SOUTH COAST LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Battery Gives Dana Hills a Charge

The Dana Hills battery of Jon Spalding and catcher Ryan O’Leary combined solid pitching and timely hitting to lead the streaking Dolphins to a 6-3 victory over El Toro in South Coast League play Friday at Dana Hills.

Spalding, who had pitched a perfect game last week against Mission Viejo, paced Dana Hills (16-6, 8-3 in league) to its 10th straight victory and a two-game lead in the league standings. Spalding (8-0) gave up two earned runs and four hits while striking out four and walking one.

With his team trailing, 3-1, in the fifth inning, O’Leary contributed a run-scoring sacrifice fly to left and came back in the sixth to line a bases-loaded single down the right-field line that scored two runs and broke a 3-3 tie.

“I’m very impressed with the competitive spirit of this team,” Dana Hills Coach Bob Canary said. Spalding almost sabotaged his own cause with the dropped pop-up in the fifth inning.

With El Toro (12-11, 6-5) leading, 2-1, on Rob Johnson’s run-scoring double and Jason Bailey’s RBI single in the second, Spalding decided to try and handle Sal Schacter’s two-out pop-up near the pitcher’s mound rather than let second baseman Scott Holty take it.

Spalding collided with Holty and dropped the ball, allowing El Toro’s Dave Owens to step to the plate and line a run-scoring double to center for a 3-1 Charger lead.

Dana Hills came back in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score on O’Leary’s sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded walk to Aaron Kokx. The walk was El Toro pitcher Marc VerWayne’s first of the day.

Chris Morgan’s single, Ryan Delf’s sacrifice bunt that turned into a hit when Morgan beat Owens’ throw to second, and a walk to Holty loaded the bases for the Dolphins in the sixth inning.

O’Leary then lined the ball off the glove of a diving Brian Haas at first, driving in two runs, and Holty scored from third on Keith Barnett’s sacrifice fly to center.