SOUTHERN SECTION 5-A PLAYOFFS : Ocean View Again Upsets Mater Dei, 3-1 : Monarchs Are Eliminated by Seahawks, Just Like in ’85

It may have taken a Sunset League ruling to get Ocean View High School into the Southern Section 5-A playoffs, but the Seahawks are certainly doing their best to prove they belong.

And doing so in convincing manner.

Ocean View stunned second-seeded Mater Dei, 3-1, Tuesday at Ocean View. It was the second time in four years that the Seahawks have eliminated a highly regarded Monarch team from the playoffs. Ocean View had defeated Thousand Oaks, 15-10, in Friday’s first-round game.

“We’ve had a frustrating year, but we’re taking advantage of the second chance,” Cory Colbert, Ocean View catcher, said.

Ocean View was originally the league’s fourth-place team--and out of the playoffs--but ended up second when Westminster was forced to forfeit a victory.

“We were scoring runs all year long, but we didn’t get the pitching,” Coach Bill Gibbons said. “We would score seven runs and get beat.”

The pitching has improved in time for the playoffs, basically because senior Dan Naulty was reinstated in time for the playoffs.

“It’s nice having a guy on the mound that isn’t going to get a lump in his throat,” said Gibbons, whose team will play Diamond Bar in the quarterfinals Friday.

Naulty, who along with two teammates was suspended 45 days for violating team rules, limited a potent Mater Dei offense to six hits Tuesday. It was his second victory of the playoffs, as he went five innings, giving up three runs and five hits, against Thousand Oaks.

“If we have Dan all season, we win the league,” Colbert said. “You have to credit the other pitchers; they got us here. But with Dan on the mound, we’re tough to beat.”

Mater Dei was able to get a number of runners on base, but that’s were they stayed, with the exception of Greg Shockey, who scored on a fielder’s choice in the second inning. In all, the Monarchs stranded eight.

Naulty (7-0) baffled Mater Dei batters with his side-arm delivery. The most frustrated was Joe Ciccarella, who was hitless in four at-bats, each time leaving runners on base.

It was the lowest-scoring game of the season for Mater Dei (21-4).

“You can’t set a pitching machine to throw side-arm,” Gibbons said. “It makes it difficult to prepare for a pitcher like Dan.”

For Mater Dei Coach Bob Ickes, Tuesday’s loss was painful and all too familiar.

In 1985, top-seeded Mater Dei was beaten, 4-1, in the quarterfinals by Ocean View, which hit three home runs. About the only things that were different Tuesday were some of the players’ names.

Mark Brenner gave the Seahawks (16-10-1) a 1-0 lead in the first with a solo home run, hitting the first pitch he saw off loser Brian Frankel (7-2). Right fielder Jim Austin made an effort to rob Brenner, leaping at the fence, but the ball fell just out of his reach to the right of the 360-foot sign.

In the fifth, after D.J. Murray singled to left and was sacrificed to second, Steve Hernandez lined a 1-0 pitch over the left-field fence for a 3-1 lead.

“After that, I started thinking about the other playoff game we had here,” Ickes said. “I know the seniors, who were freshmen then, remembered it.”

Gibbons didn’t want to dwell on the past.

“I remember that game. I also remembered what happened the next game (of the playoffs),” he said. “We lost.”