Esperanza Wins Battle of Old Rivals--and Title

Thursday’s title game in the National Classic featured two of the county’s hottest teams and a pair of old, fierce rivals in Esperanza and El Dorado.

Esperanza won, 6-4, at Cal State Fullerton. The question remained, however: Was this the last time for the county’s showcase tournament?

This year’s classic was without a corporate sponsor and, despite the efforts of tournament organizers, has not been able to attract a new one, putting its future in jeopardy.

It is an ending neither Esperanza Coach Mike Curran nor El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti, who conceived the tournament seven years ago, want.

“I have to hope [a sponsor] will step forward,” Curran said. “We are more than willing to work with anybody. We don’t want to see this go. The atmosphere is like a playoff; you’re not going to see a more intense tournament played over four consecutive days.”

“I do think we will be back next year,” said Gullotti, who was denied his 300th career victory. “This is too good a thing to let fall by the wayside.”

If this was the finale, Esperanza (11-2) and El Dorado (12-2) sent it out on a high note.

The teams (once in the Empire League) had met before in the tournament championship game. In 1991, Esperanza defeated El Dorado, 12-4.

Esperanza appeared set to rout El Dorado again, jumping to a 6-0 lead against Hawk starter J.P. Frid (3-1).

The Aztecs rattled the Hawks with a double steal in the first--Omar Oregel bolted and scored from third without a throw--scored another run on tournament MVP David Parrish’s RBI single, picked up three more runs in the second, and one in the third.

“We jumped out quickly and I thought it might be easy,” Curran said. “But they came back and really battled us.”

El Dorado had a chance to get back in the game in the fourth when three singles and a two-out, bases-loaded walk to Brandon Downing got the Hawks a run. But the rally ended when Greg Posein was called out on strikes.

“That hurt us,” Gullotti said.

But the Hawks definitely revived in the fifth. Esperanza starter Nathan Choate--who started Monday’s game--reached his innings limit and had to come out. El Dorado then chased reliever Nick Puoci with three runs--RBI doubles by Jerry Miller and E.J. Ochoa highlighted the attack--to close the gap to 6-4.

But reliever Matt Colin, who induced Justin Smith to hit into an inning-ending double play, made sure El Dorado got no closer.

Other individual tournament award winners included Esperanza’s Brandon Pack, the outstanding pitcher, and El Dorado’s Mark Wade, the outstanding hitter.

In the third-place game:

Mater Dei 5, Capistrano Valley 4--Rod Perry’s sacrifice fly scored Mike Kolbach with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh at El Dorado for second-ranked Mater Dei (10-3).

Kolbach singled to lead off the inning, Brett Kay was hit by a pitch and both advanced on Pat Manning’s sacrifice bunt.

It was the second meeting of the year between the South Coast rivals, who still have three league meetings scheduled.

Ryan Fitzpatrick (1-0) got the victory in relief of starter Kris Hernandez. Greg Hanhauser (0-1), who relieved starter Matt Donoho, took the loss.

Ryan Cheo led an eight-hit attack by Capistrano Valley (6-6-1) with three hits.

Capistrano Valley trailed 4-1 before tying the score in the fifth. Zack Brennan started the rally with a walk. Rik Currier’s grounder was booted for an error, and one out later Wes Brown singled to load the bases.

Cheo singled to center to drive in a run and when Perry mishandled the ball, Currier also scored. Jon Edmonds’ RBI single evened things up.