Oilers move on to the semifinals

Mike Sciacca

Huntington Beach High’s baseball team began its 2004 season with a

pair of impressive wins at the Newport Elks Tournament.

The Oilers opened the tournament with a 5-3 home victory over

defending CIF-Southern Section Division I champion Arlington, then

came back the next day to upend South Coast League co-champion

Mission Viejo, 6-1.

In the third game of the tournament Monday, Huntington and

Pacifica fought to a 4-4 tie, but the Oilers still advanced to the

tournament’s semifinals.

In the victory over Arlington, Justin Latempa got the victory and

George Chace closed out the win in the seventh. Latempa struck out

seven and limited the Lions to just two hits.

David Mendoza led the Oilers offensively with a pair of hits and

an RBI. Joel Bernstein singled, Hank Conger had two RBIs and Brett

Sonsma and Jeff Van Doornum each had an RBI.

In the 6-1 win over Mission Viejo, Conger and Lucas Aumiller each

had a hit and two RBIs, Latempa, Van Doornum and Tony Katreeb each

had a hit and Sonsma had an RBI.

Bernstein struck out six en route to the pitching win.

In Monday’s 4-4 tie with Pacifica, Bernstein went three for five

with two doubles, Mendoza had two hits and an RBI, Katreeb and Van

Doornum doubled and had two hits and Aumiller singled twice.

Chace notched the win, striking out three, and Chris Palmer struck

out four in relief.

Ocean View is also at the Newport Elks Tournament, and the

Seahawks split their first two games.

In its opener, Ocean View limited Troy to just two hits, but the

Warriors still managed a 2-0 victory. Senior Alex Burnett struck out

eight and didn’t allow a walk in five solid innings for the Seahawks.

Ocean View came back Monday to easily get past host Garden Grove,

11-7. The Seahawks scored four, first inning runs, three coming on a

home run by senior third baseman Marc Fernandez. In the sixth inning,

they tagged on four more runs, capped by Burnett’s three-run homer.

Ocean View closed out its scoring in the seventh by scoring three

more runs, two coming on a single by Burnett, who finished with five

RBIs.

Starting pitcher Jeff Roth threw five strong innings, giving up

one hit and one walk. John Vega replaced Roth, but after Garden Grove

narrowed the lead to 11-7 with no outs in the bottom of the seventh,

Roth was re-instated. Roth proceeded to send down the next three

Argonaut batters to end the game.

“Even though we won on Monday, we actually played better on

Saturday, we just did not hit well,” Ocean View coach Aaron Kavanagh

said of the split. “An ugly win is better than a good loss, anyway.”

At the Loara Tournament, Edison claimed victories in its first two

outings by defeating Long Beach Wilson, 4-3, and Dana Hills, 5-4.

Junior pitcher Chad Blauer recorded saves in both victories.

Also at the Loara Tournament, Marina was a 6-0 winner over

visiting La Mirada.

The Vikings sent the pitching trio of Nick Plantz (winner),

Michael Olmsted and Nick Huey to the mound against La Mirada, and the

three held the Matadores to three hits in getting the shutout.

One of Marina’s big hits came from Justin Sellers, who hit a

two-run home run in the fourth inning.

In softball, Marina opened its season with a 3-0 nonleague shutout

of visiting Cypress.

Sophomore Michelle Fuzzard, the rookie of the year in the Sunset

League in 2004, got the victory by holding the Centurions to three

hits.

In boys’ volleyball, Huntington swept past visiting Laguna Beach,

25-18, 25-21, 25-21, in nonleague play.

The Oilers came into the match ranked No. 4 in Division I. Laguna

is ranked No. 3 in Division II.

Edison opened its season with a victory over Laguna Beach and

followed with a sweep of host Santa Margarita, 32-30, 25-18, 25-16.

Tyler Strickland and Tom Pestolesi led the Chargers in kills with 11

and nine, respectively.

In boys’ tennis, Edison and Irvine played to a 9-9 tie and were

tied in games, 79-79, but the visiting Chargers won the nonleague

match in a super tiebreaker, 4-2.

“It was obviously the best and most dramatic (match) and everyone

on the team contributed to the win,” Edison coach Nick Friendt said.

If the teams are tied after adding up all the games, then each

team sends out its original lineup for all six matches of singles and

doubles.

Senior Rui Naito and junior Kevin “Yao Ming” Chen swept at No. 1

doubles for Edison, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1. It was the first career varsity

sweep in a match for the duo.

Charger freshmen Ryan Keeley and Jake Jacobs won two out of three,

including saving a match point, 7-6 (8-6), against Irvine’s top

doubles team. Keeley and Jacobs also won their super tiebreaker.

The decider was junior Russell Denhert, who previously lost his

first two rounds of singles. Denhert won his third singles match

against Irvine’s No. 2 player, then went on to win his super

tiebreaker against the Vaqueros’ No. 3 player, who had swept the

Chargers earlier in the match, including beating Denhert, 6-3.

“It was a good total team win and we played the big points well,”

Friendt said. Edison played four matches in a four-day period to

begin the season, which began with scrimmage win over Garden Grove.

The Chargers fell to Long Beach Wilson, 17-1. After beating Irvine, they fell to Servite, 12-6.

In other nonleague play, Marina dropped a 14-4 match at host San

Clemente and Ocean View fell to Bolsa Grande, 16-2.