Harbor Gets 21 Hits to Defeat Santa Rosa

You’re not supposed to use your opponent as batting practice at the state baseball tournament, but that’s exactly what Harbor College did en route to a 19-9 victory over Santa Rosa in Saturday’s second game of the California Community College Championship Tournament.

The top-ranked Seahawks (49-5) will play Chabot (42-10-1) in today’s 11 a.m. game at UC Irvine. Chabot defeated Riverside, 20-7, in Saturday’s first game. The championship game will be Monday at 11 a.m.

The Seahawks got 21 hits, 15 of them off starting pitcher Barney Kaufman, who also gave up 12 runs. The right-handed sophomore was 9-1 going into Saturday’s game.

Sophomore Jeff Hunter (11-0) earned the victory for Harbor. The right-hander struck out seven and gave up eight hits and four runs in six innings. Two of the runs were homers, by Santa Rosa shortstop Bob Williams in the top of the first and right fielder Malcolm Jordan in the top of the seventh.

“I thought our pitching was going to get us by, but it got a little sloppy at the end,” said Harbor Coach Jim O’Brien.

Right-hander Sky Lasowitz pitched 1 2/3 innings and freshman Shannon Patton finished the game for the Seahawks. Lasowitz walked two, struck out two and gave up one hit. Patton walked one, struck out two and gave up three hits.

“There’s no doubt about it, they have a great ball club,” Santa Rosa Coach Ron Myers said. “They’re short game was outstanding and we didn’t handle it very good. What can I say, they’re just a great club.”

Harbor started with four hits and three runs in the first inning to take a 3-1 lead after Williams’ 330-foot home run over the right-field fence. Harbor increased the lead to 5-1 in the third, after second baseman Jonathan Lopez drove in first baseman Ryan Karp and catcher Robert Lewis with a line-drive single to right field.

Lopez committed the only Harbor error in the fourth inning. A grounder by Santa Rosa center fielder Kevin Schnabel bounced off Lopez’ foot, allowing third baseman Derrick White to score. The Bear Cubs (31-18) scored again in

the sixth when left fielder Scott Cramer drove in Schnabel with a single to left.

Harbor went through its entire lineup in the sixth inning. The Seahawks scored four runs on five hits to take a 9-3 lead. Shortstop Tony Liebsack scored on a throwing error by Santa Rosa catcher Tim Cossins, left fielder Mike Murphy drove Lopez in with a double to left, third baseman Mike Berry scored on a single to center by Marvin Bernard and Murphy made it home off a George Baker sacrifice fly to left.

Jordan’s seventh-inning homer to left gave the Bear Cubs some hope, but Harbor responded with three runs in the seventh inning and seven runs in the eighth inning.

Santa Rosa scored three more in the top of the ninth, but it was too late.

O’Brien was confident his team would win, but he never imagined such a blowout.

“No way. I was figuring it was going to be a 3-2 game. We just started swinging the bats like we’re supposed to.”

Karp led the team with five hits, one RBI and one walk. Bernard, who made several spectacular catches in center, went 3 for 4 with two walks. Murphy, the team’s best hitter (.434 average) went 3 for 5.

“We just came out and tried to play our game,” Bernard said. “We knew it was going to be a dog fight.”