Defense disrupts CdM bid

Bryce Alderton

Defense played as major a part as the productive pitching

performances the Corona del Mar High baseball team has received in

its three CIF Southern Section Division III playoff games, including

Friday’s quarterfinal contest against top-seeded and host La Quinta.

Three games, three shutouts and three complete games for Sea King

starting pitchers.

But the play behind CdM hurlers that helped carry the team this

far bumbled several chances against the Aztecs (27-4), who knocked

the Sea Kings out of the playoffs for the second time in three years

in the quarterfinals with a 4-0 victory.

The Sea Kings (18-10) outhit the Aztecs, who won their 15th

straight game, 4-3, but committed five errors, wasting senior Ben

Maggard’s second complete game of these playoffs and sixth overall

this season.

The right-handed Maggard, who finished the season 6-4, struck out

two, walked one and allowed four runs, though three were unearned.

Senior Kevin Wason’s sixth home run of the season, a solo shot over

the right-field fence in the first inning, was the only earned run

Maggard allowed.

“Ben was magnificent. It was a shame he had to go out that way,”

CdM Coach John Emme said. “But we had 79 errors [entering the game]

and they had 28 and that was the difference.”

The Sea Kings committed three errors combined in two previous

playoff games this season.

“It’s tough when you know if you did things differently, it could

have been a different result,” Emme said.

Maggard’s mound counterpart, senior right-hander Brandon Laird,

was just as impressive, striking out six, walking two and scattering

three hits in six innings of his third win in these playoffs. The

four-year starter fanned eight in four innings of relief in the

Aztecs’ 7-4, nine-inning victory over Quartz Hill Tuesday. He opened

the playoffs with a seven-inning, 10-strikeout performance in a 1-0

triumph over Downey May 20.

Laird routinely got Sea Kings to chase tailing sliders while

mixing in a fair amount of fastballs and curveballs.

He appeared to tire in the fourth, when the Sea Kings loaded the

bases with no outs, but escaped the jam and faced the minimum six

batters in the fifth and sixth innings.

After the game, Laird said he was surprised how good he felt.

“It’s CIF, there is no tomorrow,” he said. “I had to step it up.”

La Quinta, which has won 13 straight Garden Grove League titles

and has three CIF championships to its credit since 1995, scored two unearned runs in the fifth to cap the scoring. Joe Lopez and Alfredo

Baca both reached on errors committed by CdM infielders, setting the

stage for Wason’s bloop RBI double down the left-field line that

plated one run.

An intentional walk to Laird loaded the bases. Case Jongenelen

then grounded to first baseman Tyler Lance, who stepped on the bag

for the force and fired to catcher Wess Presson. But a sliding Baca

beat the throw.

Maggard retired the side in order in the sixth.

The Sea Kings, which won the Division IV championship last season,

had runners reach base in all but the second and sixth innings.

In the CdM fourth, sophomore Jake Lemmerman led off with a walk

after being down, 0-2. Presson followed with a walk and Lance singled

to left. Laird fanned the next batter and senior Taylor Alston then

blistered a 3-2 pitch into the glove of right fielder Nick Brennan.

With two outs and CdM junior Andy Williamson at the plate, Laird

threw wildly to the backstop. Lemmerman raced for home, but Perez

sped back and tossed to the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Laird, who skidded

feet first to block a sliding Lemmerman and apply the tag.

“He was going under my legs. I tagged him on his feet,” Laird

said.

Williamson opened the fifth with a single to left field, but a

strikeout and forceout to the next two hitters left a runner at first

with two outs. The inning ended on a bang-bang play at second when,

on a ball to Sea King senior Andy Frenkiel, Perez threw a laser to

Baca, who applied the tag on a sliding Mitch Folks.

Senior Tyler Ray singled with one out in the seventh, but reliever

Shaun Hill retired the next two hitters. Lemmerman beat out a

grounder to short for an infield single with one out in the first for

the Sea Kings’ other single.

Wason finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs and a run for La Quinta,

which also defeated CdM in the quarterfinals by a 4-0 count in 2003

en route to the Division IV championship.

La Quinta is the best of the three teams CdM faced in the

playoffs, Emme said.

Aztec Coach Dave Demarest won his 701st game with Friday’s

victory.

“If we played CdM [today], we’d make five errors and they would

beat us, 4-0,” Demarest said. “We shut out a class team with a class

coach.”

CIF Division III

Quarterfinal

La Quinta 4,

Corona del Mar 0

Score by Innings

*--*

CdM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 4 5

La Quinta 1 1 0 0 2 0 x - 4 3 0

*--*

Maggard and Presson; Laird, S. Hill (7) and Perez. W -- Laird,

12-1. L -- Maggard, 6-4. 2B -- Wason (L). HR -- Wason (L).