Taft Drops Into Tie With El Camino Real : Prep baseball: Fourth-inning error opens door for Conquistadores to win, 6-1, catch Toreadors in West Valley League race.

The ball was in the air for about seven seconds. Depending on which dugout one occupied, that spelled either opportunity or disaster.

End of inning? End of game?

A pop fly was the open door that El Camino Real High was looking for Wednesday, and the Conquistadores stepped through and moved into a share of first place in the West Valley League with a 6-1 win over host Taft.

With runners at first and second and two out in the fourth and the game scoreless, Mike Smith hit a towering pop fly to Taft second baseman Matt Allison, who waved everyone off as he stood near the rim of the infield grass. The ball was in the air long enough for both dugouts to offer positive reinforcement.

“Easy play,” someone on the Taft bench said. “You never know,” El Camino Real Coach Mike Maio countered.

Allison dropped the ball, allowing pinch-runner Chris Shinnick to score from second. On the next pitch, outfielder Randy Wolf ripped a two-run double to the gap in left-center to hand El Camino Real (11-4, 7-3 in league play) a decisive 3-0 lead.

“Maio’s been around long enough to have seen these weird things,” El Camino Real pitcher Evan Howland said. “He’s seen it all.”

Maio practically chased Shinnick from third to home as Smith’s ball plummeted toward Allison. In what is either an exercise in smart baseball or mere exercise for the runner, Maio insists on hustle.

“You don’t ever know,” Maio said of the pop fly. “It’s only a 90-foot run for the guy on the bases, and if you run it out, it could be a run scored.”

For three innings, it seemed as if the first team to blink would fall. Indeed, Taft (9-5-1, 7-3) committed the only error of the game and El Camino Real cashed in. The Conquistadores, who trailed Taft by three games last week, are tied with the Toreadors, who have lost three in a row.

Howland (3-0) threw a six-hitter, struck out seven and walked two in recording his first complete game. He was bailed out several times by third baseman Danny Baker, who made a pair of sparkling defensive plays in the third to smother a Taft rally.

El Camino Real added a run in the fifth on a double by designated hitter Justin Marine (two hits) and two in the seventh on a home run by catcher Justin Balser (two hits). Balser and Marine are two of three players named Justin in the El Camino Real lineup. But Maio’s favorite Justin won the ballgame: Justin Case .

“You have to take advantage of that stuff,” Maio said. “Just in case it happens.”