HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Hadden Gets a Grip for RBV

George Hadden has been nearly perfect for the past two weeks. As a pitcher, he has won two of Rancho Buena Vista’s past three games. As a batter, he has hit .833 (10 for 12).

If there’s a player to rub for good luck these days, it’s Hadden.

So when he finally got in trouble in the bottom of the seventh Wednesday at Orange Glen--the bases were loaded with one out--Coach Steve Hargrave thought about bringing in reliever Stan McCarver to protect the 4-2 lead.

Then he thought better of it.

Hadden gave his coach a long look before facing Brian Kooiman, who had driven in Orange Glen’s first run with a line-drive sacrifice fly to left field in the fourth.

“I was seeing if (Hargrave) was going to take me out,” Hadden said, “but he knew I could bulldog it.”

Kooiman hit a line drive headed for center field, but Hadden speared it, then doubled up the runner off first to give RBV a 4-2 victory.

“If we hit it anywhere but waist-high on his glove side, we score,” Orange Glen Coach Ken Walker said. “That ball was scalded.”

RBV (13-10-1, 8-3) remained tied with Poway for second in the Palomar League, two games behind Mt. Carmel with three to play. The Longhorns still play both teams.

Orange Glen dropped to 15-10 and 6-5.

“We haven’t had a lot of close games, so this was good for us,” Hargrave said. “I think we really needed this game to get ready for the playoffs. It was good for George to pitch in a game like this.”

Hadden is 6-3 with a 2.41 earned-run average. He struck out seven Wednesday and walked none.

The Longhorns helped Hadden by scoring in each of the first three innings. They took a 2-0 lead with two unearned runs in the first inning after two outs.

RBV executed the fundamentals in the second to make it 3-0. Hank Perry’s walked, Scott Lyons bunted and Jason Schmeiser hit an RBI single.

In the third, the Longhorns stole a run. James Gore singled. After one out, Gore stole second and third, then scored on Kevin Lippert’s fly to left.

Orange Glen scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings.