Irvine Baseball Tournament : Howard’s Hit Helps Woodbridge Rally to Defeat Tustin in Title Game

Marc Howard singled home two runs in the top of the seventh inning Sunday to break a 3-3 tie and give Woodbridge High School a 5-3 victory over Tustin in the championship game of the Irvine summer baseball tournament at UC Irvine.

Woodbridge, which trailed, 3-0, before tying the score with one run in the fourth and two more in the fifth, got its chance to win the game when Tustin reliever Monte Jones walked Sean Spelber and Raz Hazan with one out in the seventh.

After Tim Kingsbury’s infield out moved Spelber and Hazan to third and second, Howard punched an opposite-field single to right to score both runners.

Howard’s heroics, combined with a stingy Woodbridge defense, supported the pitching of Gary Fishel, who allowed six hits as he pitched a complete game for the win.

The contest, Woodbridge’s second of the day against the Tustin, was made necessary when Tustin defeated Woodbridge earlier, 11-2. Tustin, which lost one game in the double-elimination tournament before Sunday, needed to win that game to force the championship game.

“When we lost our first game today to Tustin, a lot of people didn’t believe we had a chance to pull off our win in the second game,” said Kirk Harris, who was coaching his last game for Woodbridge. Harris resigned last Monday so he could spend more time with his family.

“After our loss (Woodbridge’s first of the tournament), we just went out, had a few Cokes and told the kids that they had to make some big plays if we were going to win the second game. And they came through.”

Tustin took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Erik Grove’s run-scoring double.

Erik Lagafuina, who pitched the first four innings of the championship decider, led off the third inning by beating out an infield grounder. Bill Courtney, who ran for Lagafuina, went to second on Shawn Green’s single, with both runners moving up one base a wild pitch by Fishel.

Courtney then scored with Green taking third on Fishel’s second wild pitch of the inning.

After Jones walked and got picked off first in a rundown, Grove hit a soft grounder to second baseman Spelber to score Green, with Grove reaching base when Spelber mishandled the ball.

Woodbridge narrowed the Tustin lead to 3-1 on Randy Ramos’ run-scoring triple in the fourth. In the fifth, Woodbridge loaded the bases, then got one run across on a fielder’s-choice double play. Kingsbury tied the game in the fifth with an RBI triple.