Peñaloza: Sailors get serious in exhibition
Opening Day for the Newport Harbor High baseball team isn’t until Feb. 27. Two weeks before that date, the Sailors had a serious dress rehearsal.
Newport Harbor played host to Bellflower St. John Bosco, one of six exhibition games that are part of the Sunset League vs. Trinity League Baseball Showcase this month.
These games don’t count. Don’t tell that to both programs on Saturday afternoon..
In the bottom of the first inning, St. John Bosco Coach Don Barbara came out of the dugout. He wasn’t too happy with the home plate umpire. His pitcher, Carlos Lomeli, struck out leadoff hitter Kyle Carmack on five pitches. The last pitch, in the umpire’s eyes, hit the ground after Carmack swung at it and missed.
While Carmack took off first base, catcher Kameron Ojeda fired the ball to third base, starting the around-the-horn. By the time it reached the third baseman’s glove, Carmack was on his way to running through the first-base bag safely.
“He never dropped the ball!” Barbara yelled as he walked toward the umpire, before turning back to the dugout and saying, “Welcome to Orange County!”
St. John Bosco, the only non-Orange County program involved in the showcase, didn’t get the call, but it got the result that mattered at the end.
The matchup featured the Trinity League’s worst team from a year ago and the Sunset League’s worst team from a year ago. The Trinity League got the best of the Sunset League in this one.
Lomeli threw four strong innings, striking out seven and allowing three hits in St. John Bosco’s 8-2 win against Newport Harbor.
The only run the Sailors managed off Lomeli came after a throwing error to first base in the second inning. Sean Korkmaz came around to score, giving Newport Harbor a 1-0 lead. Other than that, Lomeli looked sharp.
“Their pitcher is a good player, he’s going to St. Mary’s [College],” Newport Harbor Coach Evan Chalmers said of Lomeli, a 6-foot-2 junior right-hander. “He was making it difficult on us, but, you know, when we had an opportunity to put the ball in play early in the game with two strikes, even just a chopper, we managed to scratch a run out. We have to continue with that mentality. With a guy throwing that well, [we have] to put the ball in play and make the team play catch, and we didn’t do that.”
The Braves broke the game open with a five-run third inning, coming right after a fielding error.
Each of the five hits Newport Harbor starter Luke Genova allowed came in the third. The biggest were Ojeda’s bases-loaded single to right-center field that drove in two runs, putting St. John Bosco ahead, 2-1, and Nicholas Morales’ two-run double down the third-base line that made it 5-1.
Genova, a Santa Clara University-bound senior, went three innings, and Jeremiah Sheldon, a southpaw, pitched the final four innings. The two are slated as the Sailors’ top two starters.
The sides exchanged solo home runs. Newport Harbor’s Cade Seabold hit a shot to left-center field in the fourth and St. John Bosco’s Martin Robles blasted his toward center in the sixth.
“I like the way our guys came out to compete today,” said Chalmers, who saw Jake Genova go two for two with a walk, while Sheldon doubled and Korkmaz singled. “There were a couple of little things that happened that I think we could overcome. The big inning is the one we talked about the most, giving up a five spot is going to hurt you.
“[There was a lot of] good energy, lots of people here, both dugouts barking. We wanted it to be that way … to see where we are at this particular time, and we got some work to do and we got to get better [before we open the season with a doubleheader at home against Esperanza].”
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•Three local high school boys’ basketball programs finished second in their respective leagues.
Newport Harbor shared second in the Sunset League, as did Corona del Mar in the Pacific Coast League, while Costa Mesa was the runner-up finisher in the Orange Coast League.
The three schools are one of four in the area that clinched CIF Southern Section playoffs berths, and the fourth is Sage Hill, the third-place team from the Academy League. The postseason begins next week, and on Sunday afternoon, the four teams learn of their opening-round opponents when the section releases the playoff pairings.
The Sailors (21-7) are in the Division 2AA playoffs and they find out between 1:20 and 1:40, the Sea Kings (19-8), in Division 3A, between 1:40 and 2 p.m., the Mustangs (16-12), in Division 4AA, between 2 and 2:20, and the Lightning (16-8), in Division 5AA, between 2:20 and 2:40.
There’s a fifth local program, Estancia (11-17), which submitted an at-large entry into the Division 4AA playoffs after it placed last in the Orange Coast League. The Eagles will know if they get in at 12:30. Last year, they made it, despite splitting last place.
Out of the local programs, only CdM has had success in the playoffs in recent years. The Sea Kings, under Coach Ryan Schachter, reached the Division 3A finals last season, losing to Beverly Hills, 55-47, at Azusa Pacific University.
A year ago, the rest of the four local programs were one-and-done in the playoffs. Sage Hill hasn’t won a playoff game in six years, Costa Mesa in four years, Newport Harbor in three years, and Estancia in two years.
Newport Harbor Coach Bob Torribio has coached in the playoffs before, as has Estancia Coach Xavier Castellano and Jeff Beeler of Sage Hill. Phil Weber is making his postseason coaching debut with Costa Mesa.
The teams with the best chance to win a round or two are CdM, ranked No. 7 in Division 3A, Newport Harbor, No. 8 in Division 2AA, and Costa Mesa.
The Sea Kings return three key players off last season’s team that made a section title run in Matt Ctvrtlik, Sam Kobrine and Taeveon Le. The starting unit for the Sailors is strong, with Charlie Stassel, Collin Pipkin, Nate Harding and Brandon Phillips leading the way. The Mustangs return four starters from last season, Mason Tufuga, Calvin Ko, Chris Calderon and Nabeel Salameh.
Those same three teams are the ones that placed second in their respective leagues.
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•A year ago, the lone area high school boys’ soccer team to qualify for the CIF Southern Section playoffs was Sage Hill.
This year, the local programs that clinched postseason berths are CdM, Sage Hill, Estancia and Costa Mesa.
The Sea Kings (17-2-1), the Pacific Coast League champions, are in Division 3, Sage Hill (10-8-1), the Academy League runner-up finisher, is in Division 6, while Estancia (12-5-4), the Orange Coast League runner-up finisher, and Costa Mesa (8-8-2), the third-place team from the Orange Coast League, are both in Division 4.
The programs learn of their respective opening-round opponent on Monday at 9 a.m., when the section announces the playoff pairings.
Coach George Larsen has the Sea Kings rolling into the playoffs. They have their best record since their historic season in 2009-10, when the Sea Kings finished 27-1-1 and won a CIF Southern Section Division 4 title and a CIF Southern California Regional Division II title.
