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THREE-PEAT!
EN FUEGO DOMINATES THE COMPETITION EN
ROUTE TO WINNING THE 2007 SPRING SVUSD TUESDAY NIGHT LADERA
RANCH LEAGUE TITLE
THEY COME FROM BEHIND TO BEAT RIVAL STAC
PAC 15-11 FOR THEIR THIRD STRAIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP AND FOURTH IN
FIVE SEASONS AT LADERA RANCH
May 8, 2007
LADERA RANCH
FIELDS – FINAL: En Fuego 15, Stac Pac 11
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En Fuego continued their success in the SVUSD Tuesday
night league at Ladera Ranch with another championship.
Only a one run loss to Pink Taco kept En Fuego away from
its second undefeated season in franchise history. En
Fuego outscored the opposition by an average of almost
12 runs a game during their impressive run through the
2007 Spring Tuesday night league at Ladera Ranch. The
way En Fuego played throughout the season and in recent
leagues and tournaments can only be described with one
word…Dominating!
For the third straight time and fourth out of the last
five seasons En Fuego (11-1) has won the SVUSD Tuesday
league championship. This time they beat league foe Stac
Pac (8-4) in a come from behind victory. En Fuego
trailed Stac Pac early, through the first two innings of
play Stac Pac led 8-1 before En Fuego inched their way
back into the game. Coming within three, two, and one run
of catching Stac Pac after the third, fourth, and fifth
innings En Fuego trailed Stac Pac 11-8 heading into the
bottom of the sixth. Once again they came up big in the
clutch and would refuse to lose when it mattered most.
After timely hits by Kevin
Lorton, James Verdi,
Corrie Willkie, and
Jerry Langner En Fuego was down 11-10 with one out. The
next batter, Ryan Johnson, drove a ball deep to right
field that sailed over the right fielder’s head for a go
ahead three-run home run to give En Fuego a two-run lead
13-11. Three batters later after a two-out walk by
injured outfielder Vince
Petruzzi, Jason Santoro
added a two-run shot that put En Fuego up by four,
15-11. Without much of a threat En Fuego held down Stac
Pac in the top of the seventh for the 15-11 championship
win. After the first two innings En Fuego outscored Stac
Pac 14-3 en route to the title win and their fourth
championship win versus Stac Pac in six meetings. |
Team
MVP Ryan Sauers hit .758 on the season to lead En Fuego.
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Along with the timely hitting En Fuego once again displayed
solid defense and pitching as they had all season long. Through
the 12 games En Fuego allowed only 89 runs – 7.4 runs allowed
per game for the season – a new team record. “I don’t know if
that is a team record, but it is really impressive no matter the
opponents.” Manager Craig Watkins
tried to define the team’s accomplishments. “Really it is an
amazing run we have had. The team has just consistently played
solid.” We’re competitive in just about every game and the guys
believe they can win no matter the situation.”
Once again for En Fuego it was a great team effort. Each player
contributed in some way or another. On offense outfielder
Mike Lorton got En Fuego within
one run of Stac Pac after the fifth inning with a two-run home
run. Kevin Lorton reached base three times and scored each time.
The team stayed close knowing they would have the last at bat.
Solid defense all around and a few big plays by newcomer
Jonathon Petke in the outfield behind the pitching of Craig
Watkins enabled En Fuego to keep Stac Pac from running away with
the game early. Solid play by infielders
Cesar Reyes, Johnson, Jason Hogan,
Willkie, and Ryan Sauers helped
keep En Fuego in the game. “The guys on the infield made all the
plays and got the outs we needed to get.” Said Watkins
First basemen Ryan Sauers capped off the championship season
winning the team batting title with a .758 average and his first
team MVP award. “It’s lonely at the top!” Said Sauers
Notes: Again there were more milestones for En Fuego during the
season…On February 6, 2007 Jerry Langner collected his 100th
career hit with the team in a 24-9 win over Ladera Ranch…And on
February 20, 2007 Langner played in his 50th game with the
club…On March 6, 2007 Corrie Willkie hit career home run number
77 to move one ahead of Brett Nista
for third place in En Fuego team history…On March 27, 2007 Jason
Santoro walked for the 100th time in his career becoming the
fifth player in team history to do so…On April 10, 2007 James
Verdi collected his 600th career hit with En Fuego…On May 1,
2007 Santoro belted his team leading 200th career home run…It
was the sixth meeting all-time in a league championship game
versus Stac Pac for En Fuego…En Fuego has won four of the six
meetings including the last two…Overall En Fuego and rival Stac
Pac have faced off 73 times since 1996 with En Fuego holding a
slight edge (37-34-2)…The 73 meetings between the two teams
equals the most for En Fuego against one opponent…They have also
played rival Spring Training 73 times and lead in that series
(40-33)…The 89 runs allowed on the season by En Fuego and the
7.4 runs per game allowed are new team records…The previous
record for runs allowed in a season was 100… It happened in the
first season in club history…During that season, the 1995 Fall
Tuesday SVUSD league at Oso Viejo Fields, En Fuego allowed only
8.3 runs per game…En Fuego has won three straight titles in the
Tuesday night league at Ladera Ranch and four of the last
five…Overall since the inception of the Ladera Ranch Fields in
2001 En Fuego has played in nine leagues there and have been to
the championship eight of the nine times winning six titles…The
teams overall record in 126 career games at Ladera is (92-33-1
.734)…En Fuego is off to one of their best starts to a calendar
year…so far in 2007 they are (23-5 .821) in 28 games including
two league championships and one tournament title…Since the
beginning of 2005 En Fuego has dominated league play…In twelve
leagues between the Tuesday league at Ladera Ranch and Thursday
league at Laguna Hills En Fuego has been to the title game nine
times and won the championship eight times…and they have won the
championship five out the last six leagues they have played
in…The clubs overall record in 190 games played since 2005 is an
impressive (135-54-1 .713)…Overall En Fuego is (495-223-11 .687)
in 729 games since the team’s first game on September 12, 1995.
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Semi-Final:
RM 000-500---5
EF 240-13(11)---21
Records: EF (10-1), RM (5-6) |
Final:
SP 440-012-0---11
EF 104-127-x---15
Records: EF (11-1), SP (8-4) |
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EN
FUEGO SOFTBALL CLUB
2007 SPRING
TUESDAY NIGHT LADERA RANCH LEAGUE CHAMPIONS
Top Row (L to R): Jerry
Langner, Jonathan Petke, Jason Santoro, Ryan Sauers, Cesar
Reyes, Vince Petruzzi, Ryan Johnson.
Bottom Row (L to R): Corrie Willkie, Kevin Lorton,
Jason Hogan, Craig Watkins, Mike Lorton, James Verdi. |
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