Baseball: Sailors sweep CdM in Battle of the Bay doubleheader
IRVINE — The last two times Newport Harbor High and Corona del Mar have played a doubleheader at UC Irvine the Sailors have swept.
The Sailors tried to make it three straight sweeps on the same field.
Last year’s twin bill at Anteater Ballpark was rained out, and the rival schools played one game at Newport Harbor.
The Sailors are starting to feel right at home 6.5 miles away from their campus.
Newport Harbor swept the doubleheader, taking the first game, 4-3, and the second game by the identical score on Tuesday.
The second contest lasted longer, going nine innings. Clay Liolios drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out double into the gap in left-center field in the top of the ninth.
AJ Stefano picked up the win after throwing four scoreless innings in relief. He retired the side in order in each inning, never allowing a hit. The junior right-hander struck out three.
Stefano also went two for three with two doubles and two walks.
After winning the first four games of the season, CdM is now on a three-game losing streak.
The two teams missed each other at the Newport Elks Tournament at the start of the month. They played in the same Foothill Division, and CdM reached the final before suffering its first setback in a 4-3 loss to Eastvale Roosevelt, the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 poll, last Friday.
Since then, the Sea Kings have lost three in a row by the same score.
The competitive games will bode well for both programs, as the Sailors (7-3) and Sea Kings (4-3) begin league play on Friday, Newport Harbor in the Sunset League and CdM in the Pacific Coast League. Newport Harbor plays host to Marina at 3:15 p.m., while CdM plays at Irvine at 3:30 p.m.
In Game 1, the Sea Kings took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second, as Reece Berger’s groundout and Garin Friedman’s single drove in a run. The lead was short lived.
Kyle Carmack led off the third inning with a single, hitting the ball past a diving Berger at third base. Brad Siegel’s sacrifice bunt moved Carmack to second base, and a catcher’s interference call put two runners on for the Sailors. And they stayed with two onboard after the Sea Kings were unable to turn an inning-ending double play.
They appeared on the way to getting that third out. Chazz Martinez, a left-hander, had Cameron Mahaffy picked off at first base, but with a runner at third base, first baseman Hayden Thompson had to check at third, letting Mahaffy take second, and Thompson’s throw to third was a tad late to get Carmack.
Six pitches later, John Olmstead hit a three-run home run over the left-field wall. The ball just went over the 335-foot sign. The USC commit had the Sailors’ second hit off Martinez, and it gave Newport Harbor a 3-2 lead.
The Sailors added a run in the fifth, after Carmack’s blooped a single over shortstop JT Schwartz and Stefano’s infield single that Schwartz could only slide to his right to stop. Mahaffy singled in a run to make it 4-2 Newport Harbor.
Martinez faced Olmstead next with runners on. With one out, Olmstead battled after Martinez threw his first two pitches over strikes. Olmstead kept fouling pitches off, five in all, and it took 10 pitches to get him out. Martinez fooled Olmstead with a curveball that dropped in for a called third strike.
Twenty-nine pitches are how many it took Martinez to get out of the fourth. He had thrown 55 pitches through the first four innings. Martinez, who gave up four runs and five hits, and struck out six, did not come out for the sixth.
Newport Harbor’s starter, Zach Durham, exited after four innings. He earned the win, giving up five hits and two runs, and walking two. Reliever Elias Garcia pitched two scoreless and hitless innings, before the Sailors brought in Mahaffy to close.
Things got a little dicey in the bottom of the seventh inning. Nolan Dunn led off with a single to right field. Mahaffy got the next batter to fly out, but he then threw to first base and the ball went wide, allowing CdM to get a runner into scoring position.
Mahaffy got the second out, a soft liner toward shortstop that Stefano, playing third base, easily grabbed. Preston Hartsell cut the deficit to one with a single to center.
The Sea Kings had the tying run on base and the game-winning one at the plate. Their No. 2 hitter, Schwartz, popped up near the left-field line, and Olmstead, the shortstop, raced underneath it to end the first game.
Almost four hours later, the Sailors beat the Sea Kings again to complete the sweep.
Battle of the Bay
Game 1
Newport Harbor 4, Corona del Mar 3
SCORE BY INNINGS
Newport 003 010 0 – 4 6 1
CdM 020 000 1 – 3 7 1
Durham, Garcia (5), Mahaffy (7) and Crabbe; Martinez, Heckle (6) and M. Thompson. W – Durham. L – Martinez. Sv – Mahaffy. HR – Olmstead (NH)
Game 2
Newport Harbor 4, Corona del Mar 3
(nine innings)
SCORE BY INNINGS
Newport 100 200 001 – 4 7 0
CdM 010 120 000 – 3 5 1
Gibbs, Weiss (2), Perry (4), Ferrell (4), Stefano (6) and Liolios; Dunn, Ontiveros (3), Borquez (5), Turner (9) and Bailey. W – Stefano. L – Turner. 2B – Stefano (NH) 2, Mahaffy (NH), Peters (CdM).
Twitter: @ByDCP
