Prep Baseball Roundup : North Takes 2 From Leuzinger

North Torrance played host to Leuzinger in a non-league double-header on Saturday that North Coach Mike Neily hoped would help the team get reacquainted with baseball after Easter vacation and provide impetus for the rest of the league season.

North swept, 8-4 and 6-1, and Neily said the Saxons exceeded his expectations.

“The idea of scheduling games at the end of vacation is to get them thinking baseball and get them mentally ready to play the game again,” Neily said.

North, which will take a 3-0 league record into Wednesday’s game against Torrance at home, has won four in a row and is 8-3 overall. Leuzinger has not started its Pioneer League season yet and has a 5-9 record.

In the first game, North erased a 4-3 Leuzinger lead with a five-run sixth inning. Then the Saxons jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings in the nightcap.

Reliever Rory Natividad (2-0) figured in both decisions, picking up the win in the first game and earning a save in game two.

Natividad relieved Ron Mataalii in the first game, then picked up for Greg Davis in the nightcap. The senior right-hander, who surrendered two hits in 3 innings, has two wins and a save in the Saxons’ last three games.

“It was a good day for Rory . . . He’s a returning player, so it’s nice for him to get some good work in,” Neily said.

Neily was also pleased with the work of Davis, who threw five innings Saturday, giving up one run and two hits.

“He threw well today,” Neily said. “It wasn’t spotless, but he threw strikes and shut them down. We expect a lot of him in the second half of the season.”

North staked Davis to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Tony Pruett doubled, went to third on Brian Marzorini’s infield hit and scored on a fielder’s choice.

The Saxons scored three runs in the third, two on Jim Henderson’s two-run homer and a run in the fifth when Davis homered.

Leuzinger’s only run of the second game came in the fourth when Alex Sanchez tripled and scored on Davis’ wild pitch.

North scored five runs in the sixth inning of game one, with Brian Dessert delivering the big blow with a bases-loaded double. Pruett and Rich Matsi also drove in runs.

Leuzinger scored first in the game when Wayne Johnson scored on Sanchez’s fielder’s choice, but North took the lead with two runs in the third when it took advantage of two Olympian errors.

Leuzinger took a 4-3 lead in the sixth when Scott homered and Robert Ridgeway doubled home two runs.

In other action:

Rolling Hills 3-3, Fountain Valley 2-11--Senior right-hander David Breneman pitched a four-hitter and struck out 10 to lead Rolling Hills in the first game, but the Titans committed four errors to drop the nightcap of a non-league double-header at Fountain Valley. Breneman, who took a one-hitter into the seventh, improved to 3-1. Rolling Hills is 3-8.

El Rancho 11, Hawthorne 6--El Rancho collected 11 hits en route to a non-league win at home. Hawthorne (4-5) trailed by one run, 7-6, after the top of the fourth with the help of a one-run homer from Randy Davidson and a two-run single by Everado Duran. But the Cougars managed only one hit the rest of the way.

Beverly Hills 13, Miraleste 9--Miraleste tied the game, 8-8, on a three-run homer by Chad Somers in the sixth inning but Beverly Hills rallied for five runs in the seventh to post a non-league win at Miraleste. The Marauders (5-6) also got a homer from Mike Ryan.