South Coast League Baseball : Capo Valley’s Hot Bats Turn Back Irvine, 11-3

The last time Capistrano Valley High School’s baseball team played Irvine, on April 4, Cougar left fielder Nathan Call was competing in a basketball tournament at Phoenix and Vaquero right-hander Brian Snoddy pitched Irvine to a 5-0 victory.

It’s doubtful that Call would have had an impact that day, as Snoddy threw a four-hitter, but he certainly made his presence felt Wednesday when the teams met for the second time.

Call hit two home runs and had four RBIs to lead Capistrano Valley to an 11-3 win in a South Coast League game played on the Cougars’ field.

Call led a 12-hit Capistrano Valley attack that helped the Cougars win their sixth straight game and improve to 7-3 in league, 15-6 overall. A three-year starter, Call failed to hit .300 in his sophomore and junior seasons but he is now batting .482 (27 of 56) and has hit five homers in Capistrano Valley’s last four league games.

“He’s on fire,” Cougar Coach Bob Zamora said.

He wasn’t the only hot hitter for Capistrano Valley Wednesday. Tommy Adams, Marcel Durand, Brett Snyder and Mike Pierce each had two hits. Adams led off the game with a home run and Pierce had a two-run double in the first.

Cougar right-hander Scott Stark went the distance on a six-hitter and struck out three to improve his record to 7-1.

Terry Rahmatulla and Bob Hamelin homered for Irvine, but that couldn’t prevent Snoddy and the Vaqueros from suffering their worst defeat of the season. Their largest margin of defeat had been four runs in a 6-2 season-opening loss to Edison.

Snoddy entered with an 8-1 record and a 1.42 earned-run average, but he allowed five runs and six hits in just two innings and made his earliest departure of the year.

Ed Laipple relieved Snoddy in the third and gave up five runs, only one of them earned, and Mike Stewart allowed a run in the seventh.

“Everyone gets beat like this sometimes,” Irvine Coach Bob Flint said. “Today was the day they crushed us, and we didn’t play very well to add to it. This was the first time in 10 games Snoddy has been smacked, but if he goes out 20 times and only gets hit twice, we’re in pretty good shape.”

Despite losing two of their last three games, the Vaqueros (8-2, 17-8-1) are still in first place, thanks to Laguna Hills’ upset of Mission Viejo Wednesday.

In other South Coast League action:

Laguna Hills 3, Mission Viejo 0--Wayne Helm pitched his sixth shutout of the season and drove in all three runs with a bases-loaded double in the third inning to lead the Hawks (4-4-1, 13-9-1) to the win at Laguna Hills.

Helm struck out seven and limited Mission Viejo (6-2, 15-4) to four hits. The Diablos remain in second place behind Irvine.

Dana Hills 4, El Toro 2--Trailing 2-0, the Dolphins rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on at Dana Hills. Jim Reiley started the rally with a one-out walk.

Greg Erickson followed with a single. Reiley scored on a double by Dave Lyon, and Erickson and Lyon were driven in on Ed Esteban’s single to right. Esteban later scored on a squeeze bunt by Tony Ferguson.

Losing pitcher Richard Faulks hit a solo home run for El Toro (3-7, 10-14) in the second inning.