Century League Baseball : Everyone Contributes to Foothill Victory

Few of its players are among Orange County’s top batters, but Foothill High School’s starting lineup ranks among the best hitting teams in the area with 10 players batting .300 or better.

Foothill displayed all of its offensive prowess on Friday with every player in the lineup getting at least one hit in a 10-2 victory over host Santa Ana in a Century League game.

Foothill (14-7 overall, 8-3 in league play) had 17 hits and had at least one hit in every inning. Catcher Scott Barton, pitcher Kent Donnelly and left fielder Tom Hawkins had three hits each.

Donnelly (6-3) pitched a four-hitter and struck out seven. Santiago Lopez scored the only earned run off Donnelly with a home run in the fourth inning.

Otherwise, Donnelly quieted a good hitting team, retiring the last 10 batters as Foothill rebounded from a 3-2 loss to Santa Ana on Tuesday.

“We had nine hits against them on Tuesday. The only problem was that we didn’t get the hits when we needed them,” said Jerry Sedoo, Foothill coach. “We don’t hit for power, but we are capable of hitting.”

The Knights have had at least 10 hits in seven games this season and came within one hit of their season-high of 18 against Santa Ana Valley on April 18. Donnelly, a junior, hit two doubles and a single and drove in three runs to lead the attack Friday.

“He’ll be a dominating player next year,” said Bill Ross, Santa Ana coach. “This was a game they had to win. The game that was critical to us was on Tuesday.”

Santa Ana (13-8, 8-3) has struggled this season without its top pitcher, Bob Reimers, who has experienced arm trouble. Reimers threw for the first time in the late innings against Foothill, but he hardly looked like the pitcher who won nine games last year.

“I wonder where we could be if Reimers was healthy,” Ross said. “After you get past Jesse Rosas, we don’t have much pitching. I’m not taking anything away from Foothill, but we didn’t have much going for us on the mound today.”

Starter Victor Rios (4-3) was chased in the fourth inning when Foothill scored four runs to take a 6-1 lead. Santa Ana committed two errors in the inning as Foothill sent nine batters to the plate.

Foothill added three hits in the fifth and sixth innings, then four more in the seventh.

Canyon 5, El Modena 4--El Modena pitcher Marcus Esposito hit a two-run homer to tie it, 4-4 in the seventh inning, but threw a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning, allowing Marty Little to score from third with the winning run for Canyon (8-13, 3-8).