Prep Baseball : Huntington Beach’s Big Inning Bounces Westminster, 11-4

Gerad Cawhorn hit a three-run home run and had a run-scoring sacrifice fly to highlight an eight-run second inning as Huntington Beach High School defeated Westminster, 11-4, Saturday in the Sunset League baseball opener for both teams at Huntington Beach.

Brian Mena added a solo home run in the second, and the Oilers were assisted by three Westminster errors.

Dominic Alvarez (4-0) pitched a complete game for Huntington Beach (10-1), giving up nine hits and striking out three. Starter Ryan Klesko (2-1), who hadn’t lost to the Oilers in two years, took the loss.

Klesko, who faced three batters but did not record an out in the second before being relieved of duty, was victimized by two Lion errors and a passed ball in Huntington Beach’s three-run first inning. Klesko allowed six runs (four earned) on three hits.

“Obviously, Klesko didn’t have his best stuff today,” Huntington Beach Coach Mike Dodd said. “After you haven’t beaten a guy for two years, you figure that somewhere along the line you’re going to run into some luck. He’s had some good outings against us in the past, and I think he has a bright future in baseball, but today, it just wasn’t his game.”

Ken Ostrowski, Westminster coach, said, “Klesko got a lot of bad breaks (on ball and strike calls) from the umpires, which forced him to go central (down the middle) with his pitches. When he had to do that, they hit him hard.”

Westminster (5-3) took a 2-0 lead in the first. Klesko drove home the first run with a two-out triple and then scored when Oiler first baseman Tim Wimbish mishandled Jim Slagle’s ground ball for an error.

After Klesko allowed a leadoff walk to Oiler Brian Wright and a one-out single to Mena in the Oiler half of the first, Alvarez drove home Wright with a single that was mishandled by Lion center fielder Ben Mendoza. Mendoza’s error allowed Mena to score and Alvarez to take second.

Alvarez came around to score the Oilers’ third run when Chance Agnew’s ground ball was booted by Westminster shortstop Chris Larson for an error.

Westminster took a 4-3 lead in the second on Mendoza’s two-run, bases-loaded single with one out.

After Klesko hit Brad Walker with a pitch and walked Wright to begin the second, Cawhorn hit a home run over the 345-foot sign in left-center to give the Oilers a 6-4 lead. Cawhorn’s blow prompted Ostrowski to replace Klesko with Brian Stubbs, whose second pitch was lined over the left-field fence by Mena.

Stubbs then hit Alvarez with a pitch, struck out Agnew and walked designated hitter Darrin Vigallon. Alvarez scored his second run of the game when Chris Bowen’s fly ball was misplayed by Westminster left fielder Ron Hackett for an error.

After a single by Jason Bettinger to load the bases, Huntington Beach got two more runs when Westminster third baseman Jim Slagle threw the ball into right field trying to start a double play after fielding Brad Walker’s grounder.

After Wright walked, Cawhorn drove home the Oilers’ eighth run of the inning on his sacrifice fly to left.

In the Angelus League:

Servite 5, St. Paul 2--Servite’s Craig Barkely and Andy Croghan (3-0) combined to hold St. Paul (3-2-1, 0-1) to three hits. Tom Szymanski hit a solo home run in the third and Brian Criss went 2 for 2 with 2 RBIs for Servite (5-2, 1-0).

In nonleague games:

Kennedy 3-1, Brea-Olinda 0-6--Kennedy’s Greg Hansell struck out 10 and allowed only 4 hits in a complete-game victory in the first game. In the second game, host Brea-Olinda (2-6-1) scored four times in the third to gain a split. Rob Ferencik (1-0) had eight strikeouts and gave up only four hits.

South Hills 4-12, Bolsa Grande 3-3--In the first game, Bolsa Grande (1-5) made four errors and gave up four unearned runs, including the game-winner in the seventh. Rick Tantardini hit a solo home run in the second inning for Bolsa Grande. In the second game, South Hills (4-2) scored five unearned runs in the first inning.

La Quinta 18-3, Long Beach Wilson 5-1--Mark Dion was a combined 5 for 7 with 4 runs scored and 3 RBIs and Jerry Arneson was a combined 3 for 7 with 2 runs scored and 5 RBIs for host La Quinta (5-4). Long Beach Wilson is 3-7.

Fountain Valley 18-1, Milliken 10-12--Jeff Watts and Mark Dodd had two home runs each and John Dalpoggetto and Brad Futak had one homer apiece for Fountain Valley (4-5) in the first game. In the second game, Milliken (6-2) scored five runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to gain a split at Fountain Valley.