San Dimas players celebrate after Saturday’s victory over Irvine. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
San Dimas baseball team came out swinging Saturday morning on the opening day of the Ryan Lemmon Invitational at Great Park Stadium and captured a 13-2 victory over Irvine, snapping the Vaqueros three-game winning streak.
Irvine (7-7) was coming off two Pacific Coast League victories over Woodbridge. But San Dimas (5-7) wracked up eight hits and Irvine pitchers hit nine batters and walked eight others.
San Dimas scored three runs in the first inning and led the rest of the way.
“We didn’t show up on the bump, 17 free passes is not going to get it done,” said Irvine Coach Gabriel Cota.
“It’s a beautiful tournament, tough effort, two competitive league games, to come out and play a team you know nothing about ….. It’s one of those days where after you leave the park, forget it and come back and get a well deserved day off tomorrow and we will get back after it Monday and go back to being what we are. Short memory in baseball, that’s a good thing.”
San Dimas Coach Mike Regan was pleased with the result. His team advanced to the finals of the tournament last year losing to Woodbridge in the championship game.
“That’s always the plan {to reach finals} but you have to pick them off one by one,” Regan said.
The coach liked his team’s approach Saturday.
“We came out and scored early and often,” Regan said. “That’s been our problem this year, when we score, we usually have a favorable outcome, we hit the ball the other way, we put pressure on them and stole some bags. These guys played good and we got everybody in and got a lot of guys opportunities.
“We started some different guys and made some changes.”
Lefthander Cash Parry, a transfer, pitched into the third inning in his first start. Adam Rosales and Andrew DeMarets were among the other pitchers for the Saints.
San Dimas took charge early. In the first inning, Eleazar Santillan had an RBI single, Anderson Markese drove in a run on a groundout and James Rocha had an RBI single off Irvine starter Jason Alderson, the first of three Irvine pitchers.
Irvine used four walks to push across a run in the top of the second inning. Josh Unger drew a bases loaded walk to drive in the run, scoring Nico Macalino, who walked to lead off the inning.
But in the bottom of the inning, San Dimas countered with a run. Louis Farias got a bases loaded walk to drive in Kelson Curtis, who reached on an infield single.
San Dimas scored three runs in the third inning to break the game open and take a 7-1 lead, taking advantage of three walks and a hit batter. Josh Calcanas drove in a run on a groundout and Santillan had an RBI single.
In the fourth inning, Curtis had a two-run triple , Farias an RBI double as part of a five-run inning.
Irvine scored its second run in the fifth inning. Jack Dressendorfer singled to leadoff and scored on a pinch-hit single by Andew Lai. San Dimas added another run in the bottom of the inning.
Woodbridge defeated San Dimas 8-4 in last year’s tournament final.
The tournament continues on Monday at the Great Park.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
More Stories
Final scores for opening day of Ryan Lemmon Baseball Invitational at the Great Park
La Habra holds on for key Crestview League home victory against El Dorado
Irvine varsity baseball coach Gabriel Cota celebrates 100th career victory