SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : 2-A Roundup : Hit Batter in Seventh Gives Laguna Hills a Reprieve

Laguna Hills first baseman Rob Milo was hit by a pitch with two out and the bases loaded in the seventh to give the Hawks a 5-4 victory over Barstow in a Southern Section 2-A second-round playoff game Tuesday at Laguna Hills.

In a quarterfinal Friday, Laguna Hills (18-9) will play Mountain View, which defeated El Rancho, 2-1, Tuesday.

The Hawks trailed Barstow (13-7-1) after six innings, 4-1. Pitcher Eddie Zamora, who singled in two runs in the first, allowed one unearned run on five hits while striking out three in the six innings.

But Zamora (9-2), who hadn’t completed a game in his last three outings, could not get an out in the seventh. After he walked two and hit one to load the bases, Zamora allowed a single by Jay Christensen to narrow the lead to 4-2.

Catcher Aaron Arredondo tied the score, 4-4, with a two-run single to left. Zamora was then replaced by John Simmons.

After Simmons sandwiched two outs around an intentional walk to load the bases, he worked the count to 1-2 to Milo before hitting him.

“We were lucky to get out of this one with a win,” said Jack Hodges, Laguna Hills coach.

“Zamora had us struggling. But in the later innings, he was getting his pitches up, and that’s how we were able to hit him late in the game.”

Ron Kortman, who replaced Laguna Hills starter Mike Smedes in the second, allowed one run, gave up four hits and struck out four. He is 3-1.

“I just wanted to allow just a few runs, if any, and keep my team in the ballgame,” Kortman said. “I kept the ball down and got a lot of good called strikes.”

In other 2-A play:

La Serna 5, Saddleback 3--La Serna took advantage of five errors to win the second-round game at Rancho Santiago College. La Serna (17-5-1) had 10 hits as it earned its 11th consecutive victory. Saddleback (20-8) trailed, 2-0, in the first but tied the score when Sean Therien hit a two-run home run in the same inning.

Saddleback (20-8) then went on to allow three unearned runs and miss two key opportunities. La Serna scored an unearned run in the top of the third to take a 3-2 lead, then Saddleback loaded the bases with none out in the fifth.

But Rick Poliquin relieved starter and winner Mark Dressen (7-3) to retire George Saldana and Jeff Blanco on infield flies and Brian Hoialman on a ground ball back to the mound to end the threat.

“That really was the key, we just got ahead of the ball and popped it up,” Bobby Mangram, Saddleback Coach said. “We could have buried them right there.”

La Serna Coach Jon Eno agreed that Poliquin’s relief work was the key.

“If they put a couple of runs on the board (in the third inning) they could have buried us.” he said. “That was the first time we’ve used him in relief all year.”

Saddleback rallied with three consecutive hits in the seventh, but Poliquin then ended the threat.

Indio 4, La Quinta 3--The Rajahs (18-6) scored twice in both the fourth and fifth innings and shut down an Aztec rally in the seventh to defeat fourth-seeded La Quinta (22-5) at Indio High.

Trailing, 4-2, entering the seventh, Aztec third baseman John Park singled to center field, advanced to second on an error and to third on Tim Park’s fly out to right. Jeff Wood’s single scored Park and made it 4-3.

Wood then stole second and moved to third on Jeff Kronfly’s groundout, but he was stranded there when Jerry Arneson grounded out to second to end the game.

Bob Pickowitz went the distance, allowing seven hits and striking out four.

James Marquez, who pitched the first 3 innings before being relieved by Mike Wilson, was the loser.