Laguna Hills Has Little Trouble Getting Around Estancia

Laguna Hills and Estancia are two teams definitely on different paths.

And Friday’s Pacific Coast League game, which Hawks won, 10-1, was proof.

Laguna Hills (15-3, 9-0), looking to win its first league title since 1993 and its seventh in the last nine years, played solid defense and used a five-run sixth inning--three coming on Nick Harvey’s second home run--to break open the game.

The Hawks also had 12 hits against three Eagle pitchers, eight of them against senior right-hander Tom Zenus (0-1), who was making his first varsity start.

Estancia (0-18, 0-9), suffering through one its worst seasons in school history, sabotaged its effort with four errors, including two in the fifth that led to two unearned runs and made it 4-1.

After getting three consecutive hits to get their only run in the fourth, the Eagles took themselves out of a potential big inning by getting a runner picked off second. They had another runner picked off in the second. He was tagged out in a rundown.

But the true dividing line between the teams is pitching. Laguna Hills has it and Estancia doesn’t.

Laguna Hills starter Tony Milo (8-1) struggled with his rhythm and never looked comfortable in his six innings of work. But Milo, a senior left-hander, gave up five hits, walked only two and struck out seven, increasing his season total to 77 in 54 innings.

“He is truly one of the top pitchers in the county,” Hawk Coach Pete Tereschuk said.

“They say the sign of a good pitcher is being successful when things aren’t going well,” Milo said. And while Milo said Laguna Hills is not looking ahead to the Division III playoffs, he believes the Hawks could do well there once they arrive. “We have the kind of team that can win games in the playoffs,” he said.

The Eagles, meanwhile, need something to go right in their remaining six games.

“Today was a good example of some of the problems we’ve had,” Estancia Coach Paul Troxel said. “We had chances early but couldn’t make the plays when we needed to.”

In another Pacific Coast League game:

Laguna Beach 7, Aliso Niguel 6--Raymie Amador’s fifth-inning double scored Micah Grant and gave Laguna Beach a 7-2 lead. Aaron Whitfield hit his second home run and Aaron Skinner had two RBIs for Laguna Beach (6-12, 3-6).