Baseball: Sea Kings escape with 6-5 win

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Baseball is a game of feel, emotion, attitude and

timing. A sense of all or none of it can fill a dugout or empty a team’s

spirit.

For Corona del Mar High’s Sea Kings, who showcased every facet of

their program’s future Saturday in a Back Bay barnburner against host

Newport Harbor, they’ve seen both ends of the spectrum this season.

After ending a six-game losing skid, the Sea Kings (5-7) have now won

three straight games, including a 6-5 victory over the Sailors in the

first round of the Pride of the Coast Tournament.

“We’re very, very young, and we’re getting older by the day,” said CdM

Coach John Emme, whose team pulled a Houdini act in the sixth inning to

escape further damage during a Newport Harbor rally, which pulled the

Sailors (2-8), losers of seven straight, to within 90 feet of tying the

game with no outs.

In the sixth, the Sailors had CdM sophomore right-handed reliever Todd

Macklin on the ropes with one run across and the bases loaded with nobody

out and Mike Jones at the plate.

With the Sea Kings leading, 6-4, Jones singled to right field to score

Travis Moore from third, but Andre Pinesett, who was on second with the

potential tying run, was held up at third by Newport Harbor first-year

coach Joel Desguin.

“There were no outs, and (CdM right fielder Wess Presson) fielded it

cleanly and he has a good arm,” said Desguin, whose team was flattened

emotionally a few pitches later, when a batter missed a squeeze sign and

Pinesett was picked off third base for the sixth inning’s first out,

leaving Newport Harbor with a much different scenario -- runners on first

and second with one out, rather than bases full and no outs in a one-run

ballgame.

Presson’s throw home on Jones’ hit was on the mark, but it bounced off

CdM catcher Nick Karpe’s chest protector and landed in front of the

plate.

Newport Harbor’s dugout was relatively quiet throughout the late

rally, ignited by Ryan Torrey’s double, then became mum when the Sailors

lost their runner on third.

After the potential tying run was erased by Karpe’s throw to third

after a pitch, it sparked Macklin, who worked out of the jam with minimal

damage (two runs), then carried the momentum into the seventh and retired

the side in order, only the second time in the game Newport Harbor went

down 1-2-3.

The Sailors, who posted a season-high nine hits, were led by senior

Jon Vandersloot (2 for 4), who hit the ball hard in all four trips and

came within inches of clearing the high center-field fence on an RBI

double in the third.

“We haven’t had nine hits in all nine of our games put together,”

Desguin quipped.

Backed by the pitching of sophomores Blake Contant, a lefty, and

Macklin, the Sea Kings never trailed. They scored three runs in the third

inning to snap a scoreless tie, but Harbor came back with two in the

bottom of the inning to keep matters tight.

CdM scored twice more in the fourth to build a 5-2 edge, but Desguin’s

Sailors came back again with a run in the bottom of the inning. It

remained a 5-3 CdM lead until the sixth, when the Sea Kings scored again,

before Newport’s rally came up a run short in the bottom half.

“It was a real good game,” said Desguin, who hosted a handful of

future Back Bay players from Newport Beach Little League and Newport

Harbor Baseball Association.

In the third inning, CdM’s Danny Whitaker led off with an infield

single and eventually scored the game’s first run from third base when a

Newport Harbor pickoff throw to second was botched.

Presson singled and scored on Josh Bradbury’s single to right field,

and Billy Eagle walked and came around to score from third on a balk to

highlight the Sea Kings’ biggest inning of the game.

Jones and Mike McLean scored for Newport Harbor in the third.

Vandersloot crushed an RBI double to center field that would have gone

out anywhere else in the ballpark, but it hit along a portion of a

40-foot long stripe in center which is twice as high (10 feet) as the

rest of the perimeter.

The UCLA-bound Eagle provided a two-run single in the fourth as CdM

went head, 5-2. Eagle hit a 1-0 pitch up the middle that grazed off

Newport pitcher Ryan Rowe’s glove before going into center field.

Lu Castillo had an RBI single for Newport in the fourth, and

pinch-runner Ryan Rhodes stole home for CdM in the sixth.

With young players in attendance and jogging out to their positions

with the varsity players before the game, Corona del Mar boosters passed

out material on its proposed baseball stadium to be built on the campus

and featured a miniature display of the facility at a booth behind home

plate.

The atmosphere was festive with a large crowd on hand, and souvenir

stands and barbecued hamburgers cooking behind home plate.

Desguin, who coached at CdM last year as an Emme assistant, said he

plans to invite the area’s youth players back next year.

Newport and CdM did not face each other last year, the first time the

schools competed in different leagues.

The Sea Kings play Mission Viejo Monday in the winner’s bracket at 11

a.m. at Newport, while the Tars face Santa Ana at 2 p.m.

PRIDE OF THE COAST TOURNAMENT

Corona del Mar 6, Newport Harbor 5

Score by Innings

Corona del Mar 003 201 0 - 6 8 1

Newport Harbor 002 102 0 - 5 9 2 Contant, Macklin (6) and Karpe; Cherry, Rowe (4), Forsythe (6) and

Moore. W - Contant, 2-1. L - Cherry. 2B - Vandersloot (NH), Macklin

(CdM), Bradbury (CdM), Moore (NH), Torrey (NH).