Sunset League Baseball : Fountain Valley Stuns Westminster, Ends Its Losing Streak at 3 Games

Before his team’s Sunset League game against Westminster Tuesday afternoon, Kent Neil, Fountain Valley High School’s baseball coach, said his team was feeling a bit down.

The Barons were 6-7 with a three-game losing streak. Hopes for their first playoff berth in two years were beginning to look bleak as they prepared to play the league’s first-place team.

“It’s a win or die situation for us,” Neil said. “There’s not much else to say.”

Not much, that is, until the Barons upset Westminster, 7-6, at Fountain Valley.

Tony Spaan, the Barons’ second baseman, drove in pinch-runner Garan Ito in the bottom of the seventh for the winning run.

With one out and Ito running for Mike Walcott on second, Spaan (3 for 3 with a run batted in and two runs scored) chopped a Ryan Klesko fastball toward Lion third baseman Brian Mantel.

But Mantel misjudged the ball, which hit him in the head as Ito ran for home.

“It’s too bad the winning run had to come in on an error, but we’ll take it any way we can,” Neil said.

Fountain Valley took a 5-0 lead in the second inning as John Dal Poggetto and Mark Dodd each hit a two-run home run and Brad Futak singled in a run.

However, Westminster pulled to 5-4 in the top of the fifth. Brian Stubbs then hit a solo home run to lead off the sixth, and Mantel scored on a sacrifice fly by David Rodriguez to give Westminster a 6-5 lead in the sixth.

Fountain Valley made the score 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth when Brian Mendoza sacrificed to bring in Spaan.

The victory puts Fountain Valley (7-7 in league) in fifth place behind fourth-place Ocean View (7-6-1). Westminster (8-6) now is in a three-way tie for first with Edison (8-6) and Huntington Beach (8-6).

In other Sunset League games:

Edison 8, Ocean View 2--Daryl Mead had two hits, including a three-run homer, and four RBIs to lead host Edison (12-11-1, 8-6). Josh Bammer had two hits, including a two-run homer, and Mark Whitcher had four hits for Edison. J.J. Thobe (2-3) went the distance for the victory. Ocean View is 13-10-1 and 7-6-1.

Huntington Beach 8, Marina 6 (8 innings)--Marina broke a 3-3 tie with three runs in the top of the eighth, but host Huntington Beach rallied for five runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. After Brian Menlo singled, Dan Miller, Jamie Hernandez and Tom Flores had RBI doubles to make the score 6-6. Gerad Cawhorn then hit a two-run home run to win it. Ken Pope (3-1) got the victory.