El Dorado Looks Strong While Beating Cypress

It won’t be known until the end of the season whether El Dorado will hang on to its No. 1 ranking in the county. But the Golden Hawks are looking strong as the leaders in the Empire League race.

The first-place Hawks looked Cypress, their closest league pursuer, in the eye Wednesday and stared them down with a 9-2 victory at Cypress.

Cypress (8-7-2, 5-3) was disheartened early by El Dorado’s three-run first inning and then was steamrollered by the Hawks’ attack, which featured 10 hits and six stolen bases. The Hawks are 17-2, 7-1.

The Centurions further enervated themselves with some dubious defense--two errors contributed to two unearned runs--and managing only four hits off El Dorado starter Jordan De Jong (5-1).

De Jong pitched a complete game, walking four and striking out five. Cypress starter Ryan Dinley (3-3) pitched 4 1/3 innings, and was charged with eight runs (six earned). He gave up seven hits, walked three, hit three, and struck out two.

“When you get off to a good start, it gives your whole team confidence,” El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said.

El Dorado, which has won five straight since finishing second in the National Classic Tournament, has plenty of reasons to feel confident. And Cypress has reasons not to feel that way, even though they are sending out their ace, Phil Seibel, to the mound Friday to try and salvage a split of the two-game series with El Dorado.

Cypress looked somewhat flat last Friday in a 3-1 loss to Katella. And Wednesday, Jason Pushckor was the lone offensive provider, driving in both runs with a single in the second and a double in the fifth.

They had only one real chance to make a game of it against El Dorado. Trailing, 4-1, the Centurions loaded the bases with two out in the third, but Matt Gay was retired on a fly ball.

A concerned Coach Mark Steinert knows something must happen to shake Cypress from its lethargy.

“Today we never recovered from that first inning,” Steinert said. “We made only two errors on the field but there were other mistakes. And when you make mistakes against a good team you’re going to lose every time.