Cougars, McLaughlin Repeat the Feat

Capistrano Valley pitcher Frank McLaughlin accomplished a rare feat Saturday by winning his second consecutive start in a Southern Section Division I baseball championship game as the Cougars held off Long Beach Millikan, 4-3, at Dodger Stadium.

The senior left-hander wasn’t as sharp as he was last season in Capistrano Valley’s 10-1 title victory over Long Beach Wilson. But he was good enough to hold the lead into the seventh for freshman closer Jason Corder.

Corder retired Millikan’s final two batters as the Cougars (23-8) became the first team to win back-to-back Division I titles since Fountain Valley in 1994 and ’95.

“I didn’t feel like I was throwing my best,” said McLaughlin, who gave up five hits and three runs--two of them earned--in 6 1/3 innings. “I just tried to throw strikes and let our defense do the work.”

Trailing, 4-3, in the sixth, the Rams (22-10) had the tying run on third but failed to bring him in. Jay Faulk had reached on third baseman Justin Demere’s throw in the dirt to first base and took second when the ball skipped into the photographers’ well.

Faulk went to third on a ground out but was left stranded when Justin Tisdale struck out looking on a 3-2 count.

McLaughlin (9-2) induced a ground out to start the seventh and then gave way to Corder, who struck out the final two hitters to record his fifth save.

“I wasn’t nervous,” said Corder, who was promoted from the freshman team halfway through the season. “I knew I would be coming in to face the righties.”

Brennan Jackson’s three-run double capped a four-run first for Capistrano Valley off Millikan starter Matt Anderson, who entered the game with a 0.85 earned-run average. Adam Sorgi and Demere hit one-out singles, and Brad Davis walked to load the bases. Kyle Mowery’s single to shallow center field drove in Sorgi, setting the stage for Jackson.

“[Anderson] threw me a pitch down and in where I like it, and I got the best of it,” Jackson said.

Millikan scored its first run in the second when Josh Baas came home on Faulk’s single off the glove of center fielder Daniel Rupp, who almost made a diving catch. Baas, who had led off the inning with a walk, took second on a passed ball and went to third on a single by Dan Burch.

The Rams scored two more runs in the third to make it 4-3, thanks in part to two Capistrano Valley errors. Justin Martin drew a one-out walk and scored on Burch’s line-drive double that rolled to the wall in left-center after barely making it over the head of Sorgi, the Cougar shortstop. Burch went to third on Sorgi’s errant relay throw home and scored when Cougar right fielder Travis Becktel misplayed Faulk’s fly ball.

“It wasn’t a pretty game,” said Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Zamora, who won his fifth section title in 24 years.

The game was not nearly as attractive as the finish to the Cougars’ last two seasons. After sluggish starts, Capistrano Valley has gone 24-0 after spring break the past two years.

“We haven’t lost in two years after Easter, that’s crazy,” McLaughlin said. “We all came together as a team the last month of the season.

“We are all so ecstatic. We don’t even know what to do with each other. It’s unbelievable.”