SANTA ANA EASTER TOURNAMENT : Confident Diablos on a Roll

There’s little evidence that Mission Viejo’s baseball team has been struggling this season. Not the way the Diablos have worked their way through the Santa Ana Easter tournament.

Tuesday’s 9-5 victory was just another step along the way to recovery for the Diablos, who have won four consecutive games heading into today’s championship final against Diamond Bar, a 7-1 winner over Santa Ana.

But, for the Diablos, the title will be a bonus.

“There’s no pressure here,” Coach Jeff Cecil said. “It’s a chance for us to hit and throw and play defense and get better.”

Call it therapy.

The Diablos (6-7-1) fell flat when South Coast League play started. They lost their first six league games before defeating second-place Dana Hills, 8-5, on Thursday.

That game was a springboard.

“That game gave us some confidence,” Cecil said. “We learned we could beat good teams.”

The Diablos wasted little time Tuesday, scoring three runs in the first. They led, 7-0, after three innings. It was a necessary cushion, as they had trouble closing out the victory for the third consecutive game.

Mission Viejo blew a three-run lead against Saddleback Saturday before winning, 4-3, in eight innings. The Diablos saw a 6-2 seventh-inning lead against Orange shrink to one run on Monday.

Garden Grove (7-8) scored three in the seventh, but it only made the final score more respectable.

The Diablos had 12 hits, one day after collecting 11 against Orange.

“That gets contagious,” Cecil said.

It has been for first baseman Jason Marian, who had three run-scoring singles against Garden Grove. He had six consecutive hits over two games before grounding out in his last at-bat.

“I rolled one between first and second yesterday and that got it started,” said Marian, who is six for eight with four RBIs in the last two games. “I’d been struggling lately, so I needed this.”

Much the same can be said about outfielder Tyler Kalklosch, who had a triple, a single and two RBIs Tuesday. Tyler Newhausen had three hits and Brian Sepulveda two.

That made it all too easy for pitcher Rich Rawson. He was in trouble in the first, as the Argonauts had two on with one out. But third baseman Corrie Willkie started a double play and Rawson (2-3) retired the next nine batters.

Rawson had allowed only two hits and had a shutout through four innings. He then gave up two unearned runs in the fifth on Jason Rivers’ home run. Rivers also had a run-scoring triple in the seventh.

In the other semifinal game:

Diamond Bar 7, Santa Ana 1--Sefe Sagrero had three hits and one RBI for host Santa Ana (8-8) in the semifinals.

Andy Cook had two hits and three RBIs for Diamond Bar (9-7), which plays Mission Viejo in the championship at 3 p.m. today at Rancho Santiago.

In other tournament games:

Brea Olinda 3, Saddleback 2--Matt Weyant had two hits and drove in Mark Ochoa with the eventual winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning for Brea Olinda (7-8) in the consolation round.

Aaron Hough (4-1) allowed two runs and struck out five in six innings to earn the victory.

Foothill 9, South Torrance 4--Ryan Zeber had two hits, two runs and two RBIs, and Steven Prutsok hit a two-run triple for the Knights (6-8-1), who scored four runs in the first inning on the way to a consolation-round victory.

Santiago 4, Germantown (Tenn.) 1--Catcher Ruben Sandoval was two for three and scored a run for Santiago (5-9), and pitcher Franky Hernandez struck out seven.

Santa Ana Valley 8, Pacifica 4--Wayne Restrepo was three for three with two RBIs for Santa Ana Valley (8-7). Teammate Jesse Gomez tripled and hgad a squeeze-bunt for three RBIs, and pitcher Jesse Garcia struck out five, going the distance for Santa Ana Valley.