CdM keeps Pacific Coast-ing

Barry Faulkner

Northwood High baseball coach Rob Stuart slipped the phrase into the

middle of his postgame comments, as if to disguise it’s importance.

But Stuart’s admission that the Timberwolves needed to play a

perfect game to beat Pacific Coast League visitor Corona del Mar High

Thursday has become more and more apparent with each passing inning

this spring.

With Thursday’s 6-1 victory, Coach John Emme’s Sea Kings (7-4, 5-0

in league and ranked No. 7 in CIF Southern Section Division IV)

completed the first round of league play as the circuit’s swaggering

bully.

CdM has outscored its five league foes by a combined 55-6 margin

this spring, bashing rivals with its bats, while lavishing its

leather in support of preeminent pitching.

Dating back to last season, the defending PCL champions have won

eight straight league games and some would target complacency as the

team’s most challenging opponent with 10 league contests remaining.

“We’re coming right back with Tesoro after our [Pride of the

Coast] Easter tournament, and [the Titans] are right on our heels

[one league loss heading into today’s games],” Emme said. “So I don’t

think we’re going to have to worry about feeling too good about

ourselves right now.”

There is plenty to like about the Sea Kings, however, not the

least of which is senior USC-bound right-hander Todd Macklin, who

posted his fourth win in five decisions, with the help of some

stifling relief by senior lefty Blake Contant.

Macklin blanked the Timberwolves the first four innings, before

tiring in the fifth. A hit batsman and a double produced Northwood’s

lone run and when a walk and hit batter loaded the bases, Emme made

his first mid-inning pitching change of the season.

Contant induced a pop to shortstop and a fly to left to work out

of the jam without any further damage. He retired eight of the nine

he faced to collect the save.

“I felt like Todd was getting tired,” Emme said of the fateful

fifth. “His arm was dropping and his pitches were starting to sail.

Blake came in with the bases loaded and a lot could have gone wrong

there. But he got a couple pop-ups to get out of it.”

The CdM hitters were in it from the first inning against sophomore

Mike Bonder, who was making his first varsity start.

The visitors had two hits in the first, but did not break through

on the scoreboard until Jeritt Thayer, who had singled with two outs

and advanced to second on a balk, scored on a throwing error that

resulted from a groundball to third in the second inning.

The Sea Kings produced some more substantive damage in the third,

when UNLV-bound senior slugger Josh Bradbury crushed a double high

off the fence in left-center field to start a string of four straight

hits.

Senior Barrett Sprowl singled in Bradbury and, after junior right

fielder Wess Presson ripped a single up the middle, Sprowl came home

on Nik Palchikoff’s RBI single to make it 3-0.

Macklin followed with a grounder to the second baseman, who threw

high to the plate, allowing Presson to deftly beat the tag, sliding

head-first and low and touching the plate with his left palm for the

4-0 cushion.

Sprowl, who has 11 doubles this season, extended the lead by

pulling a two-run home run to left in the sixth, his second of the

season. Sprowl, who also made two deft scoops on low throws to first

base, finished 2 for 4 with three RBIs.

Bradbury, Presson and Palchikoff each went 2 for 3, while Parker

Ferguson, Ryan Kelley and Thayer also contributed to the 11-hit

attack.

“They’ve always been a team to beat,” Stuart said of CdM. “That’s

the best team we’ve played. They’re better than Foothill [ranked No.

2 in CIF Division II].”

Northwood senior pitching ace Brian DeLoach, who was 9-2 last

season, was relegated to playing third base, due to what Stuart

described as a sore arm.

*--*

Pacific Coast League

CdM 6, Northwood 1

Score by Innings

CdM 013 002 0 -- 6 11 0

N’wood 000 010 0 -- 1 3 2

Macklin, Contant (5) and Kelly; Bonder,

Gahng (5), Martell (6) and Villanaueva. W

-- Macklin, 4-1. L -- Bonder, 1-1. Sv --

Contant. 2B -- Bradbury (CdM), MacDonald

(N). HR -- Sprowl (CdM).

*--*