High School Baseball: Sailors fall again

No one could catch the rabbit on Newport Harbor High’s baseball field on Wednesday.

The home team also had a tough time catching a couple of balls hit in center field.

The center fielder lost the ball in the sun in the fourth and fifth innings, costing the Sailors four runs, the difference in them losing yet again in Sunset League action. Newport Harbor dropped to 1-11 in league after suffering a 5-1 setback to Edison.

The errors helped the Chargers move into a two-way tie for third place with Marina at 6-6. Only three league teams earn automatic berths into the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

Around this time a year ago, the Sailors were in contention for a postseason entry. Now, with three games to go, the Sailors are on their way to their fourth dead-last finish in league in five years.

The season has been a long one for Coach Evan Chalmers. He has a different team compared to last year, when the Sailors placed fourth in league and qualified for a wild-card game, their first postseason appearance since 2010. They are far from a playoff team, evident from their defensive lapses.

“Critical balls in the outfield, [one] with two outs [in the fifth inning allowed Edison to score twice], they should be outs,” said Chalmers, referring to when Jeremiah Sheldon couldn’t find the ball hit by Vince Inman to center. “I guess he lost it in the sun, but the thing is it’s our home field, so there [are] no secrets as to where the ball is going to be and where the sun’s going to be any time during the day. We should be prepared for that.”

The mishaps hurt Newport Harbor starter Liam Ogburn (6-5), who went the distance, striking out six, while allowing six hits and three earned runs.

The senior turned in a solid effort, keeping the Sailors in it through the first three innings. Ogburn’s lone mistake was allowing Nick Mailman to tie the game at 1-1 with a two-out single in the third.

The next inning his defense let him down right away. After battling with Kevin Ando, who led off, Ogburn appeared to get Ando out, but the ball fell out of the center fielder’s glove in deep center. Ando made it to second base, and three pitches later, he was home. Jake Scott, who went two for two, belted a two-run home run to left field to give Edison a 3-1 lead.

Kaz Akamatsu (6-1) didn’t need much run support. The right-hander threw 92 pitches to record his first complete game of the year, allowing only two hits and one unearned run, while striking out four. He gave up an infield single to Logan Mahaffy and a double to Luke Genova.

“He settled down,” Edison Coach Cameron Chinn said of Akamatsu, who in the first inning gave up a leadoff single to Mahaffy, walked Genova and Rigsby Duncan, and fell behind, 1-0, after Mahaffy scored on a passed ball. “He wasn’t locating too well early and we were able to get out of some jams, [starting with runners on the corners in the first inning, a runner on second in the second inning and runners on second and third in the third inning].

“But once he settled down and got into a groove, the way that his ball moves, it’s nice that when he starts to develop confidence in his fastball, he becomes a pretty good pitcher.”

Edison has taken the first two games of the three-game series against Newport Harbor. The series finale is at Edison on Friday at 3:15 p.m.

The last time the two teams played at Edison, the game went 11 innings on March 31, the Chargers winning 4-3. Chalmers believed another extra-inning affair was in store on Wednesday.

The game was tight for the first four innings. Jake Genova helped Ogburn stay in the game, despite the right-hander walking five and hitting one. Genova, making his first start at catcher, threw out the first three runners trying to steal second base, two in the second inning and one in the fourth.

“Really this game was not [that] different than that [extra-inning] game [at Edison], only with the second-and-third circumstances we drove them in,” Chalmers said. “This game for all intents and purposes should’ve been 3-3 and we should still be playing.”

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Sunset League

Edison 5, Newport Harbor 1

SCORE BY INNINGS

Edison 001 220 0 – 5 6 1

Newport 100 000 0 – 1 2 2

Akamatsu and Ando; Ogburn and J. Genova. W – Akamatsu, 6-1. L – Ogburn, 6-5. 2B – L. Genova (NH). HR – Scott (E).