El Dorado Wins This Battle to Move Ahead of Katella

Either El Dorado or Katella has won the last five Empire League baseball titles (including a tie for first in 1994), and both are just as hungry to win the final league championship of the 1990s.

The ninth-ranked Knights had pulled into a first-place tie by beating the Golden Hawks on Wednesday, but second-ranked El Dorado moved back in front Friday with an 11-7 victory at home.

Two big innings tilted the game in El Dorado’s favor.

C.J. Rice, who had two hits and drove in five runs, hit a grand slam off Katella’s Jonathan Lorenzen (3-2) in the first inning. And in the fourth, the Hawks broke a 4-4 tie by scoring six runs. Three came on Drew McMillan’s line-drive home run to left.

It was an intense game but not a classic one, as this series goes. Six pitchers went to the mound (El Dorado sent four) because strikes--and the strike zone--proved to be elusive.

Or was there another explanation for a three-hour contest that saw the teams combine for 18 runs, 19 hits, 15 walks, three hit batters and two wild pitches?

“There are those days when the pitchers are not throwing many strikes and the game is all offense,” El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said. “I felt we hit the ball well, although Katella never gave up.”

Katella Coach Tim McMenamin in turn praised El Dorado: “They did the job today, especially getting the big hits when they needed to. They did that very well.”

Katella (15-5, 7-2), which entered Friday’s game on a 10-game winning streak, had its scoring chances, getting 10 walks and nine hits. T.J. Jara hit a solo home run in the second and Carlos Pasillas hit a two-run homer in the sixth.

But the Knights could not get the kind of big inning enjoyed by El Dorado (15-5, 8-1). Katella twice left the bases loaded, including in the sixth after already scoring three to cut the lead to 11-7.

Brad McKinney (3-1), the third El Dorado pitcher, entered the game in the fourth and picked up the victory. Justin Angevine, who pitched against Katella on Wednesday, got his second save.

In other Empire League games:

Century 2, Cypress 1--Brian Cortes (2-3) struck out six and didn’t walk a batter for Century (9-10, 1-8). Cortes also had two hits and scored the winning run on a single by Beto Ambriez in the fourth. Host Cypress is 14-6, 6-3.

Loara 11, Kennedy 9--Ryan Gusman had two hits and two RBIs for Loara (9-10, 4-5).

Brett Fitzpatrick had two home runs and three RBIs for visiting Kennedy (6-13-1, 1-8).