Taylor becomes Newport nightmare

Steve Virgen

San Pedro senior Steve Taylor ended the Newport Harbor High baseball

team’s momentum with a no-hitter that included 10 strikeouts, two

walks and a hit batsman, leading the Pirates to a 6-0 victory over

the host Sailors in the first round of the Pride of the Coast

tournament Saturday.

Taylor, who aided his win with a solo home run and an RBI double,

credited the defense behind him and his fastball, which helped snap

Newport Harbor’s three-game winning streak. Sailors Coach Joel

Desguin said his players were not aggressive at the plate and lacked

the intensity they carried into their game against Woodbridge Friday,

which resulted in a 4-1 Newport victory, the Tars’ third straight Sea

View League win.

Newport Harbor will return to tournament action Monday, hosting

West Campus at noon.

“Winning three league games was an emotional week for us,” Desquin

said. “It’s kind of like, ‘We won three so we can just show up and go

through the motions.’ I told the kids, that’s the difference of being

a great team or a good team. You have to come to play everyday. You

can’t just get up for certain games and be down for the other ones.

We were just sort of running on the field and off and not hustling,

not doing what we needed to do.”

On the contrary, the Pirates (11-3), winners of six straight,

showed plenty of life, in particular Taylor. The Sailors (7-5) hit

just four balls to the outfield. Two were shallow toward left-center

that second baseman Matt Gomez caught.

Taylor, who struck out the side in the third, logged 88 pitches.

He had a full count against four batters, resulting in two walks, a

strikeout and pop out.

Taylor walked Brandon Jasper in the first, but two pitches later,

Jasper was caught stealing by catcher Dustin Garneau. Taylor retired

the next 10 batters and then walked Greg Miner to open the fifth

inning. After a pop out, Taylor hit Sean Rowe. But Taylor struck out

the next batter and induced a fly ball to Gomez.

“That felt great,” Taylor, the team’s closer, said of his

no-hitter. “I was getting up there [in speed] with my fastball. I had

the curve going and the change going, but my fastball was key.”

While they could not find momentum at the plate, the Sailors

showed signs of life defensively. Taylor Parker, who also pitches for

the junior varsity team, started for Newport and performed well

during his four innings. He held the Pirates scoreless in the second

and fourth innings. Parker allowed three hits and two runs.

Newport junior catcher Jeff Sanchez took a ball to the throat,

when a pitch bounced off the dirt and banged his Adam’s apple in the

fourth inning. Miner caught the rest of the way. After the game,

Sanchez said he was fine, but that the hit was painful.

The Sailors completed two double plays to end the third and

seventh innings. The seventh inning double play came with the bases

loaded.

*--*

Pride of the Coast tournament First round

San Pedro 6, Newport Harbor 0

Score by Innings

San Pedro 101 012 1 -- 6 10 0

Newport 000 000 0 -- 0 0 3

Taylor and Garneau; Parker, McLean (5),

Cimini (7) and Sanchez, Miner (4). W --

Taylor, 2-0. L -- Parker, 2-1. 2B --

Taylor (SP), Carrillo (SP). HR -- Taylor

(SP).

*--*