Late-inning triple helps Villa Park top Pacifica for third place in Ryan Lemmon tourney

Villa Park players and coaches celebrate after Wednesday’s game vs. Pacifica. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Villa Park High School’s baseball team capped a successful week at the Ryan Lemmon Invitational defeating Pacifica 4-0 at the Great Park Stadium to capture third place in the 19-team tournament.

Spartan pitchers Jack McGuire and Val Lopez combined to limit Pacifica to just two hits. In five innings, McGuire (3-1) allowed two hits and struck out six to get the win. Lopez earned the save, striking out four and allowing one hit.

“This game was really good for us,” said Villa Park Coach Burt Call. “I thought Jack settled down and we made some good plays behind him defensively early in the game to kind of minimize some of their threats and then I think we executed a bunt and Aidan Young came up with the huge triple for us. I’m very proud of the way they played and competed.”

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The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning. The Spartans Joseph Ramirez was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Ezra Ornelas followed with a single and Austin Park sacrificed the runners over. Young followed with a booming triple to left center field to drive in two runs. Shawn Romero drove in the other run on a groundout.

“I’m seeing the ball pretty well, I’m just getting under a lot of stuff,” said Young, a junior outfielder who is the leadoff hitter. “But I saw it up, a slider, something I could hit, I was just trying to get my teammates to get going and get something in. It was a great week for us, we went undefeated, I’m just really proud of my team and my pitching, they did really well, that was our main highlight of the tournament.

“Jack McGuire is one of my best friends, he’s really good on the mound, especially with his confidence recently, he’s been dealing.”

Villa Park (13-4) added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Lopez led off with a single, Ramirez sacrificed him to second, Ornelas singled and Park drove in a run on a groundout.

Pacifica (5-12) had two runners on in the second, fourth and sixth innings but could not come up with a key hit to break the shutout. Leadoff hitter Karson Mau’u had a single and a double for the Mariners, who won their first three games of the tournament.

The Mariners were unable to take advantage of six walks by Villa Park.

Starting pitcher Trent Kinkade pitched four shutout innings for Pacifica before Villa Park scored. Tommy Hadden and Anthony Rodriguez finished on the mound.

Villa Park just missed a chance to compete in the final of the tournament, coming up short in the tie-breaker, runs allowed. But Call said he had no complaints.

“That’s unfortunate but we enjoy playing in the Ryan Lemmon Tournament,” he said. “It’s awesome and you play great teams and you get to play in a great facility. We’re proud of the way our guys competed and going 4-0 in the tournament.”

The tournament was sponsored by Guy Lemmon’s Ryan Lemmon Foundation. Dick Owens was the tournament director.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com