Sea Kings flex muscle

Barry Faulkner

The Hesperia High Scorpions come from a desert locale, but there may

not be too many environments more sweltering than the site they drove

nearly 100 miles to play their CIF Southern Section Division IV

first-round baseball playoff game Friday.

Oh sure, the CdM High diamond is frequently visited by offshore

breezes. But the blazing bats being swung by the Sea Kings have been

enough, of late, to scorch at least opposing pitching. The Sea Kings’

19-3 victory, which ended a three-game postseason losing streak,

provided ample proof of the hosts’ “ping” prowess. They bashed 19

hits against four Scorpion hurlers to advance to Tuesday’s second

round against Temple City. The site of Tuesday’s game will be

determined by a coin flip today.

“Looking at our [Pacific Coast League] stats, we averaged more

than eight runs [in 15 games], so I don’t know if it’s so much that

we’re hot, as it is we can just flat hit,” said CdM Coach John Emme

after watching his squad post its highest single-game scoring output

of the season. Its previous best was a 15-1 trouncing of Laguna

Beach.

“We played like we practiced all week,” Emme said “I don’t know if

I’ve ever been able to say our hitting was dominant, but we put 18

runs on the board against our front-line pitching in our intrasquad

scrimmage Tuesday. So, I had a sneaky suspicion we’d come out and hit

well today.”

The PCL champions (18-7) didn’t wait long -- exactly three

pitches, in fact -- to start the scoring parade. Senior Keith Long

doubled over the right fielder’s head on the second pitch from

Hesperia starter Danny Schubert, then Josh Bradbury drilled the first

pitch he saw into the right-field corner for an RBI double and a 1-0

lead. Bradbury went to third on a groundout, then scored on a wild

pitch, before Schubert retired the side without further damage.

Senior designated hitter Nick Karpe, did most of the damage in the

second, after Hesperia scored to halve the deficit. Karpe, whose

late-season power surge has allowed him to join Bradbury and Long

among the team’s sultans of swing, came to the plate with the bases

loaded, after Hesperia Coach Shannon Hansen lifted Schubert, a senior

lefty, for junior right-hander Ryan Ferrer. Karpe lifted what

appeared to be a lazy fly ball to right field. But it carried over

the fence for a grand slam and the Sea Kings, duly inspired,

proceeded to make it a blowout.

“I figured I at least had an RBI [with a sacrifice fly],” Karpe

said of his fifth homer of the season.

“I guess he got into it a little more than everyone thought,” Emme

said of the first of three CdM dingers. Junior pitcher Todd Macklin

drove a three-run shot into the right-center-field jet stream in the

fourth inning and Bradbury launched a two-run blast well beyond the

left-field fence in the fifth to bring his season-total to a

team-leading nine round-trippers.

The three homers brought CdM’s total this season to 26, after it

hit just seven last spring. The Sea Kings had seven extra-base hits

against the Mojave River League co-champions (14-10). Ten CdM players

contributed hits and nine scored runs. With the game firmly in and,

Emme went to the bench, sending 18 different hitters to the plate.

The first five hitters in CdM’s starting lineup went a combined 12

for 16 with 12 RBIs.

Bradbury went 3 for 3 with four RBIs and three runs, Karpe was 3

for 4 with three runs and four RBIs, junior first baseman Barrett

Sprowl was 3 for 4 with two runs and one RBI, Macklin went 1 for 2

with three RBIs and two runs, and Long was 2 for 3 with two runs.

Junior catcher Danny Marin-Finn was 2 for 3 with a triple and

scored twice, while junior Ryan Kelly came off the bench to produce a

two-run double.

Junior Tyler Lentz also came off the bench to whack an RBI single,

while freshman Ryan Lance and Brian Bechelli also took advantage of

being called up from the lower levels by delivering hits in their

only plate appearances.

Meanwhile, Macklin was showing the Hesperia pitchers how it should

be done. Delivering first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 23 hitters he

faced, he surrendered just four hits in five commanding innings to

improve to 6-2. He threw an economical 53 pitches, 41 for strikes,

before giving way to Nick Rhodes in the sixth.

“Macklin was superb,” Emme said. “If he keeps the ball down in the

zone and throws first-pitch strikes, he can beat anyone.”

Rhodes worked a perfect inning, before fellow senior Griffin

Dunzer finished up, surrendering just one hit and an unearned run in

the seventh.

*--*

CIF Division IV

First round

CdM 19, Hesperia 3 Score by Innings

Hesperia 010 000 2 - 3 6 1

CdM 251 461 x - 19 19 6

Schubert, Ferrer (2), Viramontes (4),

Faris (5) and Reyes; Macklin, N. Rhodes

(6), Dunzer (7) and Marin-Finn, Kelley

(6). W - Macklin, 6-2. L - Schubert, 5-3.

2B - Long (CdM), Bradbury (CdM), Burns

(H), Kelley (CdM), Sers (H). 3B -

Marin-Finn (CdM). HR - Karpe (CdM),

Macklin (CdM), Bradbury (CdM)

*--*