Baseball: Sailors stun Irvine

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - The “Law of Averages” finally ruled in favor of the

Newport Harbor High baseball team. Finally.

The visiting Sailors managed to get quality pitching, timely hitting

and inspired defense all in the same seven-inning stretch and pulled out

a 4-2 win over defending Sea View League Champion Irvine Friday

afternoon.

“We finally had things go our way,” Newport Coach Jim Kiefer said.

“The last three games, we’ve started to play much better baseball and

today we were able to put it all together. It was a nice win for us.”

Newport starting pitcher Joel Brown pitched four effective innings

before Chris Ward closed out the contest with three shutout innings of

relief.

“Irvine really swings the bats, so it was important to get ahead of

their hitters and to mix up the pitch speed,” Kiefer said. “Joel’s fast

ball and curve have a big difference in speed, so that worked very well.”

Another big hero for the Sailors (5-8, 2-7 in league) was senior

catcher Garrett Brant, who went 3 for 4 with a run scored and two RBIs.

He also threw out two Irvine runners attempting to steal second.

“Garrett’s been our offensive leader all year long,” Kiefer said.

“Teams in our league like to run, but Garrett did a great job behind the

plate for us.”

Newport took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Cameron Pemstein

reached on an error, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mike

Jones, went to third on a single by Alan Lane and scored on Brant’s

single to right.

Irvine (11-3, 7-2), ranked No. 5 in CIF Southern Section Division II,

responded in the fourth inning with two runs on three hits. David Parker

and Keith Williams each had RBI hits for the Vaqueros.

Irvine’s lead didn’t last too long. Newport used three straight

one-out hits from Jones, Lane and Brant to tie the game.

With two outs, Jon Vandersloot hit a chopper that hit the lip of the

batting circle and bounced over the Vaqueros’ first baseman into right

field, scoring Lane.

Ward then stepped up and ripped a single to left field, driving in

Brant for a 4-2 Newport advantage.

That was all Newport needed as Ward came in and shut the Irvine

offense down. He allowed only two singles with no walks and four

strikeouts over three innings.

With an Irvine runner on first base in the fifth, Newport right

fielder Cameron Pemstein battled the sun and the wind to make a stellar

sliding catch to kill any type of rally.

Brant was the defensive hero in the sixth when he gunned down a Irvine

runner on a botched hit-and-run attempt.

Lane finished the game with two hits and a run scored, while Cody

Forsythe added a long triple to right-center.

Newport will host Tustin in an at-large contest to wrap up the Costa

Mesa-Foothill Tournament.

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Newport Harbor 4, Irvine 2

Newport 001 030 0 - 4 9 1

Irvine 000 200 0 - 2 7 1

Brown, Ward (5) and Brant; Rippo, Hazlett (6) and de Vries. W - Brown,

3-2. L - Rippo. Sv - Ward (3). 2B - Brant (NH), Williams (I). 3B -

Forsythe (I).