Cypress completes sweep of Foothill and inches closer to Crestview League crown

Cypress was led by (from left) Noah Johnson, Paul Dominguez, Tate Belfanti and Greg Prophet III.( PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Sophomore left-handed pitcher Tate Belfanti hurled five shutout innings and Paul Dominguez and Noah Johnson powered Cypress to a 9-1 victory over Foothill in a Crestview League baseball game Friday at Cypress.

With the win, the Centurions (14-9 and 6-2) sweep the season series from the Knights and remain in first place in league, a game ahead of Villa Park and two games ahead of Foothill.

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Belfanti gave up two hits, struck out five and walked only one batter and was in complete control.

“My fastball wasn’t working so well but my changeup was my favorite pitch today,” said Belfanti. “I kept them off balance and it’s a great team win. We all did our jobs today.”

“When Tate has his mechanics working, he’s crazy good,” said Cypress Coach John Weber. “I think he has something like 48 knockouts (strikeouts) in 30 innings this season. Today, the Foothill batters did not have good at bats against him, they were uncomfortable in the box. On offense, we had good at bats today, especially with two strikes. We made good adjustments against their left hander, an aspect that we worked very hard on this week in practice.”

Johnson and Dominguez combined to pound out four hits, score four runs and record four RBI. The Centurions have now won six of their last eight games.

With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Johnson singled and scored on Dominguez’s double to right center. Dominguez scored later in the inning on Spencer Kwon’s two out RBI single to give the Centurions a 2-0 lead.

Greg Prophet III led off the Cypress second inning with a double to left and scored on Johnson’s RBI single. Dominguez followed by blasting his second double of the game to right field, scoring Johnson. On the play, Dominguez was awarded home when an errant throw went out of play, upping Cypress’ lead to 5-0.

“It felt amazing to get a couple of opposite field hits,” said Dominguez, who hit a three-run homer to beat Foothill on Wednesday. “I’m seeing the ball really well and all of us have bought into the coach’s plan. I felt like I had a good week.”

Johnson also said the team is playing well.

“It felt good to barrel a couple of balls out there today,” said Johnson. “We’re working hard, and we must continue to be consistent. We’re still not playing our best baseball. We have more work to do.”

As Belfanti sailed along, the Centurions added a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth inning, highlighted by RBI from Tyler Vladic, Prophet III, and Gary Hennessey to extend their lead to 9-0. Hennessey had two hits in the game for Cypress.

Sophomore Tyler Kaufman took over for Belfanti and pitched the final two innings to close out the game for the Centurions.  

The Knights’ only run of the game came in the sixth inning when Daniel Troncale’s RBI single scored Sean Green. Green had two hits in the game and made two nice catches on balls in left field. 

Foothill Coach Chris Price said his team (15-8, 4-4) did not execute as it usually does.

“We normally get good pitching and play good defense, but today we didn’t do either one very well,” said Price, whose team committed three errors and has lost three consecutive games. “It’s unfortunate, but you can’t play like that against good teams like Cypress. We must put this one behind us and move forward and get ready for El Modena next week.”

Notes:

—Cypress left fielder Greg Prophet III made two outstanding catches in left field to rob Foothill batters of extra base hits.

—Prophet also had a big game at the plate as he had a double, scored two runs, and had an RBI.