Royal’s Season Is Blown

Royal High’s five-run lead didn’t exactly vanish Friday in the Southern Section Division I baseball quarterfinals.

It blew away.

After the Highlanders scored five times in the first three innings, they watched the wind carry four Ayala High home runs over the fence, with Royal’s playoff hopes disappearing just as quickly.

The Bulldogs finally put away Royal with two runs in the bottom of the sixth, giving them a 7-6 victory.

“It’s like someone just reached in your chest and grabbed out your heart,” said Royal catcher Ben Lemos.

The Highlanders (19-10), in their first quarterfinal, were having visions of the semifinals after taking a 5-0 lead in the middle of the third.

But in the bottom of the third, Rocky O’Brien led off with his seventh home run. An out later, Jeff Bajenaru lifted one over the left-field fence, 315 feet away, making it 5-2.

“Our scouting report said they had big hitters and the ball flies out of here,” Royal Coach Dan Maye said.

The first indication that the reports were accurate came when Maye hit soft fly balls from home plate in pregame warm-ups.

He hit one out.

“That was a real bad sign,” Maye said.

In the fourth, the homer barrage continued when Kris Ingram led off with his fifth homer.

Royal scored a run in the fifth when Dorian Stitt’s chopper drove in Sean Fossen.

But Bajenaru led off the bottom of the inning with his second home run of the game, pulling Ayala (23-5) to within 6-4 and chasing Royal starter Adrian Mendoza.

Travis McCall greeted Ryan Nielsen with a double and he scored two outs later on a bloop single by Dan Garcia, making it 6-5.

Maye tried to throw off Ayala’s hitters by throwing out pitchers of different styles. He started with Mendoza, a junk-balling left-hander, and went to Nielsen, a tall right-hander.

Maye brought out junior Bryant Leppard, a side-arming right-hander, to start to the sixth.

With one out, Leppard (2-3) walked O’Brien and Ryan Rasmussen lined a triple into right-center field, tying the game.

Bajenaru followed with a roller in front of the plate. Lemos jumped out from behind the plate to field the ball and hold Rasumussen at third, but no one was covering first base.

Failing to get the second out proved costly because McCall drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to center field.

In the seventh, Royal managed only Fossen’s one-out single against Bajenaru (8-2), who pitched two scoreless innings of relief.

Royal’s season ended with Fossen stranded at second.

The Highlanders had only three of their nine hits after the third inning.

They scored two in the first on Matt Pistick’s RBI grounder and Lemos RBI double, and three in the third on Fossen’s two-run double and Stitt’s run-scoring single.

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St. Monica 4, Village Christian 3--The Mariners scored in the fifth inning to snap a 3-3 tie in a Division V quarterfinal at Village Christian.

Robbie Mikels had a run-scoring double for Village Christian (19-5) in the second inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by David Swanson.

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Mountain View 2, Santa Paula 1--The Cardinals sent three runners home in the fifth inning of the Division IV game, but two were thrown out.

Robert Zavala of Santa Paula (15-8) doubled and scored on a delayed double steal.