SOUTH COAST LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : El Toro in Full Bloom After Defeating Irvine
El Toro’s once-dormant bats are now wide awake and it’s no coincidence the Chargers are suddenly in good position in the South Coast League baseball race.
A second consecutive 10-2 victory over Irvine on Friday moved El Toro into a second-place tie in league with Irvine at 6-5.
The Chargers defeated the Vaqueros by the same score Wednesday at home and took advantage of another strong offensive attack at Irvine.
El Toro (9-10 overall) had nine hits, including four doubles, and increased their hit total in the past two games to 21.
“All along, we knew we were going to be a good-hitting club,” El Toro Coach Dan DeLeon said. “But we went through a phase earlier where we were just dead offensively, and it took some time to break out of it.
“If these last two games are any indication, we’re out of the slump.”
Some gave the Chargers up for dead in the battle for a Southern Section playoff berth, as evidenced by the “sympathy” flowers planted anonymously on El Toro’s diamond after back-to-back losses to league-leading Capistrano Valley last week.
“That might have motivated us a little,” DeLeon said. “Even when we were down, the guys kept a good attitude and kept taking care of business in practice, and then the flowers thing might have bumped us up to the next level emotionally.”
Whatever the motivation, El Toro is producing offensively. Chris Wiggins had two doubles and scored three runs and Mike Lutterloh drove in two runs with a second-inning double to give El Toro a 2-0 lead.
Jason Santoro and Ryan Fullerton each added RBI singles to support pitcher Pete Robertson. Robertson didn’t need much help, earning his first career victory with a complete-game five-hitter. He struck out four.
“Pete pitched as good a game as we’ve had this year,” DeLeon said. “He’s worked hard to get that first win and he earned it.”
Scott Seal had two hits for Irvine (13-8), which lost two of its three games against El Toro in league, giving the Chargers the advantage in a tie-breaker situation.
In other league games:
Mission Viejo 8, Dana Hills 4--Jeff Carr hit a grand slam in the third inning to tie the score at 4 for host Mission Viejo (11-9, 4-7). Deron Drake had a two-run single in the fifth and Eric Sorensen hit a two-run double in the sixth for Mission Viejo.
Carr has five home runs and 27 RBIs this season. Kurt Zimmerman allowed one hit in five innings of relief for the victory.
Capistrano Valley 5, San Clemente 4--Brian Benner had three hits and two RBIs for Capistrano Valley (18-3, 10-1).