Fountain Valley baseball wins third-place showdown at Newport Harbor
Newport Harbor High is on spring break this week. With the other schools in the Sunset League taking their spring break during the first week of the month, there’s really no time off for the Sailors’ baseball team.
The Sailors hosted Fountain Valley on Tuesday, the first of two critical games between the programs in as many days. For at least a day, third place in league belongs to the Barons.
Cedrick Perez hit a three-run home run during the Barons’ five-run second inning, and Fountain Valley went on to take sole possession of third with a 15-8 win.
The teams are past the league’s midway point, and only the top three finishers earn automatic berths into the CIF Southern Section playoffs. The Barons, looking to qualify for the postseason for the first time in three years, improved to 4-4 in league, moving a game ahead of 3-5 Newport Harbor, which last made the playoffs four years ago.
The rubber match of the three-game series is at Fountain Valley on Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.
The second meeting between the Barons (13-8 overall) and Sailors (8-12) turned out nothing like last month’s 10-inning affair, which ended with Newport Harbor winning 2-1 on John Olmstead’s walk-off homer. Tuesday’s game appeared over after three innings as Fountain Valley led 8-1.
In each of the first three innings, the Barons loaded the bases, but only scored three runs in those situations. Perez’s three-run blast over the fence in right-center field gave the Barons a 5-1 lead in the second inning. Fountain Valley scored all five of its runs in the inning with two outs, with Conrad Villafuerte and Jake Brooks, a sophomore committed to UCLA, each singling in a run.
The Barons continued to score, and they had to, especially after the Sailors’ six-run fifth inning cut the deficit to 12-7. Sebastian Murillo, a sophomore committed to the University of Arizona, and Perez began the sixth with walks. They came home on Cole Wentz’s two-run double toward left-center field, one of five doubles for the Barons, to put Fountain Valley up 14-7.
“The first four guys in our lineup got on base … 20 times today,” said Fountain Valley coach Deric Yanagisawa, who saw Villafuerte go four for five with a run batted in, score five runs and get on after getting hit, Murillo walk in his first five plate appearances before doubling in his last at-bat, Perez finish two for three with four RBIs and three walks, and Noah Amenta finish three for five with two RBIs and reach on an error. “Our offense is predicated on our first four hitters. If they don’t get on base and they don’t do what they did today, we don’t score very many runs. In this league, you got to be able to score some runs because you’re going to see some good pitching.
“[Wednesday] is a huge game for both teams. It’s a chance for us to separate two games from Newport, but then it’s also a big game for Newport, to keep [it] right there with the pack. Huntington [Beach] has done a good job of separating [itself with a 7-0 league record, two games ahead of second-place Los Alamitos], but we’re fighting for second and third right now.”
Fountain Valley’s Jackson Ouellette earned the win after giving up four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Yanagisawa was hoping the right-hander could go five innings so he could have Wentz available to throw in Wednesday’s game.
Wentz pitched the last two innings, but Yanagisawa said he will have his top two pitchers — Nathan Wilson and Brooks — ready for Wednesday. Newport Harbor coach Evan Chalmers said Cameron Mahaffy will start on the mound in the team’s last game before it takes time off during spring break.
Mahaffy went two for three with a double and RBI on Tuesday. Olmstead, AJ Stefano, Max Crabbe and James Ferrell had two hits apiece for the Sailors.
“We want to make sure we give them the back end of the week off,” Chalmers said was the reason why they’re playing the Barons on consecutive days during spring break. “A lot of this is going to be about winning two out of three [against the Barons]. We beat them the first time, so … if we can win two out of three, we get the [tiebreaker against] them in the head-to-head.”
Get more of David Carrillo Peñaloza’s work and follow him on Twitter @ByDCP
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
