Sweep victory for Tars

Rick Devereux

With playoff implications and history on the line, the Newport Harbor

baseball team managed to stay focused and beat visiting Sea View

League opponent Irvine, 3-2, Friday afternoon.

The win moves the Sailors (11-10, 5-6 in league) into third place,

the final playoff spot. It also became the first sweep of a league

foe in recent memory.

“It’s definitely the first time we’ve swept Irvine since I’ve been

here,” third-year coach Joel Desguin said. “I was asking Coach [Jim]

Kiefer, he was the head coach for five years before me, and I was

asking him if that was the first sweep, and he said it’s been

awhile.”

The players understood the history and the future meaning of the

win.

“To keep pace to get into the playoffs, this win was big,” senior

Joey Cantarella said. “It feels awesome to sweep Irvine. I’ve always

wanted to beat Irvine. They’ve never been a dominating team against

us. They’ve just come up with clutch things to beat us in the last

inning.”

This time it was the Tars that did the clutch things in the last

inning to get the win.

With the scored tied, 2-2, Patrick Keehan hit a single down the

right-field line to lead off the sixth for Newport and advanced to

third when the Vaqueros fumbled the ball for an error. The next

batter, Brandon Jasper, knocked a deep sacrifice fly to right to

bring Keehan across for the go-ahead run.

Mike McLean put Newport on the board with an RBI single in the

third inning, plating Matt Erickson. Cantarella gave the Sailors a

2-0 advantage in the fourth with an RBI double, scoring Greg Minor.

Irvine scored twice in the sixth to even the score, but had a scoring

chance in the fifth that came up empty.

Richie Serano slapped a one-out single and stole second base for

the Vaqueros. However, Tim Herzog swung and missed a pitch and his

momentum brought him across the plate and out of the batters box.

When Newport catcher Jeff Sanchez tried to throw out Serano, Herzog

was in his way and the home plate umpire ruled batters interference.

Serano was called out. Irvine Coach Keith Szczudlak argued the call,

but to no avail. Herzog then slapped a single that would have scored

Serano if he was still at second. Herzog was picked off to end the

threat.

“It was a real big play,” Desguin said. “Any time the batter

swings and falls over the box like that and obstructs the catcher, we

tell our guy to throw and then we argue for the call. We got the

call, so that was big.”

The Sailors play a home-and-away series with Laguna Hills

Wednesday and Friday before finishing out the regular season with a

home-and-away series against Woodbridge.

“[The win] helps a lot because now we’ve got momentum going coming

up for Laguna and Woodbridge, which we’ve got to take three out of

four [to make the playoffs],” Keehan said.

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Sea View League

Newport Harbor 3, Irvine 2

Score by Innings

Irvine 000 002 0 -- 2 8 2

NH 001 101 x -- 3 7 1

Keehan, McLean (6), Jasper (7) and Sanchez;

Fujiya and Cota. W -- McLean, 1-1. L --

Fujiya. S -- Jasper (1). 2B -- Cota (I),

Miner (NH), Young (NH).

*--*