Ex-Laguna Beach Player Keys Victory at Olympic Trials

A seventh-inning home run by Laguna Beach High graduate Danny Lane was the game-winner as the West defeated the East, 5-4, in the opening game of the U.S. Olympic baseball trials Monday in Homestead, Fla.

Lane, a junior from UC Santa Barbara and the West’s designated hitter, had struck out in his first two at-bats. Lane hit his solo home run one out after Cal State Fullerton catcher Jason Moler tied the score, 4-4, with a solo homer off Toledo’s Troy Keegan.

Moler also opened the scoring in the bottom of the third inning, reaching first after being hit by a pitch from Arizona State’s Doug Newstrom. Matt Luke, a junior at California who attended El Dorado High School, followed with an infield single. Moler scored on a throwing error by shortstop Mike Tucker of Longwood College of Virginia.

After the East scored three runs in the top of the fourth, Moler’s groundout to short in the bottom of the inning drove in Sean Davisson of Sacramento City College with the tying run.

The 90 players participating in the trials have been divided into five teams (North, South, East, West and Florida) for a 10-game series that concludes Saturday. The West resumes play on Wednesday against Florida. Forty players will be invited for a June training camp, with 20 selected for the Olympic team.

Moler hit .391 for the Titans and was a second-team All-Big West Conference selection last year, his first at the school after playing at Illinois as a freshman and sophomore.