Emme’s 200th sweet

HACIENDA HEIGHTS — Midway through the season, Mitch Sands fired up the Corona del Mar High baseball team.

More focused on individual at-bats than the team, the Sea Kings struggled because of it at the time. Coach John Emme called them out on it in early April.

If the selfish play continued, kiss the playoffs goodbye for the second straight season.

Just as much as teammates listened to Sands, Emme tuned into one of his few players with playoff experience. Sands reminded everyone of the program’s goal.

Emme is thankful the senior spoke up.

“You don’t understand what playoff atmosphere is like,” Emme said Sands addressed a team playing .500 baseball at the time. “It is the greatest thing.”

The postseason is getting sweeter and sweeter for the Sea Kings and Emme.

CdM won again and its coach picked up his 200th career victory. The Sea Kings beat host Hacienda Heights Los Altos, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs Friday.

“It’s a great way to get it,” Emme said of the coaching milestone.

“[This is] a big deal. We turned our season around halfway through the year and it was the kids’ decision to do it.”

In order for Emme to reach No. 200 in the win column, CdM had to win 18 games this season.

Without Sands’ performance (three for four and two runs batted in) Friday, Emme doesn’t record No. 200 in his 12th season.

Without Sands’ leadership, the Sea Kings (18-10) aren’t making their first semifinal appearance since 2004.

Next is a home game against West Covina South Hills (22-8) Tuesday. The two met on April 8 in a third-place game at the Beach Pit Classic. South Hills crushed the host Sea Kings, 17-3, handing them their worst beating of the season.

The day before, Emme lit up his team for looking forward to the remaining days off during spring break and missing out on the tournament’s championship game.

All the Sea Kings hear nowadays is mostly praise. The Sea Kings are a different team.

CdM has won 10 of its last 11 games. Sands has played a significant role since returning from a knee problem slowing him down at the start of the season.

Sands doesn’t just talk, he produces.

Like in the Sea Kings’ 5-2 opening-round victory, which went 13 innings at Whittier California, Sands came up huge again in the playoffs.

Every rally involving the Sea Kings against Los Altos (14-12) involved Sands, who singled, doubled and tripled. With two outs in the first inning, he put CdM ahead, 3-0, with a two-run triple to right field.

“It’s always nice to start the game with a 3-0 lead,” Sands said.

You can bet CdM starter Andrew McCormack appreciated the early run support.

A relaxed freshman pitched three scoreless innings before running into trouble in the fourth. An error on a routine grounder to third base gave wild-card entry Los Altos hope.

Two singles later, McCormack faced a bases loaded jam. The right-hander induced a grounder for a double play, only one run scored.

On the following at-bat, two more runs came across on one swing of the bat.

Lefty Donovan Magallon tagged a ball so hard for a two-run home run it appeared headed over the wall protecting cars from baseballs on Highway 60.

Magallon couldn’t get it over Los Altos’ version of the Green Monster, but he tied the game at 3-3.

The Sea Kings went to the bullpen, asking junior Brian Hurst to record the final out of the inning. Before he threw a pitch, a helicopter created a buzz, landing on an adjacent field behind the Sea Kings’ dugout.

Someone got hurt playing football, stopping the baseball game for almost 20 minutes. Once the person was airlifted, CdM and Los Altos resumed play.

Sands had the Sea Kings flying high again, putting them back on top.

In the sixth, he led off with a double, pulling a Michael Luna (5-2) pitch down the third-base line. Sands moved to third. With two outs, he scored the go-ahead run after Mitch Gardner’s grounder ate up the shortstop.

“You got to make them play defense,” Emme said.

In the next at-bat, Danny Moskovits made it hard for Los Altos to glove his ball.

After seeing 12 curveballs in his previous three plate appearances, Moskovits waited for the curve. The senior stroked a two-run double toward the gap in right-center field, giving the Sea Kings their second three-run lead.

This time, CdM kept it.

Hurst stopped Los Altos for 2 1/3 innings to improve to 3-1. Second baseman Michael Bloom helped Hurst before reliever John Doering closed it in the seventh.

The senior in the sixth inning dove to his right, stopping a sure hit. On the ground, Bloom flipped the ball to Gardner, the shortstop, who fired to Moskovits at first for an inning-ending double play.

Emme called the play the best of the year so far. All along, Sands believed this kind of high play was possible.

The Sea Kings have knocked out two league champs so far, beating another in South Hills of the San Antonio League to advance for a chance to claim their first section crown since 2004 is realistic.

“I knew our team had so much potential. You could just see it,” said Sands, who is confident in CdM’s next starter, Steven Manning, the winner of the team’s first two playoff games. “All we needed is like a little click and a push. I knew that we could make the run. We just got to get two more.”

CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs Quarterfinal

Corona del Mar 6, Los Altos 3

SCORE BY INNINGS

McCormack, Hurst (4), Doering (7) and Attyah; Luna and Moreno. W – Hurst (3-1). L – Luna (5-2). Sv. – Doering (2). 2B – Attyah (CdM), Sands (CdM), Moskovits (CdM), Ford (CdM). 3B – Sands (CdM). HR – Magallon (LA).