El Dorado Falls Short Again

All things considered, it wasn’t a bad tournament for Placentia El Dorado’s baseball team. But, yet again, it did not end in a championship.

For the fourth time since 1990, El Dorado lost in the championship of the National Classic, this time to Taylorsville, Utah, 8-4, Thursday at UC Irvine.

One day after defeating San Diego Mission Bay, ranked No. 2 in the nation, the Golden Hawks (15-3) lost their edge defensively, committing three errors and surrendering 13 hits in the final of the tournament they co-sponsor with Anaheim Esperanza.

Taylorsville (13-1) trailed, 4-2, but scored three runs in the third inning and two in the fourth.

“One of these years, we’ll get it,” El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said. “We had a great tournament until tonight.”

-- Mike Bresnahan

Cal State Fullerton-bound Vinnie Pestano of Anaheim Canyon struck out 10 and gave up six hits to defeat Capistrano Valley, 5-2, handing the Cougars their first defeat in the championship game of the Big West Invitational in Irvine.

“It feels awesome,” said Pestano, a right-hander who improved to 5-1 by using an effective curveball to baffle the Cougars. He was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Capistrano Valley (17-1), No. 3 in The Times’ rankings, badly missed Stanford-bound shortstop Adam Sorgi, who was out because of a shoulder injury.

Four of Canyon’s five runs were unearned. Gavin Fabian (6-1) took the loss, giving up four hits but striking out seven.

Ninth-ranked Canyon (14-4) scored three runs in the seventh to open a 5-1 lead. Capistrano Valley loaded the bases in the seventh, but Pestano struck out Gary Gattis and Corey Barthel to end the game.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Murrieta Valley turned in its third strong relay effort in seven days to win the boys’ four-mile relay in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays at Walnut.

The Nighthawks ran 17 minutes 40.74 seconds, the second-fastest time in the nation this year, to defeat second-place Crescenta Valley by about 150 meters.

Murrieta Valley, which won the distance medley relay in the Arcadia Invitational last Saturday after finishing second to Long Beach Poly in the 3,200-meter relay the previous night, was in 14th place after a 4:34.0 first leg by Francois Maritz. But Ian Ritchie ran 4:19.9 on the second leg to move the Nighthawks into second.

Scot Breithaupt gave Murrieta Valley the lead with a third leg of 4:23.9 and teammate Kellen Acosta extended the Nighthawks’ advantage with an anchor leg of 4:22.9.

Hesperia Sultana won the girls’ four-mile relay in 21:04.02, the second-fastest time in the nation this year. The Sultans’ team consisted of juniors Kelsey Delagardelle and Stacy Tabuena, sophomore Shadee Duarte and freshman Danielle Varela.

-- John Ortega

Former Glendale standout Robert Yim defeated Fullerton Troy senior Jeffrey Das, 6-2, 6-2, to advance to today’s boys’ 18 division semifinals of the Easter Bowl/U.S. Tennis Assn. Super National Spring Championships in Palm Springs.

The top-seeded Yim, the No. 3 player in the USTA Southern California boys’ 18 division rankings, built 5-2 advantages in both sets against Das, ranked No. 5 in Southern California and seeded No. 11 in the tournament.

Yim’s victory followed three-set wins in the third and fourth rounds and came despite being bothered by a sore left elbow.

Advancing to girls’ 18 semifinals were ninth-seeded Corona del Mar senior Anne Yelsey and Vania King of Long Beach Poly.

Yelsey won, 7-5, 7-5, in an upset of fifth-seeded Jessica Nguyen, the City Section runner-up while at Granada Hills in 2001. King, seeded No. 14 in the 128-player draw, defeated Brook Buck of Yukon, Okla., 6-1, 6-1.

Fourth-seeded Gary Sacks, a sophomore at Calabasas, advanced to boys’ 16 semifinals with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Stefan Hardy of Santa Maria Righetti.

-- Lauren Peterson