SOUTH COAST LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : El Toro’s Ver Wayne Loses No-Hitter but Beats Irvine

After pitching near-flawless baseball for five innings, El Toro High School’s Marc Ver Wayne and Irvine’s Bobby Ray took a little bit of a beating in the sixth.

And it was Ver Wayne who survived with the fewest bruises.

Ver Wayne, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, pitched a three-hitter and the Chargers scored all their runs in the sixth inning in a 6-2 South Coast League victory at Irvine.

Ray (5-1) had cruised through the first five innings, giving up one hit, a single by Chad Hoelker in the first.

But El Toro batted around in the sixth, capitalizing on three hits, four walks and an error to build the 6-0 lead.

Kurt Matthews relieved Ray with the score 4-0 and one out. Two more runs scored when Matthews awalked Jason Bailey with the bases loaded, then threw a wild pitch.

Brian Haas and Jason Santoro each had two-run singles in the inning.

But Ray wasn’t the only pitcher who struggled in the sixth.

Ver Wayne (6-1) took a no-hitter into the bottom of the inning. But Irvine’s Mark Huffman led off with a walk and Mike Seal broke up the no-hitter with a one-out double to the gap in left-center field.

Huffman then scored on a line-drive single to right by Ryan O’Toole, and Seal scored on a base hit to left by Jason Minici.

Ver Wayne struck out three and walked five.

“He pitched from behind (in the count) to 15 guys today,” El Toro Coach Dan DeLeon said. “He put himself in a hole, but he got out. He was very smart, very crafty. He settled into a groove and pitched well.”

Was Ver Wayne upset that he lost the no-hitter?

“No way,” he said. “We got the win and that’s all we want. We just want to win the league.”

The victory kept El Toro (12-7, 6-2 in league) in first place, one game ahead of Dana Hills. Irvine dropped to 10-7-1, 3-4-1.

In other league games:

Dana Hills 5, Mission Viejo 0--Danny Anderson pitched a one-hitter and Aaron Kokx hit two home runs to lead host Dana Hills.

Anderson (5-3), who struck out nine and walked one, gave up an infield hit to Tim Cunningham to lead off the third inning.

The Diablos had three baserunners, two who reached on errors. Kokx drove in all five runs for the Dolphins (12-6, 5-3), on a three-run home run in the fourth and a two-run home run in the sixth.

San Clemente 4, Capistrano Valley 3--Ken Dolan (4-4) struck out five in four innings and Darin Albin pitched three shutout innings for his third save for host San Clemente.