EMPIRE LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Esperanza Rattles : El Dorado Defense

A little more pressure, a little less poise. It was a disaster for El Dorado, more or less.

Esperanza did the damage with an 8-1 victory at home. It not only gave the Aztecs sole possession of first place in the Empire League, it booted the Golden Hawks into second.

In losing for the fourth time in seven games, El Dorado (12-7, 6-2) booted balls, dropped flies and lost sight of the strike zone. The result was an embarrassment, even in Coach Steve Gullotti’s eyes.

“It wasn’t like this was a big game or anything,” Gullotti said. “So there was no reason for me to expect us to be ready to play.”

Gullotti’s frustration was understandable. After all, the Golden Hawks won their first five league games--four by two runs or less--and were alone in first place. Now they must win tonight’s rematch with Esperanza (13-5, 7-1) to stay in the title race.

And it wasn’t as if El Dorado toppled from first place gracefully. The Golden Hawks made five errors, a couple that took some effort.

Losing pitcher Benito Flores attempted to pick off a runner at second, only to find nobody covering the bag. The ball sailed into center field.

Right fielder Graham Clemons fought wind and sun to get under a fly ball, only to have the ball pop out of his glove.

El Dorado was just as out of step at the plate, getting just four hits--three by leadoff batter Ryan Reyes. The Golden Hawks even received seven walks from winning pitcher Mark Herlehy. They stranded 10 base runners.

Their only run scored on a wild pitch.

“We left runners on base in each of the first four innings,” Gullotti said. “We had only one guy getting hits. That’s too much pressure to put on our pitcher.”

Flores (6-2) walked five batters, all in the second inning. He forced in three runs, which gave the Aztecs a 4-0 lead. Esperanza, ranked third in Orange County, generally doesn’t need such an advantage.

The Aztecs made the most of it with nine hits. Poncho Ruiz drove in three runs, two on a long home run to left field. Billy O’Conner, Jason Murietta, Marcus Jones and Jason Goettsche also drove in runs, as seven of nine batters had at least one hit.

“We worked hard preparing for this game,” Ruiz said. “We were ready for them.”

El Dorado, on the other hand, wasn’t.

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In other league games:

Los Alamitos 4, Cypress 1--Ben Rada (3-4) pitched a three-hitter for Los Alamitos (9-9-1, 3-5). Cypress fell to 9-8 and 4-4.

Katella 7, Loara 2-- Leo Garcia had a double, a triple and two RBIs, Eric Gardner had two hits and scored two runs for Katella (13-6, 4-4). Jaret Wright (4-1) struck out 13, pitching a complete-game six-hitter. Katella is 13-6, 4-4. Loara is 0-8 in league.