Santa Margarita baseball shocks Huntington Beach in second round of CIF playoffs
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This was to be the year for Huntington Beach’s powerhouse baseball program, its deep, veteran group — the “most talented” it has fielded, in head coach Benji Medure’s estimation — blistering toward a desired (and not-unanticipated) CIF Southern Section Division 1 title-game showdown with mighty Corona.
It all went wrong on Tuesday.
The third-seeded Oilers, behind sophomore left-hander Jared Grindlinger’s gorgeous slider, were cruising through five innings toward an impressive second-round victory over Santa Margarita. Then the landscape shifted, and the dream was over.
The visiting Eagles (18-12) tore into Huntington Beach’s bullpen in the sixth inning, rode four innings of ace Brennan Bauer’s savvy relief work, then pushed home the winning run in the seventh to reach the quarterfinals for the third successive year with a 6-5 upset.
Santa Margarita, which will be home Friday against Los Alamitos (18-9-2), parlayed two hits, three walks, an error on the front end of a would-be inning-ending double play, and two devastating wild pitches to score four runs in the sixth to make it 5-5. The Eagles won on Chase Marlow’s two-out single to bring home No. 9 hitter Lucas Owens, who walked and stole second base.
“That hurts,” Medure said. “You just feel kind of like a train going downhill. You just couldn’t stop it, you know? They battled back. Obviously, we issued some free passes, but then they took advantage of them, you know. ... Just couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
The Oilers (24-5) outhit Santa Margarita, 10-4, Trevor Goldenetz and Jayton Greer with two apiece, and scored in each of the first four innings, twice in the fourth to take a 5-1 lead. Three of the runs were unearned, three came on sacrifice flies — from Ryan Porter in the first, Cole Clark in the third and Grindlinger in the fourth — but seven runners were stranded on base in that span, four of them in scoring position.
“We had an opportunity to bust it wide open,” Medure said. “...You have to put good things away.”
Grindlinger was masterful, aside from a second-inning Carter Enoch homer to left field that answered Huntington Beach’s first run. He struck out six, walked one and another Eagle reached on an error, but that was it.
“You might watch that kid on TV one day,” Santa Margarita head coach Chris Malec said.
Things fell apart in the sixth, once Grindlinger left the mound. Neither Tyler Bellerose nor Otto Espinoza, who brought a combined 10-2 record and 1.78 ERA, were sharp, but the Oilers would have exited surrendering a lone run if they turned a routine double-play ball. Then Espinoza came on, walked the bases loaded, threw a wild pitch (with Marlow out on an appeal at the plate, a call bitterly argued by Malec and galvanizing for his team).
Another walk, another passed ball — Gavin Spiridonoff emphatically stomping on the plate — and it was 5-3. Warren Gravely’s two-run double left tied it up.
“I told them, like, ‘All right, we’re going to throw our four best guys, and they’re going to beat us?’” Medure said. “Then tip the cap to them. When you don’t have a great day, that’s how it’s going to be.”
Bauer, a senior right-hander with 21 career victories for Santa Margarita, gave up four hits and two unearned runs in 4⅓ innings, shut down the Oilers in the fifth and sixth, then closed the seventh after surrendering one-out singles to Grindlinger and C.J. Weinstein.
Senior catcher Trent Grindlinger, Jared’s brother, thought the Oilers became “complacent.”
“We didn’t have our foot on the gas the whole time, and that’s what happens,” he said. “We were always trying to take it one game at a time, but definitely in the back of our minds, we were expecting to make it all the way. Every good thing comes to an end, but I love these boys.”
In other second-round games Tuesday, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa, Estancia and Pacifica Christian Orange County all advanced to the CIF quarterfinals.
Fountain Valley 7, Trabuco Hills 0: Josh Grack threw a two-hit complete game shutout to lead the Barons in the second round of the Division 2 playoffs at Fountain Valley High.
Grack walked two and struck out five for the Barons (17-13). Mikey Patterson and Anthony Zamora were each two for four with a pair of runs scored and an RBI for Fountain Valley, while Miles Hiskey was two for three with a pair of runs batted in.
Fountain Valley plays at Torrance on Friday in a Division 2 quarterfinal game.
Costa Mesa 5, San Juan Hills 4: Wylan Rottschafer was three for three with a double and run scored for the Mustangs, also earning the win in relief Tuesday in the second-round Division 3 game on the road.
Aiden Comte was two for four with an RBI, and Mateo Navarro was two for two with a triple and three RBIs.
Costa Mesa (24-6) will host Glendora in a Division 3 quarterfinal game on Friday.
Estancia 11, Foothill Tech 1: Nico Viramontes pitched the complete game for the Eagles, improving to 8-0 as Estancia won the Division 6 second-round game on Tuesday at Estancia High.
Sawyer Atkinson and Athan Perez each had a pair of hits for Estancia (17-13), which will remain at home when it hosts Pacifica Christian Orange County in an all-local Divison 6 quarterfinal game on Friday.
Pacifica Christian Orange County 5, Muir 0: Johnny Coopman and Jon Stone combined for the shutout for the Tritons in the Division 6 second-round game on Tuesday.
John Peterson scored a pair of runs while Scout Escobedo, Taisen Morishita and Stone all had RBIs for Pacifica Christian (14-11).
— Staff writer Matt Szabo contributed to this report.
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