Strong pitching lifts Esperanza to victory over Marina in Ryan Lemmon Tourney

Brandon Wyland of Esperanza had a big effort on the mound Tuesday. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Esperanza High School’s baseball team got a big lift from senior righthander Brandon Wyland Tuesday afternoon in the third day of the Ryan Lemmon Invitational at the Great Park.

Wyland notched 11 strikeouts, scattered three hits and did not allow an earned run through 6 2/3 innings to lead the Aztecs to an 8-1 victory over Marina. Dylan Panella came on in the seventh to get the final out.

Wyland was dominant from the start and struck out the side twice against a Marina team that won its first two games in the 32-team tournament.

“I just wanted to go out and help my team any way I could, we’ve been struggling lately and I enjoy pitching and I love playing for this team and coming out here and going out knowing what I can do and this team behind me, I couldn’t do it without the offense,” he said.

“We really stepped it up today, our approaches were better and we were putting the ball in play not trying to go yard. We were putting the ball down in the ground and we made things happen and I couldn’t have done it without my team.”

It was the first victory for Esperanza (6-9) after two losses in the tournament.

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“Brandon has been our ace for two years,” said Esperanza Coach Jason Secoda. “He’s such a competititor, he’s fun to watch. He just goes right after people and throws strikes. He’s just so consistent, that’s about what you get every time out. He had his good fastball today and his breaking ball, toward the end, he got it back.”

Esperanza banged out 10 hits off Marina pitchers Ashton Arroyo and Dominic Riola who came on in the fourth inning.

“We will take it any way we can get it at the moment, we’ve been struggling offensively,” Secoda said. “We’re just trying to keep our approach good and go after these pitchers.”

The Aztecs moved ahead with a run in the second inning. Josh Santos walked and came around to score on a wild pitch.

Esperanza added three more runs in the third inning. Josh Tomas and Adrian Romero had RBI singles and Jude Nelson had a walk with the bases loaded to drive in a run. Marina also had an error in the inning that allowed a run to score.

The Aztecs took advantage of two errors in the fifth inning to score three more runs. Ethan Bigani and Luke Secoda had RBI doubles and Nelson an RBI single to make it 7-0.

Esperanza scored another run in the bottom of the sixth. Marina cashed in an error in the seventh to break the shutout.

Cash Thompson had two hits for Marina.

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