Janssen Is Strikingly Good as Fountain Valley Tops Irvine

As good as it gets? You never can tell with Casey Janssen.

Every time he takes the mound, the Fountain Valley senior just seems to get stronger.

On Friday, Janssen turned in his most dominating performance of the season, striking out a season-high 11 in the Barons’ 4-2 victory against Irvine in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs at Irvine.

Janssen pitched a five-hitter and outdueled Chad Hazlett, Irvine’s 14-game winner.

Not bad for a guy who started the season as a third baseman.

“He’s the horse we’ve got to ride,” Fountain Valley Coach Ron LaRuffa said. “He’s been dominating all year. But [another pitcher] has to step up Tuesday.”

Josh Bartusick will get his chance when the Barons (19-9) host Capistrano Valley (19-8), a 6-5 winner over Rialto, in the second round.

Janssen’s mastery allowed Irvine Coach Bob Flint to take an early retirement of sorts. Flint, the Vaqueros’ coach for the past 21 years, had announced that this year would be his last. He just hoped it wouldn’t end this soon.

“It was a game played tight to the vest,” Flint said. “They executed just a little better at the plate.”

The Barons’ bats did most of their damage in the third inning, when Fountain Valley took a 3-0 lead. Matt Clanton tripled, John Clark followed with an RBI double and Seb Gonzales drove in Clark with a single to center. Gonzales took second base when the center fielder bobbled the ball, moved to third on a failed pickoff attempt and scored when Janssen’s high bouncer to shortstop Chris Lewis was mishandled.

Irvine cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth on Jon de Vries’ towering two-run home run to center, but the Vaqueros came no closer.

The only remaining drama came when Irvine’s Chris Sinner singled to lead off the bottom of the sixth and reached second on Lewis’ sacrifice bunt. But Janssen got Terry Parker to pop up to first and Travis Otott to bounce out to short.

Fountain Valley, which has won three in a row after dropping five of six, scored its fourth run in the seventh when Clanton doubled and later scored on Bryan Daguio’s sacrifice fly to center.

Hazlett, who recorded the most wins among Orange County pitchers during the regular season, struck out six.

In other Division I games:

Los Alamitos 7, Oxnard 3--The host Griffins trailed, 2-0, before senior second baseman Chico Velasquez ignited a rally with a third-inning homer. Jerod Ball had two hits and three RBIs and Adam Sargeant (7-3) pitched his sixth complete game for Los Alamitos (17-10). The Griffins will play Bell Gardens in the second round.

Fontana Miller 4, Esperanza 3--The host Steelers (19-7) rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh. Kent Carpenter had two RBIs for the Aztecs (19-8).

Bell Gardens 6, Mater Dei 3--The Lancers (22-5-1) scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to surge ahead for the victory. Two of the runs scored on a hit batsman and a walk with the bases loaded. The Monarchs (17-11) had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the inning on Sergio Santos’ RBI single and Richard Mercado’s run-scoring double. Jason Murray hit a solo home run in the second for Mater Dei.