Fountain Valley Batters Esperanza

Things went so right Saturday for Fountain Valley, the third-ranked baseball team in Orange County, even Coach Ron LaRuffa admitted any criticism would be nit-picking.

Every Baron starter had at least one hit, including four-for-four days from Josh Bartusick and Jimmy Goetz in an 11-1 Sunset League victory over second-ranked Esperanza.

Fountain Valley scored each of its first seven runs with timely two-out hitting.

Baron pitchers gave up only one hit, an infield single, and retired 17 of the last 18 batters.

As a result, host Fountain Valley needed only six innings to post a mercy-rule victory.

LaRuffa said even though he is surprised at his team’s explosive offense--the Barons (10-2, 4-1 in league) are averaging more than nine runs per game--he is more pleased to see his pitchers coming into their own.

“That’s no earned runs in 14 innings this week,” LaRuffa said. “They’re starting to throw like we expected. We’ve played 12 games now and the pitchers are settling down, realizing it’s not how hard they throw, but whether or not they throw strikes.”

Starter Casey Janssen (2-0) earned the victory, pitching five innings and giving up the one hit, an unearned run and two walks with three strikeouts. Justin Fortugno pitched a perfect sixth for the Barons.

Esperanza (10-2, 3-2) took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when David Nicholson reached second on a dropped popup, stole third and scored on Kent Carpenter’s infield single.

But the Barons tied it in the bottom of the inning and took the lead, 3-1, in the third on Janssen’s two-out, two-run home run. Janssen later added a run-scoring double, giving the senior 31 runs batted in this season.

“I have never seen anybody so hot in my life,” LaRuffa said.

The Barons put the game away in the fourth, loading the bases after two were out and unloading them on John Clark’s opposite-field grand slam to right, giving Fountain Valley a 7-1 lead.

“Everything seems to be going our way right now,” Clark said. “We can relax knowing we don’t have to score all of our runs in one inning.”

Aztec starter Doug Brown was roughed up for 12 hits and seven runs in four innings.

The Barons had 19 hits, six for extra bases.