Fountain Valley grabs early lead, beats Foothill at Angel Stadium

Fountain Valley High’s baseball team waited almost an hour for its chance to play on the big stage at Angel Stadium on Thursday night.

The game before moved slowly, delaying the start of the Barons’ nonleague game with Foothill.

It was worth the wait for the Barons.

The Barons wasted little time, grabbing an early lead before coasting to a 6-1 victory at the Big A.

Fountain Valley (12-7) has won four its last five games. The Barons head back into Sunset League play at Los Alamitos on Friday at 3:15 p.m. Fountain Valley shares third place in league at 3-3, a game back of the second-place Griffins.

After losing 3-1 to Los Alamitos and falling out of second place on Wednesday, Barons coach Deric Yanagisawa started all seniors to give them the opportunity to play in a major league ballpark. The Barons got off to a fast start in the top of the first inning, rallying for three runs with two of them scoring without a hit.

With one out, Iain Collins reached first on an error, Cedric Perez walked and Noah Amenta was hit by a pitch. Shea Adame’s sacrifice fly to right field scored Collins, and Perez scored on an error. Nathan Wilson, who went two for two, drove in the third run with a single.

“We have played here before,” Yanagisawa said. “We played here last year against Los Alamitos, and I think only four players from that team played here then.”

The strategy of playing all seniors continued to work. The Barons added another run in the second and two more in the third before some of the regular starters entered the game in the fourth inning.

The six runs were the second most Foothill (14-5) has allowed this season. The pitching staff entered the game with a 1.61 earned-run average.

Fountain Valley right-hander Michael Klug gave up the only Knight run in the third inning. The senior, who allowed three hits, struck out six and walked one, impressed Yanagisawa with his five-inning effort.

“He pitched very well,” said Yanagisawa, adding that Klug improved to 2-0. “He is coming off a shoulder injury and missed three weeks before getting about four innings of work in the [San Luis Obispo Tournament] last week. He was able to get his secondary pitch, which is a breaking ball, over the plate. He also did well with his changeup.”

The Barons dropped their opening game in the San Luis Obispo Tournament over spring break, losing to Goleta Dos Pueblos before bouncing back to consecutive victories against Turlock Pitman, Templeton and Merced Golden Valley.

“We have played some pretty good teams this year,” Yanagisawa said. “Five or six of them have been ranked in the top 10 [in either the CIF Southern Section Division 1 or Division 2 poll].”

Fountain Valley senior Grant Salamon pitched the final two innings, allowing two hits. One of those hits was to pinch-hitter Kyle Ashworth, who then was thrown out attempting to steal second on a perfect strike from reserve catcher Evan Mak.

Leadoff hitter Conrad Villafuerte went two for four with an RBI for Fountain Valley. Sophomore shortstop Sebastian Murillo had the only extra-base hit of the night with a line-drive double to left that scored one run in the third inning.

Murillo also scored the Barons’ final run on Villafuerte’s second single of the game.

“I thought we hit the ball well and a lot of players got hits,” Yanagisawa said.

DAVE DANIEL is a contributor to Times Community News.