Gwaltney Frustrates Himself, Los Alamitos With No-Hitter

At times, Jim Gwaltney struggled with his control. At other times, he was visibly frustrated with the umpiring.

In fact, throughout most of Friday’s 5-A playoff game, Gwaltney labored and fussed, nibbled at the corners and scratched for outs. But in the end, it was well worth the effort.

Gwaltney got the Ocean View High School baseball team off to a good start in the playoffs. He ended up with a no-hitter and the Seahawks defeated Los Alamitos, 4-0, in a first-round game at Ocean View.

“I really didn’t have my best stuff when I went out there,” said Gwaltney, a senior left-hander. “My control wasn’t good and I didn’t think I was getting many calls. I finally had to get mad at myself.”

Gwaltney walked three through the first three innings, including two in the second. In the fifth, he stalked off the mound after what he thought was a bad call on a pitch.

After pacing behind the mound for 30 seconds, Gwaltney went back to work. He retired eight of the last nine batters.

“Jim kind of bowed his neck there in the fifth,” Ocean View Coach Steve Barrett said. “At that point, I knew Los Alamitos wasn’t going to hit him.”

The Griffins had only one baserunner over the final three innings. Todd Gragnano walked with one out in the sixth, but Gwaltney got Tony Napolitano to hit into a double play to end the inning.

The closest Los Alamitos came to a hit was in the seventh, when Tyler Cashman hit a hard ground ball wide of first base. But first baseman Eric Schaff made a diving stop and threw to Gwaltney, who was covering, to end the game.

“Eric really saved me,” said Gwaltney, who struck out five. “When the ball was hit, I thought, ‘There goes the no-hitter.’ But he made a great play and I got over to first as fast as I could. I wasn’t going to let anything spoil it then.”

Gwaltney (8-3), who had a 1.59 earned-run average entering the game, allowed only two balls to be hit out of the infield. The Griffins had 20 ground-ball outs.

“That’s our game when Jim’s pitching,” Barrett said. “He just rolls the ball to our infielders and let’s them do the work.”

The Seahawks (20-7) didn’t have a lot of success at the plate themselves. They got only four hits off Gragnano (4-5), who also walked eight.

Third baseman Curtis Bruce led the way with two hits. He singled in the first run in the third inning. In the fifth, he doubled and later scored on a wild pitch to give the Seahawks a 2-0 lead.

Richard Jones broke the game open in the sixth with a two-run double.

The defeat ended Mike Gibson’s coaching career at Los Alamitos. Gibson resigned Wednesday for health reasons.

“It would have been nice to get at least one more win before retiring . . . or at least a hit,” Gibson said.