PREP BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Magnolia Edges Closer to Orange League Title

Magnolia High School’s baseball team moved a step closer to its first league championship in eight years Wednesday with a 6-3 victory over host Anaheim.

Magnolia (12-9, 9-5 in league) scored all of its runs in the second inning, when it sent 11 batters to the plate, and then held off a late Anaheim rally to clinch a Southern Section playoff berth. Magnolia will try to win the Orange League when it plays host to Savanna at 3 p.m. today.

Anaheim (11-13, 8-6) fell out of a first-place tie with Magnolia and Brea-Olinda (13-11, 9-5) when it lost to Magnolia for the third time in league play. Anaheim had only one hit off Magnolia starter Jessie Caron before three runs scored on consecutive doubles by Ernie Gonzalez and Greg Cole.

But Caron (8-3) regained his composure and retired three consecutive batters after Cole’s double to finish with a three-hitter.

Afterward, Magnolia Coach John Sharp said he had reminded his players all week of how his team lost the league title a year ago.

“We finished a half-game behind Brea when we lost our last game against Anaheim, so it was nice to beat them today,” Sharp said. “I reminded the kids all week that Anaheim was the one to beat us.

“We’ll come back tomorrow because our prom is Friday night, and it would be great to win the league and then go to the dance.”

Magnolia bunched six hits with two walks off losing pitcher Jeff Kafoury to score six runs. The Sentinels have totaled 30 runs in their last four games. Sharp’s son, John, had the key hit of the inning when he drilled a two-run double to the gap in right-center field.

“We didn’t get any pitching early, and then it was tough to come back from a six-run deficit,” said Dave Torres, Anaheim coach. “You have to give their pitcher credit. We had some balls hit hard, but he shut us down for six innings. He did a good job of getting his slider over for strikes.”

Caron had allowed only a single by Anaheim’s Jason Stephenson in the second inning when the Colonists put two runners on base on an error and a walk to open the final inning. Gonzalez followed with a double to left to trim Magnolia’s lead to 6-1 and Cole hit a ground-rule double for two more runs.

“The first double got to me a little,” Caron said. “I was thinking shutout going out to the mound in the seventh and I jinxed myself. Anaheim beat us twice, but we won the game that counted.”

In another Orange League game:

Brea-Olinda 4, Valencia 2 (nine innings)--Chris Briones hit a two-run home run--his second of the game and fifth of the season--in the bottom of the ninth inning for Brea-Olinda (13-11, 9-5), which remained in a first-place tie with Magnolia. Tim Carman (7-1) struck out 11 in nine innings for the Wildcats.

In the Angelus League:

Servite 5, Santa Margarita 1--Cliff Mierendorf (5-1) allowed five hits and struck out seven, Ray Basurto had two hits, a run and an RBI and Matt Muller had two hits and a run for host Servite (13-11, 7-7)

In the Century League:

Santa Ana Valley 5, Foothill 4--Al Ramos was hit by a pitch, was sacrificed to second by Martin Ortega, took third on a groundout and scored on a passed ball in the top of the seventh inning for Santa Ana Valley (9-15, 6-8). Rick Crosby (5-2) pitched two innings of relief to get the victory. Robbie Higby had three hits and two RBIs and Evan Lang had four hits and an RBI for Foothill (9-13, 6-8).

In the Pride of the Coast baseball tournament:

Estancia 5, Marina 4--Jeff Kraus hit a single to score Colby French in the bottom of the sixth inning for the deciding run in the championship game. Victor Ramirez pitched six innings, allowing five hits and one earned run, for host Estancia (16-7). Ruben Mora had two hits, including a triple.