PREP FLASHBACK : THIS WEEK IN COUNTY PREP SPORTS HISTORY

10 YEARS AGO

Villa Park Coach Dave Ochoa’s team was ranked first in Southern Section Division 3-A and had just won its 24th consecutive game by defeating Troy, 4-2, in a first-round playoff game. But that didn’t keep him happy.

“There’s the injustice of the (Southern Section),” Ochoa said. “(Troy’s) one hell of a team. We should be playing them in the semis or in the final, not in the first round.

“The whole idea of seeding is that the two best teams are supposed to meet for the championship. In 4-A, Redondo and Mater Dei is the same thing. They can’t justify that either--having the No. 1 seed (Redondo) draw the defending 4-A champs.” In that game, Mater Dei defeated Redondo, 4-3, in eight innings when Amin David hit a home run.

“They (Southern Section) say they don’t have enough time to look at our schedules and see that we played Troy three times already this year.”

The fourth meeting was the playoff game. Troy’s Dave Cochrane pitched a two-hitter but walked six and gave up the tying run to score on a wild pitch. A dropped third strike loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning, and Troy Coach Nick Fuscardo decided to play his infield back for a double-play ball. “We got it too,” Fuscardo said. “And it was hit to the guy with the best hands on our team (shortstop Bobby Jewell), right where we wanted it. But the ball took a little bit of a high hop and it handcuffed him.”

The ball caromed off Jewell into center field and Villa Park scored two runs, advancing to Round 2.

5 YEARS AGO

In its Southern Section Division 3-A first-round game, Western had a runner on third base three times with less than two outs and failed to score.

However, when faced with more difficult situations, Western came through in the clutch twice to defeat Troy, 2-1, in 12 innings.

Rich Lodding hit a two-out, run-scoring single to tie the score, 1-1, in the bottom of the eighth and Scott Pawloski hit a two-out, run-scoring single in the 12th for the winning run.

Pawloski’s hit scored David Tellers, who doubled to open the inning and went to third on a wild pitch.

1 YEAR AGO

Dana Hills senior Andy Marrone already had accepted a scholarship to play football at Nevada Las Vegas, and the UNLV track and field coaches couldn’t be blamed for smiling.

Marrone set a Southern Section Division 4-A record with a discus throw of 192 feet 1 inch at the section championships. Marrone entered the meet with the season’s best mark, 179-4, and exceeded the mark on all four of his legal throws. The mark of 192-1 was the second best in Orange County history. Capistrano Valley’s Brian Blutreich set the record of 210-8 in 1985.