Defending Sunset League champion Huntington Beach spoils Newport Harbor’s 70-year anniversary of league title run
Even 88-year-olds text these days.
Coach Evan Chalmers received a text from an old-time Newport Harbor High baseball player named Bob Nettles last week. The message reminded Chalmers of how long it has been since the Sailors last won a league title.
“Hi, Evan,” Nettles’ text began. “I have decided to come and root for the Sailors against our old Sunset League rival, the Huntington Beach Oilers. [I] remember playing them with oil wells adjoining the outfield with no fences. Oil wells on school property. Wow! [Seventy] years ago.”
Nettles made it out to the Sailors’ home game on Wednesday, and it was a big one with Huntington Beach. Newport Harbor entered the day tied for second place, two games back of the reigning league champion Oilers.
Before the game started, the Sailors brought Nettles onto the field. Nettles threw out the first pitch to commemorate the Sailors’ 1948 Sunset League championship team, and it fired up the teenagers in Newport Harbor’s dugout.
Nettles’ special appearance paid off early. The Sailors scored first in the first inning, looking like they would give the Oilers another tough game this year.
They did, but it wasn’t enough to upset the No. 4-ranked team in California by CalHiSports.com.
Huntington Beach took the lead in the second inning on Ken Takada’s two-run home run, and the Oilers held on for an 8-6 win to stay undefeated in league.
For the second time in as many months, Huntington Beach (17-3, 6-0 in league), the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll, beat Newport Harbor by the same score. The second game lasted a little more than three hours, and Oilers coach Benji Medure called it “ugly” and “exhausting.”
To make matters worse, junior Josh Hahn left the game in the fifth because Medure said the UCLA commit fouled a ball off his right knee.
[The Sailors] kept fighting the whole time. They never stopped. Every time we scored runs, they had an answer.
— Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure
Medure will take the victory, though. Huntington Beach has a two-game lead over Los Alamitos (11-7, 4-2). The Griffins took sole possession of second place by beating Fountain Valley 3-1 on Wednesday.
The Barons (11-7, 3-3) and Sailors (8-10, 3-3) share third place. The top three teams in league earn automatic playoff berths.
“You grinded through a very tough game, and that’s the positive that we can take from it, but we made mistakes that allowed them to stay in the game, and that shouldn’t have happened,” Medure told his team afterward. “If we play a better game, then we don’t have to grind it out as much as we did at the end. [The Sailors] kept fighting the whole time. They never stopped. Every time we scored runs, they had an answer.”
The Sailors struggled to do much offensively after the first inning, falling behind 6-1. The Oilers built that lead with Dylan Ramirez’s infield single bringing in a run in the fourth, but the other three runs scored with the bases loaded, via a walk in the fourth, and a hit batsman and a wild pitch in the fifth.
Newport Harbor starter Kelly Austin walked five, hit one and struck out five. The right-hander allowed two earned runs on five hits in four innings.
Huntington Beach’s Nate Madole, who struck out seven, walked three and gave up three runs on three hits, went four innings as well, but he got the win.
The left-hander failed to get an out in the bottom of the fifth. He walked Matt Weiss and gave up a single to AJ Stefano, one of his two hits on the day, before giving way to Ramirez.
Jaylen Andrews was the first batter Ramirez saw, and he got a hit to score Weiss, one of two runs batted in for Andrews. He made it to second base, and eventually home. The Sailors scored two more runs to cut the deficit to 6-4 after shortstop Cole Minato’s throwing error to first base.
With runners on the corners, Ramirez got out of the jam by striking out two batters looking.
The lefty got some offensive support in the sixth. The Oilers extended the lead to 8-4. Minato, who went two for four, doubled in a run, and Jag Burden, who was three for four, singled in a run. Both turned out to be key hits because the Sailors scored twice in the bottom half of the sixth.
Ramirez threw the last three innings and earned the save. He struck out four and allowed one earned run and four hits.
“We had a lot of players step up today,” said Chalmers, adding that the team played without junior shortstop John Olmstead because the USC commit got ejected from a Santa Ana Elks Tournament game last week and sophomore infielder Braham Duncan because of an injury. “I’m really excited about our effort. We look forward to going over there [to Huntington Beach to complete our three-game series] on Friday.
“[Huntington Beach] is the best team. It’s a good measuring stick for us. If we can hang with them, we can expect to hang with just about anybody.”
Nettles agreed with Chalmers. Nettles told him so later that night after the game, and of course it was via text.
Get more of David Carrillo Peñaloza’s work and follow him on Twitter @ByDCP
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