Sixth inning grand slam lifts Villa Park to key Crestview League win over Cypress

Villa Park Spartans after Friday’s league victory over Cypress. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Villa Park junior left fielder Dominic Gutierrez’s two-out grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning broke a tie game and propelled the Spartans to a 5-3 victory over Cypress in a thrilling Crestview League baseball game Friday afternoon at Villa Park.

By virtue of the win, the Spartans (14-5, 3-3) moved to within one game of first place in league behind Cypress and Foothill.

“When they intentionally walked the batter in front of me to load the bases, I felt it was my time to shine,” said Gutierrez, who belted his first career grand slam high over the right field fence. “I hit a curveball, and I didn’t know if it was gone right away but after it cleared the fence it felt amazing. It’s a once in a lifetime hit.”

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With the game tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Joe Ramirez led off with an infield single and was sacrificed to second by Alex Lopez. Ramirez took third on a wild pitch.

Austin Park drew a walk, and Aidan Young was intentionally walked to load the bases for Gutierrez. The left-handed swinging Gutierrez then blasted his first home run of the season off Cypress left-handed reliever Nick Nelson that gave the Spartans a four-run lead.

“He hadn’t gotten any hits off us in the series, but he’s a good hitter and he hit a good pitch, but maybe we threw one curve ball too many,” said Cypress Coach John Weber.

Scoop Romero also had a huge game for the Spartans going 4 for 4 with two doubles and two singles. His fifth inning RBI double to right center scored Young, who had doubled to lead off the inning, and tied the game at 1-1.

“When we play at our best, we are unbeatable; we’re not there yet, but we are getting close,” said Romero.

Villa Park got outstanding relief pitching from sophomore right hander Logan Hoppie. He came in relief to start the third inning and was relieved by Owen Smith after walking the first two Centurions batters in the seventh inning.

“I didn’t want to come out, but I was getting tired,” said Hoppie, who allowed only two hits and struck out five in four innings of relief. “I knew my defense had my back and the offense would come through. We have mental toughness.”

However, Cypress (12-9, 4-2) wouldn’t go down in the seventh without a battle.

After Smith relieved Hoppie with two on and no outs in the top of the seventh, he quickly retired the first two batters he faced. With two outs, Connor Artasere and John Short clubbed RBI singles to cut the lead to 5-3. Artasere stole second base and moved to third on Short’s infield single.

Tyler Vladic came to bat with the tying run on first, but the game ended when Short was thrown out by catcher Owen Dunne trying to steal second base.

“Coming into the game in a situation like that, I just feel I’m better than them and I’m going to keep coming at them hard,” said Smith, a junior.

“It’s a big win for us and we’re in a tight race,” said Spartans Coach Burt Call. “We got great relief pitching from Hoppie and Smith. They both got moxie. It was Dominic’s first homer of the season, and it was huge. They intentionally walked a guy to get to him and I think that probably motivated him a bit. Today, we handled in-game adversity very well and I’m proud of our guys.”

Gutierrez was involved in a controversial play in the bottom of the third inning.

With one out, Gutierrez walked. Romero then blasted a shot to deep left center near the fence. It appeared that Centurions left fielder Greg Prophet III made the catch. The umpire called an out but then ruled that Prophet III had dropped the ball. Gutierrez broke back to first base but was passed on the bases by Romero. Gutierrez then raced to second base safely.

Both coaches came out and debated the call and the game was delayed for nearly 10 minutes. Romero was ruled out for passing Gutierrez between first and second base and Gutierrez remained at second base. Val Lopez followed with a walk and Gunner Santillo flied out to end the inning as Villa Park failed to score.

Young scored two runs and Ramirez had two hits and scored a run for the Spartans.

Garrett Rodriguez scored two runs and Artasere had three hits and two RBI, including an RBI triple in the fifth inning that gave the Centurions a 1-0 lead.

Despite the loss Weber said his Cypress team still has sights on a league title.

“At this time of the season, you want to control your own destiny, and we still have that,” said Weber. “Our guys showed character, down by four runs in the final inning we scored twice and had the tying runs on base. I must remind myself at times that these are kids, and they work hard. Today, we didn’t take advantage of all the scoring opportunities we had early in the game.”