Newport Harbor baseball can’t hold late lead in CIF Division 2 semifinal
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POMONA — Newport Harbor rode ace right-hander Gavin Guy’s dominant performance within three outs of the program’s first CIF Southern Section baseball title game appearance.
The Sailors would come no closer.
Ganesha, a unique powerhouse, pulled out a 2-1 Division 2 semifinal triumph Tuesday afternoon, stringing together four singles to start the bottom of the seventh, then walking off with a bases-loaded hit by pitch.
It was a devastating defeat for visiting Newport Harbor (22-10), which generated only so much offense in an exquisite pitchers duel, went ahead on a wild pitch, then lost a run in the top of the seventh on a batters interference call. The downfall was built on “slash dinkers,” questionable defensive alignment and a pitch too far inside.
It spoiled an otherwise brilliant showing from Guy, a UC Santa Barbara-signed draft prospect, who through six innings had surrendered just two hits — both to Ganesha potential first-rounder Logan Schmidt, the first an infield hit — allowed nobody to second base, and struck out eight while throwing 54 strikes on 74 pitches.
“He was still [throwing great in the seventh],” Sailors head coach Josh Lee said. “He gave up one hit to a really good player, and then everything else was slash dinkers. Our defensive positioning was overdoing it. We didn’t do what we practiced. They took advantage of it and mixed in a little bit of luck on some of those choppers. It is what it is.”
The Sailors are hoping for a berth in next week’s CIF Southern California Regionals, and Ganesha (26-3-1) heads to Saturday night’s Division 2 final against Loyola (19-12-1) at the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes’ stadium.
The drama played out quickly in the bottom of the seventh. Schmidt, who is hitting .548 with a .932 slugging percentage and 1.565 OBS, led off with a line-drive single to right field. He went to second on Ford Stoen’s high-bounce single off third baseman Henry Mann’s glove, and the bases were loaded when Bryant Loo singled to right.
Jeremiah Myers brought Schmidt home with a bloop single that got past diving center fielder Keoni Wun — left fielder Noah Whittaker, backing up the play, quickly got the ball into the infield — and Guy then plunked Al Moreno on a 2-2 count.
“We put ourselves in a bad situation in that last inning and didn’t learn our lesson,” said Lee, who in 2022 guided the Sailors to the Division 3 semifinals and Regional Division III championship. “We had this lesson [in Friday’s 8-0 quarterfinal victory over] Aquinas. Scored eight runs in the second, and then our kids just decided, ‘Eh, we’re good.’ And I told them — we talked about it after the game — like, ‘Can’t do that, can’t only score in one inning. At some point, it’s going to bite you in the butt.’
“Hopefully, we learned our lesson [in a] win, and we didn’t. Our big thing here is accountability. We as coaches didn’t do a good enough job, our players didn’t do a good enough job, and we lost. So that’s what it is. You wear it, you move on, and, hopefully, us as coaches and each of our kids learn a life lesson from it. That’s the hope.”
Newport Harbor battled gamely against Moreno, the Giants’ No. 2 hurler — the ace is Schmidt, an LSU-signed, 98 mph left-hander with a 10-0 record, 0.12 ERA, and 106 strikeouts in 59 innings — with six hits, one in every inning but the fourth, four on infield singles, and two hits each by Ryan Williams and Grant Horsley.
The Sailors advanced just twice beyond first base, and they capitalized in the fifth inning. Cam Hatfield doubled to the wall in right-center with one out in the fifth, went to third on Oren Damush’s sacrifice bunt, then came home when Moreno threw wild on the next pitch.
They looked to add to their advantage in the seventh. Horsley led off with a bunt single down the third-base line, was sacrificed to second by Brooks Francis, and Hatfield was walked by Ford Stoen, who relieved Moreno one pitch into the at-bat.
They tried a double-steal with two out and Whittaker at bat, and Giants catcher Dyson Grant threw the ball into center field. Horsley rounded third and came home, but the plate umpire called Whittaker out after his momentum on the swing carried him across the plate, impeding Grant’s throw.
Lee disagreed with the call. He said he thought the umpires “got progressively worse and more biased as the game went on,” then noted that “they can have been bad at their job, and we could have been even worse at ours, and ultimately, if we handle our business the way we should have, we win that game by four or five runs, and we don’t have to worry about it.”
Everything went Ganesha’s way from there.
