Pacific Coast League Baseball : Laguna Hills’ Smedes Works Hard for the Win

Mike Smedes of Laguna Hills High School went to the pitcher’s mound Tuesday knowing that he didn’t have his good stuff. His curve wasn’t sharp, and the location of his pitches was erratic.

Smedes just wanted to survive it.

He did, but not without a little work.

Smedes, in fact, labored through seven innings but still came away with a 5-1 victory over Trabuco Hills at Laguna Hills.

The victory moves the Hawks (7-8, 4-2) into a three-way tie for first place in the Pacific Coast League with Trabuco Hills (5-4, 4-2) and Orange (8-7, 4-2), which defeated Laguna Beach, 8-0, Tuesday.

Smedes, a senior right-hander, struggled with his control (five walks, a wild pitch and a hit batter) and worked from the stretch in all but two innings.

But as quickly as Smedes got himself into trouble, he was able to work out of it.

With one out in the first, Smedes (3-2) walked two batters but got Dave Lowery to hit back to the mound for an inning-ending double play.

In the fourth, Smedes gave up a leadoff single to Brad Collins and walked Lowery. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch. But the Mustangs could manage just one run out of it, as Smedes got two infield groundouts and then struck out John Barnes to end the inning.

“I was dropping my arm too much and the ball was sailing high,” Smedes said. “When you have a day like this, you hope your defense can help you out.”

Though there were no spectacular plays, the Laguna Hills defense was sound. But sound was just what Coach Jack Hodges was hoping to get.

“When we played Trabuco Hills last time, we gave up five unearned runs,” Hodges said. “We led, 3-1, after four innings and ended up losing, 7-3.”

The Hawks jumped out to an early lead again on Tuesday, as they scored three runs in the first off loser Ryan Meridith (3-3).

After Chris Sheff led off with an infield single, Ron Kortman doubled to left, and one out later, Smedes lined a double to center to score Sheff. Rob Milo’s two-out single drove in Kortman and Smedes.

Mike Helm singled home Jason Thompson in the third for a 4-0 lead, and Joe Bennett then scored on a wild pitch in the fourth for a 5-1 advantage.

It was enough for Smedes to survive.

Orange 8, Laguna Beach 0--Winning pitcher Aaron VanDerAa (3-1) struck out 12 and allowed 1 hit in six innings to lead Orange (8-8, 4-2) at home. Orange’s Skip Tanner went 3 for 4, scored twice and had one RBI. John Rodriguez and Brian Smith each had two hits.