Prep baseball: Tars remain confident in loss

Steve Virgen

NEWPORT BEACH - If a team’s persona is, in fact, a reflection of

its coach’s personality, it could be plenty interesting how Jim Kiefer’s

Newport Harbor High baseball team will perform in its final four Sea View

League games.

After the Sailors (7-13-1, 2-10 in league) lost, 12-1, in six innings

to visiting Aliso Niguel Friday, Kiefer didn’t offer wisecracks or

cliches about four errors or another bad-break loss. He, with little

regret of the past, focused on the possible opportunities of next week.

“Every game next week has meaning for us,” Kiefer said. “We have a

chance to decide who’s going to be the league champion. You have three

teams that are battling it out, (Irvine, Laguna Hills and Aliso Niguel),

and we have a say in that. We have a chance to split with Irvine (Monday

at home), which would be a good accomplishment. We really want to beat

Laguna Hills (on the road Wednesday) and we want to finish ahead of

Woodbridge (they host the Warriors, 3-9 in league, Friday.”

The Tars dug an early 4-0 hole and never recovered as the Aliso Niguel

Wolverines (17-4, 9-3), ranked No. 7 in Orange County, took advantage of

Newport’s mistakes and made the most of their eight hits.

Aliso Niguel senior Todd Difley, a left-handed pitcher, tamed the Tars

as he thrived on his team’s lead. His 75-pitch six-inning performance

included five strikeouts, two walks, one run and three hits.

Regardless, Kiefer said he was able to take some positives from the

game. Senior right-handed pitcher Joel Brown definitely battled, he said.

Brown went 5 1/3 innings, throwing 98 pitches as he struck out five

batters.

“He gave us a quality start,” Kiefer said. “I know they scored nine

runs but ... I felt he was competitive and he kept us in the game until

he tired a bit. Other than that, we didn’t get much going offensively.”

A day after the Sailors rallied for an 11-11 tie with visiting Tustin

in a make-up tournament game, they came up with three hits against the

Wolverines.

Newport junior shortstop Mike Jones and senior catcher Garret Brant

smacked base hits in the third inning, while senior third baseman Chris

Ward blasted a double to right field in the fourth. Tars junior right

fielder Jon Vandersloot earned Newport’s lone RBI in the third, when his

sacrifice fly scored Jones.

“I don’t think what happened yesterday had anything to do with today,”

said Kiefer, perishing thoughts that his Sailors were tired from the day

before. “We just don’t match up very well with Aliso. They’re pretty

solid up and down. They exploited our weaknesses today.”

“It’s tough,” Kiefer said. “When you’re 2-10, you’re looking for small

goals. Obviously, the postseason is out of the question, but we want to

get to 10 wins. If we play well we can get to that. ... Some years you’re

going to have great players, other years you’re going to have

not-so-great players, that shouldn’t matter. You still have to play the

game the right way.”

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Aliso Niguel 12, Newport Harbor 1

Aliso Niguel 130 206 - 12 8 2 Newport Harbor 001 000 - 1 3 4

Difley and Serocke; Brown, Torrey (6) and Brant. W - Difley, 7-1. L -

Brown, 4-4. 2B - Pitchford (AN) 2, Ward (NH). HR - Fielder (AN).