Battle for top spot worthy

The top spot in the Golden West League baseball race was on the line Friday when Ocean View hosted Orange in a key Golden West League baseball game, and the Seahawks and Panthers didn’t fail to put on a game worthy of a first-place battle.

Ocean View went to the head of the league standings after senior Scott Baxter’s double to the outfield wall scored Andrew Bynum for the winning run in a 4-3 victory.

Orange had tied the score in the top of the seventh before Baxter’s winning hit put Ocean View at 6-1 in league and dropped Orange to 5-2.

Scott Carpentier doubled in two runs with two-out in the fourth inning in a key scoring sequence for the Seahawks.

Senior Sean Burleson went the distance and kept his record perfect at 4-0.

The win was the second key league triumph in a three-day period for the Seahawks who first disposed of visiting Westminster 17-4 on April 9. Ocean View, Orange and Westminster had began the previous week all tied for the league lead.

Burleson and senior James Miller each hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning and Burleson also doubled during a three-run third-inning by the Seahawks.

Baxter (2-0) got the win.

“These were big wins for our guys,” Ocean View Coach Shane Borowski said. “They practiced hard all week and came out with a mission and to their credit, we beat two good teams. I’d like to take a sigh of relief and say ‘mission accomplished,’ but we still have eight games to go in this season and anything can happen. I like how we’re coming together as a team and starting to play good ball. This is the time of the year you want to get hot and I like what I’m seeing.”

Marina and Edison split two Sunset League games last week with Marina winning 1-0 last Friday and Edison taking a 6-1 game April 9.

In Edison’s 6-1 win, freshman Eric Snyder hit at three-run home run and junior Ryan Miller had a two-run double for the Chargers. Freshman Henry Owens (3-2) got the win and junior Kurt Heyer got the save.

Sophomore Chad Lewis hit a solo home run for Marina.

Huntington earned a 5-3 Sea View League win Friday at Foothill.

Senior Randy Guite went three for three with a double and drove in two runs for the Oilers. The win went to senior starter Calvin Drummond (2-2) and senior Chris Murphy got the save.

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In softball

Los Alamitos used a three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the lead on Edison in their Sunset League softball game Tuesday and the Griffins went on to claim a 3-2 victory.

The teams came into the game with 2-0 league records.

Esperanza pushed across two runs in the top of the eighth inning to score a 3-1 Sunset League victory Tuesday at Marina.

The Vikings’ lone run came on a fifth-inning home run by junior Mariah Nogueira.