PREP BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Laguna Hills’ Four-Run Fifth Buries Aliso Niguel

Only Yogi Berra could sum up the Pacific Coast League baseball race. With four teams entering the final week of the regular season still fighting for three playoff spots, it ain’t over till it’s over.

Laguna Hills did what it could to secure an inside track to one of those spots, completing a two-game sweep of Aliso Niguel with a 5-1 victory Friday at Aliso Niguel.

One pivotal inning--a four-run fifth--plus a combined five-hitter by Tony Milo and Justin Stanfield gave the Hawks (14-9, 9-4) a two-game lead over the Wolverines (12-9-1, 7-6), and kept Laguna Hills tied with University for first in the league. The two schools finish the season next week with a two games against each other.

The loss was Aliso Niguel’s third in a row. But it was the way the Wolverines lost--four errors, two coming in the fifth that helped Laguna Hills increase the lead from 1-0 to 5-0, putting more than one runner on base only once, swinging futilely at the assortment of slow curves by Stanfield--that caused Coach Mike Chapman to hold an long, angry postgame meeting with his team.

“I will never get upset at the kids for losing,” said Chapman, whose team is in its first season of varsity play. “But I questioned our desire to compete the past week.

“Now our challenge is to regroup and realize we’re not done in the race. But we have to believe in ourselves, believe we can be competitive.”