PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Laguna Hills Rallies to Knock Off Trabuco Hills

Trabuco Hills lost its first Pacific Coast League game this season when Laguna Hills rallied for a 4-3 victory Friday.

Coming off Tuesday’s 15-0 loss to the Mustangs, the Hawks scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to retain their playoff hopes. They won by combining the pitching of Ryan McDermott, the baserunning of Ron DeVito and the hitting of Brett Nista and Matt Evans.

“McDermott pitched a beautiful game,” Laguna Hills Coach Pete Tereschuk said. “It was the best pitched game we’ve had here in a long time.”

McDermott (3-1), usually a reliever, yielded five hits, struck out five and walked none.

The Hawk rally began when Rick Stilson’s bouncer to pitcher Bryan Kelley was dropped, and Nista lined deep to left for a double. An intentional walk to DeVito loaded the bases. Ian Jensen’s bouncer to shortstop Nick Punto scored Stilson when DeVito slid under the tag at second. Nista then scored the winning run on Evans’ fly ball to deep left.

Trabuco Hills (17-6, 12-1 in league) took a 3-0 lead in the third inning after Dan DelFium led off with a single and McDermott’s 1-2 pitch hit catcher John Lukin. Brad Cervantes’ sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position. Consecutive run-scoring singles by Punto, Justin Poe and Jake Anderson staked the Mustangs to the lead.

Laguna Hills (10-11, 7-6) began its comeback in the bottom of the third after Nista lined a single to left, stole second and scored when Lukin took Jason Hogan’s bouncer in front of the plate and overthrew first base, allowing Nista to score.

Nista scored three runs and went two for three to raise his career hit total to 144, three shy of the Orange County mark of 147 set by Tustin’s Shawn Green from 1988 to 1991. Nista scored the Hawks’ second run in the fifth when he reached second on a two-base error, third on a sacrifice and scored on DeVito’s grounder to third.