Sea View League : Saddleback Is Upset by CdM, 7-2

Saddleback High School’s baseball team had been waiting 19 years for a league title.

Corona del Mar and University combined to extend the streak to at least 20 Thursday.

Behind a grand slam by Kevin McLaughlin and the pitching of Andy MacMillan, the Sea Kings (7-6-1 in league, 11-10-1 overall) knocked the Roadrunners (9-4-1, 13-10-1) out of first place in the Sea View League with a 7-2 victory in the regular-season finale at Corona del Mar.

And University? The Trojans’ 11-6 win at Laguna Beach gave them a 10-4 league mark and the league title.

It also means Saddleback with have to wait a little longer for its first.

So what’s another year?

“Plenty,” Saddleback Coach Bob Mangram said. “You always want to go into the playoffs as a first-place team, that gives you a home-field advantage in the opener.”

Mangram didn’t know the University result immediately after Saddleback’s loss, but was prepared for the worst, nevertheless.

As it turns out, the worst isn’t all that bad. The Roadrunners will enter the Southern Section 2-A playoffs as the league’s second-place team.

The Sea Kings will miss the playoffs, despite winning their last four games. They wound up playing spoiler Thursday, yet before the game, first-year Coach Jerry Jelnick was wondering whether his team was ready to play at all.

“I don’t know. When we were warming up and taking infield, I looked around and it just wasn’t there,” Jelnick said. “I thought we could hit them but it took the seniors to come around and finish things with a bang.”

The Sea Kings’ hearts may not have been in it for the first two innings, but their bats got going in the third, when they scored six runs in support of right-hander MacMillan, who scattered nine hits in pitching a complete game.

Trailing, 2-0, with one out, Corona del Mar loaded the bases against Saddleback starter Joey Mendoza. MacMillan’s tapper in front of the plate scored Eric Luesebrink and Chris Greco’s single to left brought home Robert Hess to tie the score, 2-2.

Up came McLaughlin, the Sea Kings’ senior center fielder.

With the count 0-2, Mendoza threw a curveball that McLaughlin sent over the 360-foot mark in center for his second home run of the year and the first and last grand slam of his prep career.

“Nice way to go out, I guess,” McLaughlin said.

Greco, also a senior, hit a bases-empty homer in the fifth, leading to Mendoza’s exit.

Good defensive plays were common Thursday.

With runners on first and second in the first, Mendoza got out of trouble by scooping up a grounder and starting a double play. In the second, with runners on first and third, Roadrunner catcher Chris Silva picked McLaughlin off third to end the threat.

University second baseman Kurt Ehmann made diving catches in the second and fourth.

Newport Harbor 7, Costa Mesa 2--Ed Milum went 3 for 4 with a double and two RBIs to lead the Sailors at Newport Harbor. Senior right-hander Scott Craig pitched a complete-game, five-hitter and had seven strikeouts for the Sailors (6-8, 9-16).