LOS ALAMITOS — The Los Alamitos baseball team’s winning streak and its second-place position in the standings appeared to be in jeopardy early in the Griffins’ Surf League game against Fountain Valley on Wednesday at Los Alamitos High School.
After spotting the Barons four runs in the first inning, the Griffins came back to tie the score in the fifth, and then won 6-5 thanks to Devin Porch’s tiebreaking, solo home run in the sixth.
The Griffins (20-5, 4-2), who are ranked No. 6 in Orange County, extended their winning streak to nine in a row and are alone in second place with three league games remaining.
No. 15 Fountain Valley (14-9, 3-3) is in third place and also has three league games left.
After playing the Barons again on Friday, the Griffins close out the regular season with two games against No. 5 Huntington Beach, the Surf League’s first-place team. The Barons end the regular season with a pair of game versus Edison (9-14, 0-6).
Only the top two teams in four-team leagues receive automatic bids for the playoffs.
The Barons scored four runs with two outs in the first inning.
The big blow was Tyler Peshke’s two-run triple.
Gibson Rath then singled home Peshke and Jacob De Maria singled in Rath later in the inning.
Griffins starter Jack Lorenz settled down after that and didn’t allow another run until there were two outs in the fifth inning.
“He settled down and kept us in the game and gave us a chance,” Los Alamitos coach Tony Fusco said. “We didn’t have to get into the bullpen. We have a lot of confidence in him. I don’t think he was super sharp. He was a little bit more tired than usual. It’s the end of the year. But he’s a competitor and he competed for us today.”
A disastrous third inning by the Barons allowed the Griffins to get back into the game with three unearned runs.
The Barons committed three errors, along with a passed ball, wild pitch and hit batter in the inning.
In the fifth inning, a serious collision in the outfield occurred between Fountain Valley left fielder Isaac Lomeli and center fielder Gibson Rath on a deep fly ball hit into the gap by Jake Evans.
Despite the collision, Lomeli made the catch but laid on the ground for several minutes before being taken off the field on a golf cart.
The base runners were able to tag up from second and third on the play to make the score 5-5.
Porch led off the sixth and hit the first pitch he saw over the wall in left-center field for a home run that wound up being the game winner.
“I just went up there trying to see one of my pitches” Porch said. “I ended up getting the first pitch and just taking it out. The game was kind of on the line, and I had to put my boys on top.”
Logan Hunt pitched in relief for the Griffins and retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh innings.
