CENTURY LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Santa Ana Valley Falls to a Revived Villa Park

A week away from the Century League baseball race did wonders for Villa Park High School.

The Spartans, a team slipping in the league standings, managed to latch on to a little consistency during spring break. They won three of four games in the Santa Ana Elks tournament, losing only to El Toro in the championship game.

Wednesday, Villa Park returned to league play and maintained that level of play. The Spartans, behind the pitching of Todd Blyleven, beat Santa Ana Valley, 3-0, to remain in a third-place tie with El Modena.

Both teams are 1 1/2 games behind Canyon and Foothill, who share first place.

“We needed to sustain the momentum we built during the Santa Ana tournament,” Coach Dave Ochoa said. “I thought it was important that we come back with a win in league.”

So Ocha gave the ball to Blyleven, the team’s most consistent pitcher.

Blyleven (4-2), who entered the game with an earned-run average of 0.56, allowed three hits while pitching his third shutout of the season. He struck out 11, bringing his season total to 63.

“Todd’s the one guy who’s been consistent all season,” Ochoa said. “We expect a great game from him every time he goes out there.”

Santa Ana Valley was also coming off a good showing in the Santa Ana Elks tournament. The Falcons won three of four games to win the consolation championship.

“We’ve had been hurting ourselves with mental mistakes all season,” Coach Herschel Musick said. “But last week we seemed to pull things together.”

They came apart again Wednesday.

The Falcons made three costly mistakes that led to three runs.

In the third, the Spartans’ Alex Vicario led off with a single to right field. However, Armando Cueva let the ball get past him in right, which allowed Vicario to reach third base.

Aaron Boone followed with a sacrifice fly to score Vicario.

With two outs in the inning, James Hong walked and went to second on an error. He scored on a single by Jason Martian.

The Spartans (11-6-1 and 4-4 in league play) added another run in the fifth when Boone scored on a wild pitch.

“We were very opportunistic today,” Ochoa said. “We got a couple breaks and made the most of them. It was enough.”

Especially with Blyleven on the mound.

The Falcons (8-10, 2-6) had only one runner get as far as third base through six innings.

In other league games:

El Modena 5, Canyon 4 (10 innings)--Gavin Brown doubled in the top of the 10th and scored on an error on Bill Fischer’s ground ball. Canyon (7-10-1, 5-2-1) led, 4-0, before El Modena (9-7, 5-2) tied the score with a run in the sixth and three in the seventh.

Santa Ana 6, Foothill 2--Jesse Rosas, who struck out five in four innings, and John Morales held Foothill to five hits and Dan Alvarez had two RBIs during a five-run third inning for host Santa Ana (7-11, 3-5). Santa Ana is the only Century League team that has beaten Foothill (8-9-1, 5-2-1) this season.