping up as one of Mark Wosikowski’s best days. The Los Alamitos shortstop was struggling, to be sure.

He had gone hitless in four trips to the plate, getting hit by a pitch his first time up, walking once and grounding out twice. And he hadn’t fared much better in the field, committing a throwing error.

But Wosikowski hit a game-winning home run in the top of the 10th inning to give the Griffins a 3-2 lead over El Dorado, and the Griffins scored two more runs in the inning for a 5-3 victory.

Los Alamitos (12-8 overall, 7-2 in league play) remains in first place in the Empire League. El Dorado is 12-8, 4-5.

“It was a little rough,” Wosikowski said. “I’ve really been struggling all year. I’m trying to pull everything . . . trying to hit everything out in center or left.”

He was the leadoff batter in the 10th and hit his third homer of the year over the fence in left-center off reliever Shane Borowski.

“He’s struggling because he is trying to do a lot personally,” Los Alamitos Coach Mike Gibson said.

“He’s hitting .323, and for him it is a slump. Most guys would be happy hitting that. It’s just a matter of time before he breaks out of it.”

The Golden Hawks took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on three singles and two Los Alamitos errors. Leadoff batter Dave Moore singled, stole second and took third when catcher Scott Reid’s throw sailed into center field.

Crosby Spencer’s single scored Moore, and Matt Luke’s single scored Spencer three batters later.

The Griffins got the runs back in the fourth inning. They combined two hits with a walk and an error to tie the score at 2-2. Sal Mancuso’s single scored Wosikowski and Anthony Napolitano.

And with the score tied, the pitchers--Los Alamitos’ Ken Gajewski and El Dorado’s Pete Janicki--locked up in a pitchers’ duel. Janicki threw nine innings and scattered six hits while striking out 11. Gajewski got the win to improve his record to 5-2, went 10 innings for the first time, gave up five hits, struck out six and walked four.

“I don’t know how I did that (threw 10 innings),” Gajewski said. “I’ve never gone over eight before.”

He might not have gotten the chance had the Golden Hawks not muffed a scoring opportunity in the fifth inning when they tried a squeeze play that backfired into a double play to end the inning.

Spencer failed to get his bat on the ball on the squeeze play, and runners at third and second were both caught off base and tagged out.

“I’d like to have the bunt down,” El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said. “If we get it on the ground, the run scores and that’s the game.

“But that’s been the story of our season. We’re just an average team fighting for a playoff spot,” he said.

Katella 7, Cypress 3--Katella scored three runs in the sixth inning to break open a close game. Jamie Vitzelio and Jeremy Sherman each had three hits to lead host Katella (12-7, 6-3).

Loara 10, Esperanza 4--Joey Gaudio and Matt Drager each went three for four, and Kenny Williams hit a home run to lead visiting Loara (9-10, 6-3). Esperanza is 1-7-1 in league play.