Montclair Prep Takes What It Can, Repeats as 1-A Champion

For Montclair Prep’s baseball team, it was once more, with feeling.

The Mounties struck early, scoring five runs in the second inning, before running away from Orange Lutheran, 12-2, Friday night at Blair Field in Long Beach in the Southern Section 1-A Division championship game.

The lopsided victory was the Mounties’ 18th consecutive win and their second consecutive title-game romp. Montclair Prep won the 1990 championship with a 14-4 win over Village Christian.

“I tell you the second one is 10 times sweeter because a lot of these kids I’ve had since the seventh grade and they are seniors,” Montclair Prep Coach Walt Steele said. “I was fighting back tears in the dugout. I couldn’t wish anything better for them.”

The repeat will not evolve into a three-peat, however. The Montclair Prep baseball team, along with the rest of the school’s athletic teams, will be ineligible for the playoffs during the next school year. The penalty came after the school admitted to improprieties in the football program.

That in mind, Montclair Prep (21-3) went about making Friday night as memorable as possible.

Junior pitcher Steve Cain (8-0) proved too savvy, throwing curve after curve at Orange Lutheran (19-9). Cain, a left-hander who stands just 5-foot-6 and weighs 150 pounds, carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before J.P. Presley singled to right field. Cain walked the next batter, and Montclair Prep called on Russell Ortiz, who finished the game.

Cain walked six, but struck out five and allowed only one run.

More fun was had at the plate. The Mounties batted around in both the second and sixth innings, and had a baserunner reach second in every inning.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Brent Polacheck’s run-scoring single, Montclair Prep struck for five runs in the second inning, four against Orange Lutheran starter Jason Fox (4-4). Geoff Taylor’s RBI single to right field made it 3-0, Dylan Jones hit a single up the middle to score two more and Polacheck followed with a sacrifice fly to close out the inning with Montclair Prep ahead, 6-0.

After failing to score in the third, fourth and fifth innings, the Mounties awoke in the sixth. Shad Knighton and Jones drew walks to start the inning, then attempted a double steal. Orange Lutheran catcher David Rossi overthrew third base and Knighton scored. Polacheck followed with his third hit--a single to left field--and his third RBI, scoring Jones to make it, 8-0.

Three batters later, designated-hitter Brad Fullmer ripped an RBI double down the right-field line. Polacheck scored to make it 9-0, and Chris Portugal followed with a two-run double.