Esperanza Lives Up to Ranking

Mike Curran, Esperanza High School’s baseball coach, has about a half-dozen gray hairs at each of his temples.

Curran swears they weren’t there Thursday.

The implication is that Esperanza’s 9-8 comeback victory over Baldwin Park in the Southern Section 5-A quarterfinals Friday is the reason Curran is looking a little more distinguished these days.

“If we keep playing games like this, I’m going to have a whole load of gray ones,” Curran said after the Aztecs (26-3) survived a Baldwin Park rally to advance to Tuesday’s semifinals against Millikan.

Esperanza, the county’s top-ranked team and No. 1 team nationally in a USA Today poll, scored four runs in the first inning on four singles, a walk and an error.

But Baldwin Park (16-5-1), the Sierra League champion, showed it wasn’t intimidated by the early deficit or Esperanza’s lofty ratings.

The Braves used run-scoring doubles by Rick Magdaleno and Armando Martinez to pull even, 4-4, by the end of the first.

Esperanza’s Reid Pullen gave the Aztecs a 5-4 lead in the second with an inside-the-park home run, his third homer of the playoffs.

But Baldwin Park regained the lead in the third on RBI singles by Lalo Arrieta and Aaron Magdaleno, then went ahead 8-5 in the fourth on a two-run homer by Johnny Hilo.

Two innings later, it was Esperanza’s turn to rally. The Aztecs tied it at 8 on Keith McDonald’s two-run single and Rich Hills’ sacrifice fly.

Esperanza took the lead for good in the seventh when Magdaleno walked the first two batters. After an intentional walk to Pullen loaded the bases with one out, Erickson Dumaual hit a high chopper that left shortstop Jose Corona with only one play: a throw to first for the out, allowing the go-ahead run to score.

“We met our match today,” Curran said. “Those guys were nasty.”