Dana Hills' Pitcher Eric Pierce Proves Sharp in Puncturing Tritons, 8-0

Dana Hills pitcher Eric Pierce didn’t overpower San Clemente’s batters with a blazing fastball. He didn’t exactly fool them with his off-speed pitches. But what the junior left-hander did have Friday afternoon was pinpoint control of his pitches and, when he needed it, some help from an obliging outfield.

Pierce threw only 69 pitches over six innings, allowed two runners on base simultaneously only once, never allowed a runner to reach third and limited the struggling Tritons to three hits en route to an 8-0 victory in a South Coast League game at San Clemente High.

“I felt pretty good,” said Pierce, who had only two strikeouts but didn’t allow a walk and faced the minimum number of batters in four of his six innings. Sophomore Grant Dyer pitched the last inning and struck out two.

“Not so much that I had a curve ball, and my fastball wasn’t on either," Pierce said. "It was a case of thinking how to keep us in the game.”

The first-place Dolphins (11-6, 5-1 in league) made sure Pierce had plenty of run support and early. They grabbed a first-inning 1-0 lead on a bases-loaded ground out, then scored four runs in the second two-run singles by both senior Eric Hsieh and junior Ryan Kehiet to run the lead to 5-0. They then scored three runs in the top of the seventh on only one single to ice the game.

San Clemente lost a heartbreaker Wednesday at Dana Hills, 2-0, as the Dolphins jumped to an earlier lead. In the rematch, Tritons starter Braden Riddle struggled with his control throughout his four innings of work. He loaded the bases five times and hit two batters, surrendering eight hits while striking out only two.

The Tritons are 10-9 overall but winless in league at 0-6. They have lost four straight games after winning their previous four nonleague games.

“We knew that we had our work cut out for us. Riddle has a good arm,” Dana Hills coach Tom Faris said. “I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t have his good stuff today. We wanted to get the lead early because we knew they are struggling a little bit lately. But they shouldn’t hang their heads."

Dana Hills was helped by some outstanding plays in the outfield by Geoff Mather, Trevor Scott and leftfielder Steven Connell, who made a diving catch to his right to end the sixth inning.

“They hit a couple of sharp balls and we made some good defensive plays when we needed it,” said Faris, who added that he was impressed with Pierce’s control and his ability to throw strikes. “You do that and you win ball games,” he said.

Kehlet finished 2-for-2 with two singles and three RBIs. Hsieh was 2-for-3 with two singles, two RBIs and two runs scored.

Dana Hills has a league game at Tesoro next Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. San Clemente is off until April 23, when it hosts Kennedy in a nonleague game at 11 a.m.