Playoff door shuts on Tars

Bryce Alderton

The Newport Harbor High baseball team finished above .500 this

season, reaching a level the program hadn’t seen in some time, but

the next step will have to wait another year.

In a battle for a spot in the CIF Southern Section Division II

playoffs, visiting Woodbridge dashed the Sailors’ hopes of earning

their postseason appearance in 14 years with a 7-1 Sea View League

victory Thursday.

The Warriors (13-12-1, 9-6 in league), who defeated Newport, 6-0,

Tuesday, finish third in league to gain the final automatic berth in

the CIF playoffs.

There are no at-large entrants in the CIF baseball playoffs.

“It’s kind of frustrating that I worked hard for three years on

varsity for this chance and we couldn’t get there,” said Newport

senior third baseman Mike McLean, a three-year varsity member who was

on the team that went 0-16 in league two seasons ago.

“It feels good to be part of the team that turned it around since

then and finish above .500.”

McLean, the leadoff hitter, went 2 for 3 with two singles in his

final game as a Sailor, joining junior teammate Taylor Young as the

only Tars with two hits against Woodbridge senior left-hander Hunter

Swanson, who struck out five and allowed five hits in a 70-pitch

outing.

Newport (13-12, 7-8) had one baserunner, Young, reach third and

just two reach second.

Young scored on senior Joey Cantarella’s sacrifice fly in the

fourth, which cut the Woodbridge’s lead to 2-1.

The Warriors responded with four runs -- all with two outs -- in

its half of the fifth.

The final two runs in the inning were unearned, though. Jared Grey

hit a groundball that caromed off the Newport third baseman and

rolled into shallow center field, plating the two runs.

Newport committed six errors behind junior right-hander Patrick

Keehan and Cantarella, who pitched the final two innings of relief.

Four of Woodbridge’s seven runs were unearned.

Keehan struck out two, walked one and allowed five hits in five

innings.

“[Keehan] got the ground balls and threw strikes, but we couldn’t

pick him up,” Harbor Coach Joel Desguin, in his third year, said.

“[The Warriors] hit the ball well and found the holes. We hit the

ball hard but right at people.”

Senior Andre Pinesett’s two-out single in the second was Newport’s

only other hit.

Swanson walked Brandon Jasper in the first, but had just two

three-ball counts the final six innings, following up Mike Anderson’s

78-pitch outing against the Sailors Tuesday.

Swanson, who was the starting pitcher when Newport defeated

Woodbridge, 4-1, in the teams’ first meeting this season, threw 11

pitches in the second and third innings combined.

McLean, who has faced Swanson throughout his prep career, said the

6-foot-5 lefty didn’t throw anything new at the Sailors.

“He threw a lot of everything. He had a curve and worked a good

changeup,” McLean said.

The Sailors practiced hitting to the opposite field Wednesday in

preparation for facing Swanson, Desguin said.

“I knew [Swanson] wouldn’t get it by us, but we couldn’t get

anything to drop,” Desguin said.

Six Sailors bid adieu to their prep careers, but have seen

Newport’s ascension from only winning three league games last year.

“The past two years our season was over by spring break,” Desguin

said. “This year, all the hard work the kids put in paid off. They

played as a team and bought into the program.”

Woodbridge Coach Bob Flint, in his third year at the school after

leading Irvine for several years, noticed a different Newport team

than in past years.

“[The Sailors] have made such a turnaround,” Flint said. “This is

not the same Newport.”

*--*

Sea View League

Woodbridge 7, Newport Harbor 1

Score by Innings

W’bridge 010 140 1 -- 7 7 1

Newport 000 100 0 -- 1 5 6

Swanson and Feicht; Keehan, Cantarella (6)

and Sanchez. W -- Swanson, 5-5. L --

Keehan, 3-3. HR -- Feicht (W).

*--*