GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Hitters Pitch In, Help La Quinta Pound Garden Grove

The La Quinta High School baseball team, which has been surviving on good pitching and good fortune, shook itself out of the doldrums Friday.

The Aztecs wiped the cobwebs from their bats, pounding out 10 hits in a 6-0 victory over Garden Grove at La Quinta. It was their best offensive output in nearly three weeks and allowed La Quinta (17-3, 7-1 in league) to remain tied for first with Santiago in the Garden Grove League.

More importantly, it gave Coach Dave Demarest his first stress-free day in six games.

“We’ve been getting by on pitching and other teams’ mistakes,” Demarest said. “We won four of five games and no one was hitting the ball. We weren’t even making contact. That doesn’t make the coach feel too comfortable.”

The slump was most evident in Donald Hopkins, a senior right fielder and the team’s No. 2 hitter. Before Friday, he had only one hit in 16 at-bats and that was a bloop single.

But it was Hopkins who set the tone against Garden Grove. He went three for three with three runs scored and two runs batted in.

“Boy that felt good,” Hopkins said. “Things had been getting so bad that I stopped keeping track of my stats. Maybe that helped take the pressure off.”

Or maybe it was Thursday’s practice, when the Aztecs were ordered to choke up at the plate.

“Anyone who didn’t choke up, wasn’t going to play,” Demarest said.

Whatever the solution was, it paid off for Hopkins, who singled in the first and third innings and walked in the sixth.

It was also Hopkins who broke the game open in the fourth with his third hit.

With runners on second and third and one out, he lined the second pitch into right-center field. Brett Osborn and Derek Kato scored on the hit, giving the Aztecs a 4-0 lead.

That was more than enough runs for starting pitcher Jim Livernois and Osborn, who limited Garden Grove to three hits.

Livernois, a freshman, allowed one hit through five innings. He struck out four and walked two.

It was his third consecutive victory since being called up from the junior varsity to pitch in the Upper Deck Tournament.

The only hit Livernois allowed was a single by Joe Aguirre in the fourth. He gave way to Osborn, who has been the team’s most consistent player this season.

Osborn, who was the winning pitcher on Wednesday against Los Amigos, shut down Garden Grove (8-7, 5-3) over the final two innings. He has not given up an earned run in league play, a string of 26 1/3 innings.

Osborn has allowed two earned runs in 51 2/3 innings.

In other league games:

Santiago 14, Los Amigos 6--Scott McGarrh and Balfred Guzman each had three hits for host Santiago (14-6, 7-1).

Rancho Alamitos 4, Bolsa Grande 2--Trailing, 2-0, in the sixth inning, Rancho Alamitos’ Chris Singletary hit a two-run home run to tie the score. Later in the inning, Rudy Nava hit a two-out, bases-loaded single. Marshall Brown (3-2) pitched a four-hitter and struck out nine with no walks for Rancho Alamitos (6-8, 3-5). Bolsa Grande is 4-12, 2-6.

Pacifica 3, Kennedy 2--Eric Stevens had three hits, scored twice and had one RBI and scored what proved to be the winning run in the top of the seventh inning when Mike Way singled for Pacifica (10-10, 4-4). Scott Jones hit a two-run home run for Kennedy in the bottom of the seventh inning.