Right Stuff Lifts Newbury Park, 7-4 : Fabricius Fills Lineup With Right-Handers to Beat Royal’s Egan

Newbury Park High baseball Coach Gary Fabricius likes to select his team’s lineup according to who the opposing pitcher is.

Friday against Marmonte League rival Royal, which started left-hander Will Egan, Fabricius stocked the Panthers’ batting order with eight right-handers.

“We did that specifically for the lefty,” Fabricius said before the game. “When a right-hander throws, the most left-handers we get in the lineup is two. But when they throw a lefty, we go with eight or nine right-handers.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Newbury Park’s first six hitters possessed a combined average of .335.

Although Geoff Black, who is batting a team-high .460, finished with two hits and three runs scored in four at-bats--including a run-scoring triple in the fifth inning--Wayne Cook emerged as the force in the Panthers’ 7-4 come-from-behind victory at Royal.

With two out and two runners on in the fifth and Newbury Park trailing, 4-3, Cook deposited Egan’s three-and-one fastball over the center-field fence--a 390-foot blast--to push the Panthers in front, 6-4.

“I think that’s the farthest home run I’ve ever hit,” Cook said. “It was a fastball and he got it up, and that’s like my favorite pitch.

“He was behind in the count and he doesn’t want to walk you, so you got to expect a fastball or something up.”

Newbury Park added another run in the seventh.

The win keeps the Panthers (16-2-3 overall, 7-1 in league play) tied for first in the Marmonte League with Simi Valley (18-2, 7-1), a 3-1 winner over Westlake.

Egan (3-4), who entered the game with a 1.05 league earned-run average, surrendered four earned runs and nine hits while striking out five in 6 2/3 innings before yielding to Tim DelMonte.

“Egan wasn’t as sharp as he had been,” Royal Coach Mike McCurdy said. “They scored (three) unearned runs that cost us the game.”

Newbury Park jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first when Eric Greene and Black, aboard on a fielder’s choice and a single, scored on Danny Madsen’s single down the right-field line.

The Highlanders (9-12, 2-5) cut the deficit to 2-1 when Jason Jones scored on a ground out in the second.

Royal added three runs in the fourth to take a 4-2 advantage.