PREP ROUNDUP : Fullerton Slips by Troy, 5-4, on Suicide Squeeze in Eighth

Jim Peterson’s suicide squeeze bunt scored teammate D.C. Olsen with the winning run in the top of the eighth inning as Fullerton High School edged Troy, 5-4, Saturday in the semifinals of the Anaheim Lions Club baseball tournament at Glover Stadium.

Fullerton will play Kennedy in the championship game of the rain-delayed tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday at Glover Stadium. Peterson surprised Troy by bunting with two strikes and the bases loaded with the teams tied, 4-4. Olsen broke from third base as Peterson squared to bunt and scored easily as losing pitcher Brent Lacher’s only play was to get Peterson out at first.

“It was a gamble, but the kid (Lacher) hadn’t thrown a breaking ball to the previous batter, so I thought we had a good chance of making the play work,” said Fullerton Coach Dolf Hess.

Troy (9-3) scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the score, 4-4, but stranded the winning run on second.

Fullerton (7-6) scored two runs in the first inning and added two more in the third. Left fielder Keith Ginter had a run-scoring double in the first and then doubled and scored in the third for Fullerton.

Olsen, mired in a slump most of the season, had one hit but scored three runs as he walked and was hit by a pitch.

Catcher Steve Friedrich continued his hot hitting. He singled sharply to left for his second hit of the game in the seventh to rally Troy. Friedrich is batting .500 with eight homers and 23 RBIs.

First baseman Guy Pinelli drove in three of Troy’s four runs, slugging a two-run homer in the first and lining a run-scoring single to right in the seventh.

“We had one-run leads and wound up losing games on Tuesday and Wednesday, so maybe this is a sign that we’re coming around as a team,” Hess said. “It was nice to win a close game for a change.”

In the other semifinal:

Kennedy 3, Sunny Hills 2--Rod Rosales’ base hit scored Matt Widzer from second base with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning for Kennedy (8-6).