Baseball: El Toro 4, Tesoro 0

As the game wore on, Chasen Ford said he had confidence that his teammates would create enough offense for his team to win.

The way the El Toro pitcher was going, his team could have gone days without scoring and they still would have been in it. However, the Chargers provided their imminent offense in the bottom of the sixth inning in a 4-0 victory over Tesoro in a South Coast League showdown on Friday.

The victory by El Toro (9-1 overall, 4-0 in league) gave the Chargers sole possession of first place, to the chagrin of Tesoro (7-4-1, 3-1). They came into the game ranked 7-8 in the Southern Section Division 1 top 10; El Toro was ranked No. 10 in the state.

Ford allowed only one hit, a second-inning infield single to Brandon Ver Wayne. He walked one batter, struck out nine and faced only two batters over the minimum.

Ford (5-0) outdueled Tesoro's hapless junior left-hander Evan Cook (3-1), who scattered five hits heading into the sixth inning and didn't allowed a run.

Cook almost got out of trouble in the sixth despite allowing leadoff singles to Mitch Tolman and Gavin Collins, and a two-out walk to pinch-hitter Jonah Arenado.

But No. 9 hitter Jayson Yano blooped a two-run double and El Toro—and pitcher Ford—had all the runs they needed. They added two more runs when Dan James doubled home pinch-runner Ryan Kayoda and Yano. James was the last batter Cook faced; he was relieved by Jack Beck.

In the top of the seventh, the 2-3-4 batters in Tesoro's order went down with three fly balls to the outfield.

El Toro has three consecutive shutouts and hasn't allowed an earned run in the last four.

Both teams begin play in the Anaheim Lions Tournament over the weekend; the tournament continues through Wednesday.