Orange Lutheran Fails to Stop Montclair Prep

LONG BEACH —  Any hopes the Orange Lutheran High School baseball team had for winning its first Southern Section 1-A title collapsed in the second inning Friday night against Montclair Prep.

Top-seeded Montclair Prep scored five runs in the top of the second on the way to a 12-2 victory in the championship game at Blair Field.

It was the second-consecutive title for the Mounties (21-3), who extended their winning streak to 18 games. Orange Lutheran (19-9) ended a five-game winning streak.

“We just ran into a buzz saw,” said Orange Lutheran Coach John Malmquist. “We knew they would be hard to stop.”

Montclair Prep pitcher Steve Cain, a junior left-hander, took a no-hitter into the bottom of the sixth before J.P. Presley singled to right. Cain (8-0) gave up one hit, striking out five and walking six before being relieved with no outs in the sixth.

“Cain was tough for those first five innings,” Malmquist said. “We just couldn’t hit him.”

“He was wild in the strike zone and that threw us off. But it’s no big secret. Montclair Prep just flat out-hustled us.”

Orange Lutheran struggled with four pitchers against a Montclair Prep lineup that’s batting .398. The Mounties pounded 12 hits and capitalized on two Lancer errors. Orange Lutheran had only three hits.

Lancer starter Jason Fox (4-4) lasted one inning.

The runs came early and often against Fox.

Leading, 1-0, Montclair Prep tagged Fox for five runs in the second. Fox left trailing, 3-0, with no outs after Geoff Taylor drove in a run with a single to right.

Fox was relieved by James Maddock, who got J.T. Billingslea to pop foul to first, then walked Shad Knighton to load the bases.

Dylan Jones drove in two runs when his ground ball took a wild hop over the second baseman and into shallow right field.

Knighton then scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Brent Polacheck before Maddock struck out Andy Shaw to end the inning.

Maddock shut out Montclair Prep in the third and fourth before giving way to Matt Hendren in the top of the fifth.

Montclair Prep pushed its lead to 11-0 in the sixth.

Hendren walked Knighton and Jones to lead off the inning. Both runners stole bases, and Knighton scored when catcher David Rossi threw wildly to third. Jones, who moved to third on the error, scored on a single to left by Polacheck. Brad Fullmer added an RBI double down the first-base line, and Chris Portugal drove in two more with a double to left.

Orange Lutheran finally got to Cain in the bottom of the sixth. Presley singled and Mic Buehler and Phil Matheson walked to load the bases.

Russell Ortiz then relieved Cain on the mound, and Buehler scored on Chris Campbell’s groundout to short.

The Lancers added another run in the seventh when pinch-hitter Jason Timothy singled and scored on a double to center by Buehler.

Montclair Prep scored its final run in the top of the seventh when Bud Lawerence singled to right and scored on a double to center by Ortiz.