ORANGE LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Brea Clinches Tie for League Title

Brea-Olinda made it three in a row--three consecutive victories over Valencia and clinched at least a tie for its third consecutive Orange League baseball championship--with a 4-1 victory over the Tigers Friday at Valencia High School.

Senior left-hander Andy Smith (7-2) befuddled Valencia’s batters all afternoon, moving the ball around the strike zone. He gave up seven hits and was helped by three double plays.

“Most of all, it was definitely our defense,” Smith said. “All the credit goes to the guys behind me. I tried to work the zone in and out and come in with the curve.”

Brea (17-5-1, 12-1 in league) took advantage of Valencia starting pitcher Jason Secoda’s control problems in the first inning to stake Smith to a 3-0 lead.

Secoda walked Ryan Ott, who stole second, and yielded an infield hit to Matt Priess to put runners on first and third. Joe Badillo then walked on a wild pitch, allowing Ott to score from third. Matt Selinske drove a double deep to left center, scoring Priess.

Valencia Coach Mike Sheetz had seen enough of Secoda and brought in Jason Hamner, who finished the game, but Keith Miller drove in another run with a sacrifice fly deep to left field.

Ryan Roskelly scored the only run for Valencia (15-7, 10-3) in the bottom of the first, when he reached first on a throwing error by third baseman Miller, and took second on Smith’s errant pickoff attempt.

Roskelly advanced to third on Craig Irion’s single, and scored on Mike Lorge’s sacrifice fly to left.

Valencia’s biggest threat came in the bottom of the fifth, when singles by Hamner and Roskelly and a wild pitch put runners at second and third with two outs. But Smith got Irion to hit a bouncer to first baseman Paul Garcia, who flipped the ball to Smith covering for the final out.

Garcia padded Brea’s lead to 4-1 in the sixth inning with a single to left to drive in pinch-runner John Willis.

In another league games:

Magnolia 5, Anaheim 4 (10)--Kevin Carlson walked with the bases loaded, forcing in John Sharp, who had tripled leading off the bottom of the tenth as the Sentinels improved to 4-16, 2-11.

Carlson’s ninth-inning double drove in Richard Hughes with the tying run.

Dean Yeager went four for four, driving in a run and scoring once for Anaheim.