Huntington Beach baseball rallies past Villa Park into CIF quarterfinals
Huntington Beach got the chance to do something it couldn’t the last time it visited Villa Park, a year ago at the same phase of the CIF Southern Section baseball playoffs: stage a comeback.
A hit batter, a couple of errors on tough balls up the middle, a wild pitch, two walks — the second on four pitches with the bases jammed — and the Oilers were on their heels through five innings in the Division 1 second-round showdown Tuesday afternoon.
Trent Grindlinger was having none of that.
The senior catcher, facing the Spartans’ ace fresh from the bullpen, belted a double on the first pitch of the sixth inning, and No. 5 Huntington Beach (22-8) was romping toward a 5-3 triumph and a home assignment in Friday’s quarterfinals against fourth-seeded Santa Margarita (21-8-1).
“That was exciting,” Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure said. “Every time we play Villa Park, it’s a battle, [and you’ve got the] hostile environment and the whole nine yards, but our guys kept going. And we could have folded up the tents when we walked in a run for 3-1 [deficit], and they brought in their dude, and Trent got that double, and it was all downhill from there.”
The Oilers scored three in the sixth to take a 4-3 advantage, with Matt Hansen and John Petrie delivering RBI singles, then added another in the seventh on a Grindlinger triple as freshman left-hander Tanner Brown retired all seven batters he faced, closing by striking out the side in the seventh.
“It’s amazing [to pull this out], coming out here again against a great team,” said Grindlinger, whose sacrifice fly in the third pulled Huntington Beach even after Dominic Gutierrez’s single gave Villa Park (18-12) a first-inning lead. “We lost last year [after taking a lead into the bottom of the seventh], that was a rough moment for our team — it just ended so quick — and we didn’t want that to happen again.
“I took a big part in that loss. I didn’t do the best, and I knew I had to come out here and do my best and help the guys win.”
Oilers junior right-hander Tyler Bellerose had to work out of several tough situations early. He foiled two sacrifice-bunt attempts — the second a squeeze — and got a bases-loaded strikeout to end the second inning, induced a double-play grounder with a runner at second to finish the third, then retired a pair after a sac bunt followed a leadoff single in the fourth.
He’d battled with his command most of the way but seemed to find a groove to start the fifth, getting two quick outs. Then he hit Zach Mattern and shortstop Travis Curry booted successive choppers up the middle, the latter enabling pinch runner Jordan Laird to score from second.
Reliever Otto Espinoza couldn’t find the plate —- he threw six balls, the last to walk Aaron Sambath and bring home Justin Tims with a 3-1 lead — and Brown came on to quell the rally.
“Those are tough plays up the middle,” said Medure, who also guided the Oilers past Villa Park in the Southern California Regional semifinals two years ago. “Last year, in the last inning, we made an error on a chopper up the middle, and it almost seemed like that was happening again, and thank goodness the history didn’t repeat itself. We toughened up, and Travis, out shortstop, is our guy, and we’re going to live and die with him. And he battled back. That’s what our team is about.”
Villa Park brought in staff ace Tims, who had a 6-3 record and 0.60 ERA after tossing a four-hitter in a first-round win at Bishop Amat, to relieve Sambeth, who scattered five hits across five innings. Grindlinger drilled his first pitch to the wall in left-center.
Jayton Greer followed with a single up the middle to put runners at the corners, and Hansen’s one-out single to center brought in Grindlinger, with pinch-runner Nate Cox following him home with the tying run on a missed-cutoff error. Hansen stole second and provided the Oilers the lead on Petrie’s two-out single to left.
“I knew the guy was going to throw me a fastball,” Grindlinger said, “and I was just getting ready to swing and hit it hard, and that’s what happened. ... We talk about passing the baton, and everybody after me [in the lineup] did their job.”
Brown struck out two in a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth, and Huntington Beach pushed across an insurance run in the seventh after a umpiring error cost it Ethan Porter’s leadoff double. The third-base umpire initially pointed foul on a ball clearly fair, then quickly reversed himself before Porter was more than a few steps out of the batter’s box.
The initial call stood.
“As soon as they call it foul, it has to be foul, whether it’s fair or not,” said Medure, who argued otherwise to no avail.
Trevor Goldentz, who joined Grindlinger and Hansen with two of Huntington Beach’s 11 hits, bunted the next pitch down the third-base line for a single, and a fielder’s choice left C.J. Weinstein at first. Grindlinger’s fly ball on the next pitch should have fallen for a single, but center fielder Nate Lewis tried to make a diving catch as head coach Burt Call yelled, “Don’t dive” and couldn’t reach the ball, which rolled past him for a triple.
Brown, who has a 0.67 ERA over 21 innings, took care of the rest, striking out the 3-4-5 hitters in Villa Park’s lineup to end it.
“Just went out there to throw strikes,” Brown said. “That was pretty sweet [in the seventh].”
Medure said Brown has ice in his veins and didn’t let the moment get to him.
“He’s been in big games throughout the year,” Medure said. “He pitched against [No. 3] Orange Lutheran and [top seed] Corona; we just threw him in the fire in little spurts, a couple innings [here and] there, and prepared him for this moment, and he’s ready to go.”
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