Sea Kings come back to beat Ocean View

Mike Sciacca

HUNTINGTON BEACH - A youthful Corona del Mar High baseball team

showed signs of maturity Thursday, rallying from three runs down to

overtake host Ocean View, 9-6, in nonleague action. The Sea Kings, who

inched above the .500 mark at 8-7, looked anything but sharp in the first

two innings as they fell behind, 3-0. But the CdM defense, which

committed three errors in the first inning, settled down, and gave

winning pitcher J.D. Martinez the support he needed.

“Errors plagued us early, and that’s when a team - especially a young

team, can quit,” CdM Coach John Emme said. “We’re a young team, but we

grew up a bit today. We didn’t tuck it in and call it quits after it was

3-0. The kids just put it behind them, and moved on. That showed me some

signs of maturity.

It was a gutty performance by Martinez, who, despite giving up 10 hits,

continued to percivere on the mound, despite the mistakes in the field.

“He showed a lot of faith in his teammates by continuing to throw hard,”

Emme said of the junior right-hander, who improved to 3-3. “That’s a sign

of maturity, too.”

Ocean View (6-9-2) took a 2-0 first inning lead and padded its advantage

to 3-0 when Tim Burda began the second inning with a solo home run to

left field. But, from that point on, it was all CdM.

The Sea Kings finally got to Seahawk starter Tyler Kreil (4-2) in the top

of the third inning. It took the bottom of the CdM order to get things

going, with No. 9 hitter, Wes Hockinson, putting runners at second and

third base with a sacrifice bunt.

Dave Knecht put the Sea Kings on the board with an RBI single and with

two out, CdM managed to score four more runs off Kreil. Eric Snell gave

the Sea Kings their first lead of the game, his two-RBI single up the

middle scoring both Knecht and Billy Eagle for a 4-3 lead.

John DiCesare followed with an RBI single to shallow right field to make

it 5-3 as the Sea Kings sent nine men to the plate in the inning.

Eagle would go on to single home Dustin Hatfield in the fifth inning,

then score on a balk called against Ocean View’s third pitcher of the

day, Mike La Pier, to give CdM a 7-4 edge.La Pier also balked home Snell

in the seventh inning.

NONEAGUE

Corona del Mar 9, Ocean View 6Corona del Mar 005 020 2 - 9 11 5

Ocean View 210 100 2 - 6 3 1

Martinez and McKeever; Kreil, Stefnik (4), La Pier (5) and Yoakum. W -

Martinez, 3-3. L-Kreil, 4-2. 2B - Hatfield (CdM), Martinez (CdM),

Dubarry (OV), Kreil (OV). HR - Burda (OV).