EMPIRE LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Newhan Atones for Poor Baserunning

David Newhan, known more for his baserunning than his power hitting, had his coach a little confused Friday after sparking Esperanza to a 4-2 victory over Katella.

Newhan made up for two early baserunning mistakes with a triple and two runs batted in in the sixth as the Aztecs, top-ranked in Orange County and second-ranked nationally by USA Today, held on at Boysen Park in Anaheim.

“David hits it hard every now and then,” Esperanza Coach Mike Curran said. “I don’t know. He must have had the right cereal at breakfast this morning.”

Esperanza (21-2, 11-2 in league) beat Katella for the third time this season and the second time in three days. More importantly, the Aztecs remained tied with El Dorado for the league lead with one week remaining.

“Sweep Katella?” Curran asked. “It’s unbelievable.

“We came into this series in a three-way tie with Katella and El Dorado. Katella really wanted to sweep us, and they’re nasty at this park.”

Esperanza, which has won the league title five times in the past seven years, plays Los Alamitos twice next week. Katella and El Dorado play a two-game series to close the regular season.

Esperanza’s Joe Foss (7-1) earned the victory, giving up three hits and no runs in 4 2/3 innings. He was relieved by Jeff Bowman, who gave up two runs in the sixth.

Curran said he replaced Foss because the pitcher began having problems keeping the ball low in the strike zone.

“My heart jumped every time Joe got the ball up,” Curran said. “We needed a good outing from Joe and we got it.”

Chris Reed (7-3) went the distance for Katella, giving up six hits, striking out five and walking four.

Esperanza’s Keith McDonald singled off Reed in the third, scoring Erickson Dumaual, who had walked.

But Esperanza’s big inning was the sixth. Mark Allen led off with a single to left, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a single to center by Rich Hills.

Then Newhan, who was thrown out stealing second in the second inning and caught in a rundown in the fourth, tripled and drove in Hills and Jason Hodges, who had walked.

“He needed to do something to redeem himself,” Curran said of Newhan, who entered the game with 15 stolen bases.

Katella cut the deficit to 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth. Kyle Evans walked and scored on a triple to center by Corey Doll. One out later, Reed singled to left, scoring Doll.

But Bowman settled down, getting the final five outs for the save.

The loss dropped Katella (14-9, 9-4) into third place, two games behind the leaders.

“I hate playing these guys,” Katella Coach Tim McMenamin said of Esperanza. “They just don’t make mistakes that hurt themselves.”

In another league game:

El Dorado 12, Cypress 2--John Street had three hits and scored twice for visiting El Dorado (18-5, 11-2 in league).