100 wins for Emme

Steve Virgen

Corona del Mar High’s baseball team seems intent on making the 2004

season a special one.

The Sea Kings displayed their motivation with a 16-1 Pacific Coast

League victory over a rebuilding Calvary Chapel squad at Corona del

Mar Tuesday. The victory was only half the story, as the result gave

Coach John Emme his 100th win.

“That’s a nice way to get 100,” said Emme, in his seventh season

with the Sea Kings. “The kids came out and really hit the ball.”

Corona del Mar pounded 20 hits, including home runs by Josh

Bradbury and Barrett Sprowl. The Sea Kings scored their 16 runs in

five innings. They improved to 6-4, 4-0 in the PCL. In their four

league games they have outscored opponents, 49-5, averaging 15 hits

per game (62 total hits).

Emme has obviously been pleased, not only with the offensive

power, but also with the team chemistry. Sea King pitching coach

Steve Foreman said the Corona del Mar players were embarrassed after

their 11-4 loss to Back Bay rival Newport Harbor March 16. But the

setback motivated them and ever since they have been playing to their

potential, winning four straight.

Friendships within the team have also been key in the Sea Kings’

winning streak.

“All of us just like each other,” said Sprowl, who smacked his

first home run of the season and finished 3 for 4 with two doubles

and was hit by a pitch. “We have known each other for a long time. We

grew up playing Little League together.”

Sprowl now has 11 doubles this season. His first double of the

game came after Bradbury’s home run in the first inning when the Sea

Kings scored three runs. Bradbury went deep to left-center for his

fifth home run of the season.

Sprowl later came around on an error after Nik Palchikoff, who had

two singles and two runs, put the ball in play with a fly ball to

left field. Wess Presson, who reached on a base hit, also scored in

the first on Dan Marin-Finn’s single.

After Bradbury reached on a fielder’s choice in the second inning,

Sprowl sent his blast over the right-field fence.

Nearly everyone hit for the Sea Kings. Shortstop Jeritt Thayer,

who got on base by two errors from two hard-hit ground balls, scored

twice. Freshman Jake Lemmerman and junior Tyler Ray had two hits

each. Parker Ferguson, Tyler Lance and starting pitcher Blake Contant

contributed one hit each. Danny Whitaker scored a run, as did Lance

and Ray, who belted a double in his first at-bat in the fourth.

In the fourth and fifth innings, when Emme was inserting

substitutes, the Sea Kings were still making those ping sounds, as

they collected three hits in each inning.

“The guys have accepted that each person can bring something to

the win,” Emme said. “The guys that don’t get to [start] are pretty

talented. We have great depth. We don’t lose much if anything when we

go to the bench.”

Contant typified the Sea Kings’ team concept on defense. He was

content going four innings, as he was pulled and rested just in case

he is needed to close in Corona del Mar’s key PCL game at Northwood

Tuesday.

“I’m a team guy,” said Contant, who struck out three and allowed

one hit. “I have to do what’s best for the team. I was comfortable

with it. It’s a team sport.”

Junior Ben Maggard pitched one inning and senior Aaron Harper

worked the final two, which featured a double play. In the sixth

inning with a man on first, Harper gloved a line drive and in one

quick motion fired the ball over to first base before the runner

could come back.

Calvary Chapel dropped to 2-7, 1-3 in league. The Eagles’ lone

league win came over Northwood, 7-6. They lost to Tesoro, 26-0, last

week. Calvary graduated 12 seniors from the team last year and this

season they lost five players, including four starters, as they were

expelled before the season for breaking school policy, Eagles Coach

Ryan Elliott said.

*--*

Pacific Coast League

Corona del Mar 16, Calvary Chapel 1

Score by Innings

Calvary 000 001 0 -- 1 4 6

CdM 345 220 x -- 16 20 0

Rickerts, Duhaime (3), Wishmyer (6) and

Wilson; Contant, Maggard (5), Harper (6)

and Marin-Finn, Kelly (5). W -- Contant,

3-1. L -- Rickerts, 0-3. 2B -- Sprowl

(CdM) 2, Ray (CdM). HR -- Bradbury (CdM),

Sprowl (CdM).

*--*