Oilers’ run ends in second round
Huntington Beach High was carrying the torch for local prep baseball teams when the Oilers headed into the second round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs Tuesday.
With a postseason victory in hand and two other local teams, Marina, Edison and Ocean View, having been sidelined from playoff contention last week, the Oilers were looking to extend their season and continue their quest for a second consecutive Division 1 championship when they hosted Orange Lutheran. They had that title bid halted by the third-seeded Lancers who rallied for a 4-3 victory in an exciting game that needed eight innings to decide.
“It was like a heavyweight fight,” Huntington Coach Benji Medure said after the game which drew an overflow crowd. “These are two good teams who were going at it, and it was a great atmosphere here [Tuesday]. We [coaches] told the kids that someone, unfortunately, has to go after this game. It’s difficult, in that it was us.”
Orange Lutheran produced the winning run in the top of the eighth, scoring on a wild pitch with two out. Nathan Flores, who hit a one-out double to the fence in right-center field and went to third on a fielder’s choice, slid and touched home plate to beat the tag of Huntington pitcher Nick Pratto and put the Lancers in the lead for the first time.
The Oilers put the tying run on base with one out in the bottom-half of the eighth, but a fly out to left field and a ground out to shortstop, ended their comeback attempt.
Things looked promising for Huntington when the game reached its midway point.
The Oilers, runner-up to the Sunset League title, took a 1-0 lead when senior Landon Silver started the bottom of the second with a sharp single to left field, was sacrificed to second on Ben McConnell’s bunt, and scored from second when sophomore Nick Lopez delivered a single up the middle on a hit-and-run play.
They extended their lead an inning later when senior Chad Minato started the bottom of the third by reaching first on an infield throwing error. He was sacrificed to second on senior Dominic Abbadessa’s sacrifice grounder before Silver drew a two-out walk to put runners at the corners. McConnell took the first pitch offered to him by Orange Lutheran starter Chris Burica for a sharp shot up the gap in left-center field. His two-run double put the Oilers in front, 3-0.
That lead was wiped out immediately in the top of the fourth. Huntington starter, senior Mitch Kovary, had held the Lancers in check the first three innings but gave up back-to-back singles to open the fourth. The biggest blow came next, when freshman Jasiah Dixon delivered a three-run home run over the netting above the left-field fence to tie the score.
Junior right-hander Hagen Danner replaced Kovary with one out and the score tied in the fourth and pitched through the seventh. Pratto, a junior left-hander, pitched the eighth.
The Oilers put the ball into play throughout the game on Burica, a 6-foot-6 junior left-hander who threw the first seven innings and improved to 8-1. Junior right-hander Luke Mattson pitched the eighth for the Lancers (Trinity League No. 2, 21-8) who advance to host Southwestern League champion Murietta Mesa in a quarterfinal game Friday.
Murietta Mesa dropped Crestview League champion Esperanza from the playoffs Tuesday with a 1-0 victory.
Huntington began postseason play Friday in Corona and took on Big VIII League champion Santiago. The Oilers returned with a 5-2 victory over the Sharks. Danner homered and Pratto earned the victory with a complete-game performance as the Oilers beat the Sharks for the second time this year.
Huntington previously defeated Santiago, 6-5, in the consolation final of the Boras Classic in April.
The Oilers began the season ranked No. 1 in the division. They were beset by injuries during the year, including a season-ending injury to all-league performer and UCLA signee, Logan Pouelsen, and didn’t play their first home game until mid-April due to their new stadium being under construction and nearing completion.
They were runner-up to the Sunset League title and ended the year 20-11.
“This was probably the hardest season that I have ever coached, in terms of adversity and the ups and downs that we had,” said Medure who finished his 16th season at the helm. “It was a very trying season but the kids gave it their all, and I’m proud of them.”
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•Marina had captured a Sunset League baseball championship for the first time in 11 years and was making a return appearance Friday to the Division 1 playoffs for the first time since finishing runner-up to Harvard-Westlake in the division title game at Dodger Stadium three years ago.
Hoping to make another deep run into the postseason, the Vikings, instead, had a short-lived stay after running into a buzz-saw in the Corona Panthers.
Corona used the near-perfect pitching of junior right-hander Michael Hobbs and parlayed a big fourth inning into a big victory in posting an 8-0 road win in a first-round contest.
Hobbs, a St. Mary’s commit, threw a no-hitter (eight strikeouts) and the Vikings were sent down in order in six of seven innings. He hit Marina’s lead-off hitter in the bottom of the third, Tyler Abend, and Eric Anderson, the Vikings’ No. 9 hitter, struck out on a low curve ball that got away from Panthers catcher Anthony Czerwinski but reached first base safely on the error in the sixth. Anderson would be doubled-up moments later on a double-play fly-out to right field.
The Panthers pulled away by scoring six runs in the top of the fourth.
Corona Coach Andy Wise said it was the first no-hitter for the junior right-hander Hobbs.
“I thought he did an outstanding job against a very good team,” Corona Coach Andy Wise said.
The loss wasn’t indicative of the season turned in by Marina. The 2016 Vikings, who had only five returnees from the previous season, became only the third Marina varsity baseball team to win a Sunset League championship, joining the 1977 and 2005 squads for the honor.
The Vikings entered the playoffs ranked ninth in Division 1. They were unranked at the outset of the season, and completed a 20-11 campaign.
“This year was a bit of a surprise for us because we were a young team and rebuilding, but our guys played tight and together,” Vikings Coach Bob Marshall said. “We had eight or nine one-run games. We just scrapped and fought back. It showed the character of this team.”
Corona (23-10), which finished a game behind champion Santiago Corona in the Big VIII League standings, was eliminated Tuesday, 2-1, by Newhall Hart which lost to Huntington in last year’s division title game.
•There was another no-hitter that did in another local team when Edison played a Division 1 first-round game Friday at Empire League champion Cypress.
Cypress’ James Acuna, a senior right-hander and Oregon signee, threw a no-hitter at the Chargers and the fourth-seeded Centurions advanced with a 3-0 victory.
Cypress defeated El Dorado (Crestview league No. 2), 4-1, in a second-round game Tuesday and moves on to face Harvard-Westlake (Mission League No. 3) in a division quarterfinal game Friday.
“Cypress was flat-out better than us that day,” Edison Coach Cameron Chinn said. “[Acuna] showed why he is so highly touted and deserving of his scholarship to Oregon.
“Having such a young team experience the successes and disappointments that this season brought, will only help us achieve excellence in the future as this group grows and matures.”
Edison had moved on to its first-round game against Cypress by getting past visiting Long Beach Poly (Moore League No. 4) in a division wild-card game May 18. Junior John Thomas hit a two-run home run in the opening inning and senior Leo Hyodo doubled in junior Kyler Arenado for the go-ahead run for the Chargers in the sixth. Senior right-hander Kaz Akamatsu threw a complete game, allowing no earned runs on two hits and struck out five.
Edison, the third-place team from the Sunset League, finished its year 14-17-1.
“Our record reflected the team we had and the youthful mix of players and experience,” Chinn said.
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•Ocean View also was knocked out of postseason play after a first-round loss.
The Seahawks hosted Palmdale Knight in a Division 3 game May 19, fell behind, 1-0, tied the score and had several scoring opportunities, but ended up with a 2-1 loss.
Senior Brian Scholsser drew a bases-loaded RBI walk to tie the score for the Seahawks.
“We needed guys to step up in situations when we had plenty of opportunities and they did not,” Ocean View Coach Tanner VanMaanen said. “We didn’t get the big, two-out hit to give us a boost.”
The Seahawks, who won the Golden West League championship in VanMaanen’s first year as head coach, ended their season 14-13.
“We found out how to compete in league, but we struggled with our nonleague schedule,” VanMaanen said.
Knight, the second-place team from the Golden League, was knocked out of the playoffs Tuesday by No. 2-seeded and Desert Valley champion Palm Desert (Desert Valley champion), 8-6. Palm Desert will face El Segundo (Ocean League No. 2), a 6-5 winner Tuesday over Sunbelt League champ Temescal Canyon, in a division quarterfinal Friday.
All division semifinals are on Tuesday.
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Twitter: @MikeSciacca
