Woodbridge Christens Field With Loss to Laguna Hills

Woodbridge opened its new home field Wednesday against a new rival in the Sea View League.

It came with a new result, too.

The eighth-ranked Warriors, who have won 16 consecutive league titles, were beaten by ninth-ranked Laguna Hills, 7-4, in nine innings at the new Col. Bill Barber Marine Corps Memorial Park.

The $7-million facility at the Irvine Civic Center still had wet paint signs on the railings when Woodbridge’s Jennifer Hoops christened the stadium with its first hit, a line-drive single to center field in the third inning. Hoops also scored the first run, on Breanne Cooley’s line drive inside the right-field foul line.

But those milestones were a distant memory after the teams finished pounding each other for 26 hits, 16 by Laguna Hills. The teams scored a combined seven runs in the final 2 1/2 innings.

“I like our league,” said Laguna Hills Coach Cary Crouch. “I think there’s going to be a lot of this, where every part of the game has to be good in order to win.”

Laguna Hills and Aliso Niguel, which tied for last year’s Pacific Coast League championship, are new to the Sea View League. The Hawks (12-5, 1-0) showed an impressive display of speed and power and took advantage of a series of close plays that yielded three arguments between Woodbridge Coach Alan Dugard and umpires in the top of the ninth inning. The result was an insurmountable lead.

Consecutive infield singles by Stephanie Morgan and Leslie Simien, a sacrifice bunt, and a single by Dominique Lastrapes on a bouncer to the first baseman loaded the bases. Katie Oliver’s infield single scored one run and freshman Jennifer Von Pohlmann drove home two runs with her second run-scoring double. Von Pohlmann had three hits and three RBIs.

“I was so nervous, I was shaking,” Von Pohlmann said. “I kind of didn’t want to bat again because I was hitting really good, and I didn’t want it to go away. I just knew I was going to mess up or something.”

Instead, she messed up Woodbridge.

The Warriors (9-6, 0-1), who scored twice in the bottom of the seventh inning on Brittany Ziegler’s two-out double to tie the score, 3-3, and forced another inning as Breana Bohls scored on a passed ball in the eighth, had no comebacks remaining.

Katie Schorling had two hits and two RBIs and was among among six Hawks with multiple hits; Jackie Eliades had three hits and scored three runs, making a winner of freshman Brittany Fait (8-5) and a loser of freshman Brittany Crouch (9-4).