Prep baseball: CdM title bid put on hold

Barry Faulkner

IRVINE - The University High baseball team didn’t so much crash

Corona del Mar’s Pacific Coast League championship celebration as

bludgeon the guests with aluminum bats.

The second-place Trojans, clinging to hopes of defending their

back-to-back league crowns against the visiting and league-leading Sea

Kings, answered a four-run CdM first to claim a 13-8 triumph Tuesday.

The victory pulled the Trojans (14-8-1, 8-3-1 in league) within 1 1/2

of the Sea Kings (15-7, 10-2), who will try once again to clinch the

outright PCL crown Friday, when they host Uni at 3:15 p.m.

“I can’t complain about our approach today,” said CdM Coach John Emme,

who had been frustrated with just that as the Sea Kings split the six

previous games prior to Tuesday. “We were ready to play, they just hit

better than we did and beat us up a little.”

The Trojans, who outscored Laguna Beach, 33-14, in two games last

week, continued their offensive tear. Uni now has 48 runs, 43 hits and

three victories in 18 offensive innings since spring break (one Laguna

Beach win was a five-inning mercy-rule conquest).

“We’ve been hitting the ball better since Easter vacation,” said Uni

Coach Chris Conlin, who claims his team is more concerned with securing

one of the league’s three guaranteed playoff spots than snatching the

crown from the Sea Kings.

“We’re just trying to win games and make the playoffs,” Conlin said.

“We threw our No. 1 guy today (senior Bobby Stoneking) and I know CdM had

its No. 1 (senior Cavan Cuyler) in reserve for Friday, so (the Sea Kings)

may have had the luxury of knowing this was not a vital game.”

The Sea Kings can still clinch the outright title with a victory

Friday. But a loss would leave them with only a half-game lead heading

into the final two PCL games (May 7 and May 9 against third-place Costa

Mesa). Uni closes out its PCL slate with two games against last-place

Estancia.

“We can’t hinge our season on (Friday’s) game, but we certainly want

to win and we’ll give it our best shot,” said Emme, who will send Cuyler

(6-2) to the mound to battle Uni junior Matt Stone (6-1).

The Sea Kings appeared bent on ending the title race Tuesday, as four

straight two-out hits, including a three-run home run by Derek Lewis,

earned them a 4-0 cushion.

Andrew Johns and Eric Snell singled to start the outburst and Wes

Hockinson doubled in a run, before Lewis drove the ball over the fence in

left-center.

Uni, however, countered with three singles and a double to even the

score after one inning, then, after throwing two CdM runners out at the

plate, had five hits and five runs to take command, 9-4, in the second.

Stoneking then struck out the side in the third and yielded just one

more run -- on a Billy Eagle RBI single -- before giving way to reliever

Adam Hoover, who surrendered three runs in the seventh.

Brandon Lewis doubled in a pair in the seventh for CdM, who also

scored when Rory McKeever walked with the bases loaded.

McKeever went 2 for 2 and reached all four plate appearances, while

Eagle went 2 for 4 to lead CdM’s 10-hit attack.

University’s 15-hit attack included hits from every spot in the order.

USC-bound senior Jay Nichols went 2 for 2 with two RBIs to up his average

to .493 and increase his RBI total to 33 this spring.

Hoover was 4 for 4 with two RBIs and one of the Trojans’ five doubles.

UCLA-bound Kevin Conlin, as well as Stoneking, had two hits apiece for

the winners.

CdM senior Matt Marston allowed four runs in four relief innings,

against a Uni team averaging 2.7 runs an inning since spring break.

Stoneking compiled seven strikeouts and only one walk, though both

teams had three hit batsmen.

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

University 13, Corona del Mar 8

Corona del Mar 400 001 3 - 8 10 1

University 450 022 x - 13 15 1

Rhodes, Marston (3) and McKeever; Stoneking, Hoover (7) and Conlin. W

- Stoneking, 3-3. L - Rhodes, 5-2. 2B - Hockinson (CdM), Conlin (U),

Eagles (CdM), Sherwood (U), McKeever (CdM), Hoover (U), Nichols (U),

Gerakos (U), B. Lewis (CdM). HR - D. Lewis (CdM).