Trabuco starts fast and finishes strong; tops Fountain Valley 7-3 in Ryan Lemmon tourney

Trabuco Hills reliever Danny Suarez fires a pitch Saturday night (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Trabuco Hills baseball team came out of the gates fast and finished with a bang Saturday night to defeat Fountain Valley 7-3 in the opening round of the Ryan Lemmon Invitational at the Orange County Great Park Stadium.

The Mustangs (11-7) scored four runs in the first inning and broke open a close game with three runs in the seventh to defeat the Barons (5-10).

“It was a great win against a quality program,” said Trabuco Hills Coach Michael Burns. “I think they had a week off so we think we saw their better pitching. It was good to see some really good at bats from our guys and really battle and fight and compete. It was great.”

In the first inning, Trabuco Hills took advantage of two errors by Fountain Valley. Robbie Weiskittel and Justin Bailey, who both reached on errors, drove in runs and Drake Martin capped the inning with a two-run single.

Fountain Valley chipped away at the lead, scoring a run in the second, third and fourth innings. In the fourth Jake Brooks was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a passed ball. He scored on a ground out by Tito Sanchez to close the gap to 4-3.

But in the top of the seventh, Trabuco Hills extended its lead to 7-3. Weiskittel had an RBI double.

“That was really a timely hit,” Burns said.

Martin had an RBI single, his third RBI of the day.

Sophomore Danny Suarez, who came on in the fifth inning, finished strong on the mound for the Mustangs, throwing three shutout innings and striking out three.

“That was his second outing where looked like that,” Burns said. “We’re really excited about that so hopefully we will keep it going.”

Martin was 3 for 4 with three RBI.

Trabuco Hills outhit Fountain Valley 7- 3. Fountain Valley wound up making four errors in the game.

Brooks, who was hit twice by pitches, scored two of the three runs for Fountain Valley.

SATURDAY’S SCORES AND MONDAY’S TOURNEY SCHEDULE

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