Baseball: Oilers suffer first league loss
LOS ALAMITOS — After seeing its undefeated start come to an end at the National High School Invitational in North Carolina last week, the Huntington Beach High baseball team returned home on Saturday night.
The Oilers had another perfect record intact, this one in Sunset League play. They couldn’t avoid their first blemish in league on Wednesday.
Huntington Beach went extra innings at Los Alamitos, before AJ Mayeda’s walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Griffins to a 3-2 come-from-behind win.
The Griffins became the first team in California to knock off Huntington Beach (11-3, 3-1 in league), ranked No. 4 in the state by CalHiSports.com.
Mayeda came through with one out and a runner on third base. The Oilers brought in an extra infielder, moving their five-man infield in with Garrett Runyan in relief. After seeing a first-pitch ball, Mayeda hit a sharp grounder toward second, and the infielder couldn’t handle it and Chris Rubottom scored the game-winning run.
“They’re pretty much the gold standard as far as baseball squads are concerned,” Los Alamitos Coach Matt Nuez said of the Oilers, who went 2-2 at the prestigious tournament last week. “But I like our chances with anybody on the field.
“We came out of the gate very strong [by winning seven of our first eight games] this year, and to be quite honest, it was the first game with [the Oilers on March 17, when we lost, 9-0, at Huntington Beach], that kind of put us in a bit of an identity search. We’re working our way back.”
The Griffins (10-6, 3-2) started their ace, UCLA commit Michael Townsend, and the Oilers countered with Nick Pratto, a USC signee.
Townsend outlasted Pratto, going seven strong innings, giving up two runs on five hits while striking out five, walking three and hitting one.
“I’m glad that’s the last time we’re going to see him,” Huntington Beach Coach Benji Medure said of Townsend, a senior right-hander. “He’s been tough on us for three years.”
Even when Townsend wasn’t on the mound, he slowed down the Oilers. He made a nice running catch in right-center field on a well-hit ball by Trevor Windisch, who led off the ninth inning.
The catch was one of a handful of quality plays made by the Griffins. Two of those included diving catches in left field by Mayeda, robbing a run in the fourth and fifth innings.
Hitting the ball on the ground in the ninth, and not his body hitting the ground to make catches, was more impressive to Mayeda. Rubottom helped put Mayeda in position to win the game, leading off with a double toward the third-base line. Rubottom moved to third on Dawson Joe’s groundout.
“It’s huge,” Mayeda said of the win. “This is a little bit of momentum. We had a few tough games. This is something we really need, more of it to come.”
Garrett Rennie (4-3) picked up the win in relief. He retired the side in order in the eighth and ninth innings, striking out three.
Pratto, a left-hander, went four innings. The senior allowed two runs and five hits, striking out three and walking two.
The bottom of the lineup got something going for the Oilers in the top of the second inning. After Townsend hit Corey Moore with one out, Dylan Ramirez pulled a pitch down the right-field line for a run-scoring triple. Two pitches later, Windisch, batting ninth and with the infield in, hit a chopper over Rubottom at shortstop to make it 2-0 Huntington Beach.
Pratto kept the Griffins at bay through the first three innings, limiting them to two hits, both infield singles by Michael Magana. The first was a hit because second baseman Cole Minato lost a pop-up in the sun in the first inning, and then third baseman Nick Lopez’s throw on a slow grounder up the line was a tad late.
The Oilers had a chance to extend their lead in the fourth. Two nice defensive plays in the outfield, one by Michael Magana leaping and crashing into the fence in dead center to make a catch and Mayeda laying out to his left to rob Hagen Danner from an extra-base hit and an RBI, helped Townsend.
Also aiding Townsend’s cause was Los Alamitos’ offense in the bottom of the fourth.
Mark Stanford led off with a single past Lopez at third base and Will Laws, who went two for four, followed up with a single to right field. The next batter, Casey Buckley, laid down a sacrifice bunt toward second base and it went for a hit, the first of his two infield singles.
With the bases loaded, Rubottom’s grounder up the middle brought in a run. Dallas Burke’s sacrifice fly to right field evened things at 2-2. Pratto got out of the inning, stranding runners on first and second.
Pratto didn’t come out for the fifth. Kenny Kim replaced Pratto, throwing 2 2/3 innings of hitless ball and walking one. For Los Alamitos, Townsend kept going, throwing 92 pitches and lasting three more innings than he did in the first meeting between the Griffins and Oilers last month.
“We knew we were in for a barn-burner today with Townsend on the mound,” Medure said. “I thought we squared him up a lot and we got nothing to show for it. Balls were tattooed a couple of times and they played great defense behind Townsend.
“Our goal all along is to win a Sunset League title and get back on top. We felt like we didn’t do that last year [when we placed second in league]. We really want to put our best foot forward in league, and we’re going to get after it [on Thursday at home against defending league champion Marina].”
With the Oilers suffering a setback in league, Marina is the lone undefeated team in league.
Sunset League
Los Alamitos 3, Huntington Beach 2
(nine innings)
SCORE BY INNINGS
Huntington 020 000 000 – 2 6 1
Los Alamitos 000 200 001 – 3 9 2
Pratto, Kim (5), Runyan (7) and Danner; Townsend and Buckley. W – Buckley, 4-3. L –Runyan, 1-1. 2B – Danner (HB), Rubottom. 3B – Ramirez (HB).
Twitter: @ByDCP
