Baseball: CdM falls in battle for first
IRVINE — Talk of how much longer Corona del Mar High will be in the Pacific Coast League came up before, during and after its baseball game at Beckman on Tuesday.
Parents, fans and coaches talked about it. They know the Sea Kings’ time in the league is most likely coming to end in a couple of years. Voting for realignment in May should have CdM going to a different league because it has dominated many of the sports in the Pacific Coast League.
One of the few sports CdM has not won a league title in quite some time is baseball, and Beckman has been a big reason why.
In a battle between two undefeated teams in league, the Patriots took sole possession of first place by defeating CdM, 5-0. They improved to 4-0 in league, handing the Sea Kings their first setback in league.
Will Cohen and Collin Villegas combined on Beckman’s third shutout in league. Cohen, a left-hander, allowed four hits in four innings, improving to 4-0, and Villegas threw three hitless innings, striking out two and walking one.
Austin Schell played a vital role for Beckman (10-1 overall), ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 poll. He blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning and singled in a run in the third inning. In the fourth and fifth innings, he prevented a run.
Schell, a catcher, was ready for CdM’s safety squeeze in the fourth. With runners on the corners and no outs, Hayden Thompson laid down a bunt, but it went right toward Cohen, who underhanded the ball to Schell at the plate to get pinch-runner Dylan Heckle.
Cohen got the next two batters out, and he walked off the mound animated. He couldn’t get himself out of a jam in the fifth. He allowed the first two batters, Reece Berger and Garin Friedman, batting eighth and ninth, respectively, to single, and then he hit Preston Hartsell, a junior left-handed hitter committed to USC.
With the bases loaded and another junior left-handed batter up in UCLA commit JT Schwartz, Cohen exited. Villegas’ second pitch hit the front of home plate and bounced high toward the backstop. Berger took off for home, but the ball bounced back toward Schell, who quickly tossed the ball to Villegas to get a diving Berger before he touched the plate.
“They executed pretty much everything, and we had a couple of opportunities and we ran ourselves out of them,” said CdM Coach John Emme, whose team was unable to capitalize with the bases loaded in the fifth, seeing Villegas get Chazz Martinez to hit a soft liner to junior shortstop Matt McLain, a UCLA commit, and then Villegas struck out Matt Thompson looking on a full count.
“I don’t think the score reflects how close the game was. It should have been closer.”
It was a game for four innings. The only mistakes Martinez, CdM’s starter, made were in the first and third innings, when he faced Schell.
Schell deposited a 2-2 fastball over the fence in left-center field, giving him his first home run of his senior year. Two innings later, with two outs and a runner on second and a base open, the junior lefty committed to UC Santa Barbara hung a curveball over the plate and Schell hit it toward center to make it 3-0 Beckman.
Emme wanted Martinez (2-2) to pitch around Schell, who went two for two with three runs batted and an intentional walk.
“He threw way too many pitches,” Emme said of Martinez, who walked three and gave up three hits and three runs in four innings. “He had 30 [of his 78] pitches in the first inning. You’re not going to last very long doing that. He’s got good enough stuff to challenge guys and he gets too cute.”
The Sea Kings (7-4, 3-1 in league) hit the road Thursday to play Northwood, before they play Beckman twice next week. The Sea Kings and Patriots shared second place in league last year, finishing a game back of Woodbridge.
It has been 11 years since CdM last placed first in the Pacific Coast League. Beckman joined the league in 2006, when the Sea Kings shared the top spot. In the previous 11 years, Beckman has claimed the crown six times.
Beckman Coach Kevin Lavalle said he is going to miss seeing the Sea Kings in league when CdM finds a new home during the 2018-19 school year.
“I’m sad to see them go,” Lavalle said. “I know there [are] other reasons for it in other sports. I just like playing them because they are well coached and it’s kind of a rivalry, even though they’re a little bit further down the road [from Irvine]. Maybe we’ll play them in a nonleague game here and there. John and I were talking about that before the game. We’ll cry in a year. As of right now, it’s fun beating them, but it’s not that fun playing them.”
Pacific Coast League
Beckman 5, Corona del Mar 0
SCORE BY INNINGS
Corona del Mar 000 000 0 – 0 4 1
Beckman 201 020 x – 5 4 1
Martinez, Dunn (5) and M. Thompson; Cohen, Villegas (5) and Schell. W – Cohen, 4-0. L – Martinez, 2-2. 2B – Martinez (CdM). HR – Schell (B).
Twitter: @ByDCP
