SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Aliso Niguel closed the gap in the Sea View League baseball standings by beating San Juan Hills 4-2 Wednesday at San Juan Hills High.
The Wolverines (13-7, 4-3) trail in the season series between the two teams two games to one. The two teams will play for the final time this season Friday at Aliso Niguel High.
Aliso Niguel is tied with San Clemente for second in the league standings, one game behind San Juan Hills (15-5, 5-2).
San Juan Hills won both of the first two games 1-0 on March 12-13.
Aliso Niguel’s offense was finally able to score against San Juan Hills in the third inning. Jonathan Nadolski led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.
San Juan Hills elected to intentionally walk USC commit Jarett Sabol and the two runners advanced on a wild pitch.
Tyler Covington hit a two-run single to left field to give Aliso Niguel a 2-0 lead. The runs were the first Aliso Niguel had scored in 16 innings against the Stallions.
“It was huge because we couldn’t execute situationally against them the first two times,” Aliso Niguel coach Craig Hanson said. “That kind of took the relief off of us and told us we can score against this team. It was a nice way to get a little cushion and relax a little bit.”
The run support was helpful for Aliso Niguel starting pitcher Connor Etnire. He was effective Wednesday, pitching 6 2/3 innings with one earned run allowed and six strikeouts.
He was pulled with two outs in the seventh inning due to throwing a season-high 105 pitches.
“I felt good. It’s always nice to have a defense like we have because I can pitch to contact and I know they will get outs,” Etnire said. “We’ve been shut out by this team twice in a row, so when we got runs across we felt we could win this game.”
“He is a competitor,” Hanson said of Etnire said. “He threw more pitches than I normally let any pitcher go, but he’s such a competitor and knowing this was a must-win game for us, we let him go.”
Tyler Geivet relieved Etnire on the mound and after a walk he drew a groundout to end the game.
San Juan Hills scored in the fourth inning when Ryder Stowasser drew a bases-loaded walk. Etnire struck out the next two hitters to escape the fourth with a 2-1 lead.
Covington drove in a run on a fielder’s choice in the fifth inning.
Jake Vuoso hit a run-scoring single in the fifth for the Stallions to cut the lead to 3-2.
Aaron Orwat drew a bases-loaded walk for Aliso Niguel in the seventh to make it 4-2.
Drew Nelson started on the mound for San Juan Hills and scattered eight hits over five innings with two earned runs allowed.
Sabol had three of those hits and also had a great game framing pitches behind the plate.
“He’s been putting a lot of pressure on himself offensively and today he had three great at-bats and got intentionally walked the other one,” Hanson said of Sabol. “He’s a big part of our offense and we need him to swing the bat like he did today.”
The Wolverines won the league championship last season on the last day of the regular season, so every game is crucial.
“We want to even the series Friday and they want to win and go up two games on us so it’s huge for both teams,” Hanson said. “It will be nice to be able to play at home and we know it’s going to be a battle.
