CdM routs Tars in summer baseball

Corona del Mar hasn’t beat Newport Harbor during the last two high school baseball seasons.

The Sea Kings sure have been successful against the Sailors this summer. They have owned this version of the Battle of the Bay.

Corona del Mar won at Newport Harbor, 15-5, on Tuesday, earning its second win against the Sailors in eight days.

Both games have been at Newport Harbor, a difference from the spring, when the programs square off on a neutral field. While the Sea Kings have been unable to defeat their archrivals in their last five matchups in the spring, they routed the Sailors.

The result will go down as a comeback win for CdM, which trailed through the first three innings. The Sea Kings broke the game open by scoring six runs in both the fourth and fifth innings.

“Both teams and all the teams in the summer are really just playing to see what guys can do and giving everyone a chance,” CdM Coach John Emme said.

The Back Bay schools played without key members from last season because of travel ball commitments or players trying out for Area Code teams.

Pitchers Evan Larsen, the All-CIF Southern Section Division 3 selection and Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year, and Chazz Martinez, as well as shortstop JT Schwartz and outfielder Preston Hartsell, missed the afternoon game for CdM. The four players made the Daily Pilot Newport-Mesa Baseball Dream Team, contributing to the Sea Kings’ runner-up finish in the Pacific Coast League and first trip to the CIF Southern Section playoffs in three years.

Newport Harbor, which missed the postseason last season after a last-place finish in the Sunset League, didn’t have the services of Jeremiah Sheldon, a second-team All-Sunset League utility player, and the Genova twins, Luke and Jake. Despite the absences, the Sailors struck first, scoring twice with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning.

Griffin Cribbs singled in a run, hitting a 0-2 changeup toward the gap in left-center field. The pitch selection in that situation infuriated Emme, and he let Alex Shadid know about it after the left-handed batter was having trouble with the heat. Two batters later, Will Leiby went the other way, singling to right field to put Newport Harbor ahead, 2-0.

In the second inning, CdM cut the deficit in half. Fritz Miller pulled a pitch down the left-field line to double in a run. The hosts went back ahead by two in the bottom half of the inning. After Steven Bibona led off with a single, Dylan Kaplan drove him in by hitting the ball over the head of center fielder Brenden Hueston, who seemed to misread the ball. Kaplan wound up with a stand-up double.

“The mistakes we made [early on] were pretty much all mental, throwing a 0-2 changeup down the middle of the plate that cost us,” Emme said. “Brenden … knows to go back on a ball. He came in. Those were the kind of things that were, you know, frustrating, because we’re returning a very veteran group and we need to see less and less of the mental mistakes. Then it was really nice to see the guys totally turn it around and play the last five [innings] really well.”

Shadid started CdM’s first rally in the fourth. He led off with a single, and four batters later, Miller singled in a run with a blooper to right field. The Sailors walked in a run with the bases loaded, another run came in because a ball dropped in shallow right field, and then Miller stole home.

“That’s always a fun play if you can do it,” Emme said of stealing home. “[The pitcher] was really slow to the plate and he wasn’t checking the runner [at third base] at all. We were timing it the first few pitches.”

Robby Hurst ended the inning, not before his two-run double gave CdM a 7-3 lead. The Sailors threw Hurst out at third base.

Kevin McCarthy, a southpaw, relieved Shadid in the fourth and he threw the first of two straight scoreless innings. McCarthy, who went three innings, received more support in the fifth inning. Three errors and three walks helped CdM score six runs and put the game away.

“It’s tough when you’re not throwing strikes because it makes it difficult on your defense, you know, to stay in the game,” said Newport Harbor Coach Evan Chalmers, who used five pitchers, Josh Spicer, Leiby, Bibona, Garrett Kerley and David Fisher. “We walked a bunch of guys. We had some guys that really haven’t pitched a lot of innings for us.”