Baseball: Same story for Newport

Joseph Boo

ALISO VIEJO - It didn’t take long for Newport Harbor High’s

baseball team to find itself in yet another early deficit.

The second pitch to Aliso Niguel’s leadoff hitter Darren Pitchford was

crushed over the fence, and that was the beginning of what turned out to

be a 12-3 Sea View League loss by the visiting Sailors Tuesday.

Pitchford’s homer was the first of four runs Aliso Niguel put up in the

opening frame, with two of them unearned.

Aliso’s second batter, Austin Wyly, singled. After a fly out, two Newport

errors brought Wyly home. Consecutive singles by Dan McClelland and Adam

Tanos drove in Aliso’s third and fourth runs.

“We didn’t execute in that first inning, and we let them get ahead

early,” Newport Harbor Coach Jim Kiefer said.

The Wolverines scored again in the second when Pitchford doubled and

scored on a single.

The Sailors (5-17, 2-13 in league) did close the gap to 5-3 in the third,

and they had the opportunity to take the lead with a two-out bases-loaded

situation.

Justin McCarthy and Manuel Sandoval led off the inning with a walk and

single, respectively. After a strikeout, Nick Langsdorf roped a single to

left to load the bases. Donovan Wong then walked in Newport’s first run.

Garrett Brant got a seeing-eye hit up the middle to drive in the second

run, and Chris Ward’s fielder’s choice brought in the third run.

Alan Lane followed with a two-out walk to load the bases, but Newport’s

next hitter flew out to end the threat.

“We were one pitch from tying the game,” Kiefer said, “but it just didn’t

go our way. It’s been like that all year.”

That was the closest Newport got to the Wolverines. They scored one more

in the third and almost got into mercy territory in the fourth with six

runs, with the big blow a two-run double by Chris Fielder. Three walks

and two errors hurt the Sailors in that inning.

Aliso was finally quieted with the bases loaded and the nine-run cushion.

Newport came close to shaving some of the deficit. Langsdorf almost hit

the ball over the left field fence in the fifth but had to settle for a

leadoff double, and he was stranded at third base.

In the seventh, Justin Jacobs almost crushed a home run, but the ball

landed in the exact spot where Langsdorf hit his double. He also had to

settle for second base, where he stayed.

Newport closes out the season with the fourth and final game against the

Wolverines (10-14, 7-8) Thursday on the Sailors’ campus.

“One of the things I tell them is that no matter what the situation is,

no matter what the score is, we owe it to the game and the people who

come out and support us to play hard,” Kiefer said. “We have to play for

personal pride and for the people who support us.”

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Aliso Niguel 12, Newport Harbor 3

Newport Harbor 003 000 0 - 3 6 4

Aliso Niguel 411 600 x - 12 11 0

Difley, Koch (5) and Serocke; Sandoval, Forsyth (6) and Brant. W -

Difley. L - Sandoval. 2B - Langsdorf (NH), Jacobs (NH), Pitchford (AN),

Mowery (AN), Fielder (AN). HR - Pitchford (AN).