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Sports

Diablos Are Road Warriors Once Again

Mission Viejo wins its second game in a row on the road, beating Damien, 12-2, in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

So this was the Mission Viejo baseball team that everybody was talking about before the season started.

The Diablos took a commanding 4-1 lead after two innings Friday, then put the game pretty much out of reach by the top of the fourth inning on their way to a 12-2 rout of host Damien of La Verne in a CIF Southern Section Division 2 quarterfinal.

Mission Viejo, runner-up in the Sea View League, has won five in a row, and its latest victory helped to fulfill expectations heaped on the Diablos’ backs with a No. 1 preseason county ranking by the Orange County Register and a No. 8 national ranking by Baseball America magazine. Damien, the third-place team from the Sierra League, finished its season at 17-14.

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The Diablos' next game will be in the semifinals against fourth-seeded Santa Barbara at Mission Viejo High, Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. The Dons defeated Harvard-Westlake, 7-2, in their quarterfinal on Friday. Mission Viejo coach Chris Ashbach said Dallas Draviczki (7-2, 1.36 earned-run average) will get the start.

 “We’re excited to be where we’re at,” Ashbach said. “I don’t know what will happen on Tuesday, but I know we’ll put together a great effort.”

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On April 5 in the Anaheim Lions Tournament at Amerige Park, the Diablos pounded Santa Barbara, 11-6, knocking the Dons out of the No. 1 spot in the Division 2 coaches' poll.

“We’re just playing confidently,” Ashbach said. “It’s a matter of putting it together.”

With no outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fourth inning Friday, Mission Viejo senior second baseman Ryan Raslowsky hit a triple that gave his team an 8-1 lead.

“I think we’re finally starting to get hot as it starts to matter,” Raslowsky said. “I think as the games get more important, we play more as a team and we just get more pumped up. In the beginning of the season, our [expectations] would get so high, we were overwhelmed with that and we didn’t play like we should have been. Our first four games, we lost three.”

Raslowsky drilled his triple off of a Spartans reliever, who had to face Raslowsky as his first batter. “I’ve been struggling,” Raslowsky said. “To get that triple was big for me.”

The effort was certainly there in all facets of the game for the Diablos (21-13), who had 10 hits and committed only one error, while right-handed starting pitcher Willie Kuhl allowed only two hits, one earned run and struck out 11.

Kuhl got stronger as the game wore on, as he retired the final 10 batters. Kuhl threw 99 pitches in the game.

“That’s been typical of me,” Kuhl said of his endurance. “I definitely had my splitter and changeup working. It was nice to have those second- and third-out pitches working for me. My team got me a good amount of runs.”

Within the offensive explosion was Boog Powell, who went three for four with two runs batted in and two runs. Powell, officially named Herschel Mack Powell IV, was nicknamed ‘Boog’ after his father, Mack, with a nod to Mack's favorite big leaguer, former Baltimore Oriole first baseman Boog Powell.

“We’ve got motivation,” Powell said. “Everyone’s loud in our dugout. Our fans come out every game.”

Mission Viejo jumped all over Damien starting pitcher Chad Lee (5-1), who allowed eight runs on six hits in three-plus innings. The Diablos took a 2-0 lead after one on senior Ryan Muno's sacrifice fly that scored senior leadoff hitter Austin Saenz. Parker Anderson’s single plated Powell, who had walked.

The Spartans’ Dani Schlarman hit a fastball up in the zone to second baseman Raslowsky, whose throw was wide for an error and allowed Dorian Granados to score, trimming Mission Viejo's lead to 2-1.

The Diablos took a 4-1 lead when Saenz drove in junior Derek Medding with a single, then Powell did the same for Saenz with a triple.

Then came the big five-run fourth. Medding was hit by a pitch, Sean Miller reached on an error by the shortstop, then Saenz’s bunt left Lee with no options as the first baseman charged in to try and field it. Powell followed with a single, then came Raslowsky’s triple. Anderson followed with a double, then senior Brian Romero reached on an error that scored Anderson.

In the seventh inning, Mitch Holland came off the bench to drill his first home run of the season, a two-run shot that smacked off the scoreboard to put an exclamation point on the Diablos' day.

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