Estancia one step closer to OCL title

COSTA MESA — The Estancia High baseball team’s split innings formula of Ryan Boselo plus Marc DeFrenza has produced a 73% success rate in Orange Coast League games. Add in staunch defense with a few clutch hits and Estancia now has a league title in sight with one game to go.

In Tuesday’s league matchup against Calvary Chapel, Boselo and DeFrenza combined for a three-hit shutout and helped Estancia stay atop the league with a 2-0 win at Vanguard University.

Estancia (16-10, 8-3 in league) will play for what is believed to be its first league title since 1991 Thursday when it plays host to Calvary Chapel (15-11, 6-5) at 3:15 p.m. Costa Mesa beat Laguna Beach, 7-5, Tuesday and remains tied for first with Estancia. If both teams win or lose Thursday, the rivals will share the league title. If one loses, the other will be the outright league champion.

If the rivals share the league title, Estancia would be the league’s top representative for the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Estancia will be making its first playoff appearance since 1994.

Boselo and DeFrenza have helped make that happen.

“We have done the same thing all the way throughout league,” Estancia Coach Matt Sorensen said of his pitching rotation. “[Either] Boselo will open and DeFrenza will finish the game or DeFrenza will open the game and Boselo will finish the game. They are doing a dynamite job.”

Sorensen, the third-year coach, has seen his team improve this season, as Estancia went 8-17 last year. His team has picked it up in league too as it went 5-19 in the OCL in his first two seasons.

On Tuesday, Boselo started and gave up just two hits on five strikeouts with two walks in four innings of work. DeFrenza closed the last three innings with three strikeouts while only allowing one hit. This was the tandem’s third shutout pitching performance thus far against league opponents.

Unfortunately, shut-out pitching can only help win games. Runs still need to be put on the board. Those runs came late on Tuesday.

In the top of the fifth inning, Victor Trujillo lined a low-and-away fastball to the left-center field fence that resulted in a lead-off double. With one out and Trujillo on second, captain and catcher Josh Dominguez strolled to the plate. Usually the most vocal player on the team, Dominguez became the most clutch, as he pounded a base hit up the middle that scored Trujillo and put Estancia up by one.

Estancia added an insurance run in the sixth when Alex Trancoso poked a liner to left-center field to score Matt Carlyle from third.

The game was won on paper by the pitching and the two late RBIs, but without a few key defensive stops early, Calvary Chapel may have squeaked by. In the bottom of the first inning, sophomore third baseman Kevin Carvajal barehanded a slow chopper and beat the runner at first to close out the inning with a runner on third base.

Orange Coast League Estancia 2, Calvary Chapel 0 SCORE BY INNINGS

Boselo, DeFrenza (5) and Dominguez; Perry, McDaniel (6) and McLuckey. W – DeFrenza, 8-3. L – Perry, 4-3. 2B – Trujillo (E).