PLACENTIA – Valencia and Pacifica, two of the frontrunners in the Empire League, traded punches worthy of a heavyweight bout Wednesday.
A blow from Laine Huffman dealt the biggest impact.
Huffman hit a tying home run in the bottom of the sixth and the Tigers went on to score three additional runs to earn a 6-3 victory against Pacifica in a league game at Valencia.
Valencia (18-3, 6-1) claimed sole possession of first place in league with the win. The Tigers were tied with the Mariners (13-8, 5-2) entering the game.
“It was all started with the at-bat from Huffman,” Valencia coach Joe Secoda said. “Gosh, I want to say it was probably a 10-12 pitch at-bat, just fouled off tough pitches. He got the home run that tied it. Then we executed some things, we got some guys on and executed a hit and run. We executed and it was nice to see.”
While the sixth was “nice to see,” the Tigers probably didn’t enjoy the first five innings.
Pacifica starter Taylor Franzman held Valencia to just two hits through the first five frames.
“He was working in and out pretty effectively,” Huffman said. “He had a pretty good slider.”
Four batters after Huffman’s homer, Charlie Mayfield singled off Franzman to drive in Matt Ruff for what would be the winning run.
Ruff retired the side in order in the seventh to seal the victory.
The game was scoreless until the fifth when Pacifica’s Nick Howard led off with a solo home run.
Valencia countered in the bottom half of the inning when Andrew Natividad had a run-scoring triple to tie the game, 1-1. The Tigers took a 2-1 lead when Natividad scored on a wild pitch.
Franzman answered for the Mariners in the sixth with a double to drive in a run, and they eventually took a 3-2 lead.
The two teams face off again Friday at 3:15 p.m. at Pacifica.
“It’s going to be like that from here on out,” Secoda said. “It’s just the way our league works and I expect the same thing on Friday.”
Contact the writer: amorales@ocregister.com