Baseball: CdM falls in extra innings, falls out of first

Perfect was the Corona del Mar High baseball team’s record through the first eight games of the season. The opposite of that could describe the Sea Kings’ record against Beckman in the last 11 meetings.

The Patriots have owned CdM in the past three years, but this year the Sea Kings boast the kind of pitcher who can end their losing ways to Beckman. They went with their star pitcher, Cal State Fullerton-bound senior Evan Larsen, in a first-place showdown in Pacific Coast League play on Tuesday.

Larsen, as well as the rest of the CdM staff, entered the home contest throwing a combined 30 straight shutout innings. The number shot up to 37 when Larsen blanked the Patriots through seven innings.

The problem for CdM was seven innings wasn’t enough to beat Beckman. They went extra innings, and the Patriots broke a scoreless tie in the top of the eighth, scoring twice off Larsen. The right-hander exited after striking out a dozen in 7 1/3 innings.

Beckman left-hander Will Cohen outlasted Larsen, throwing an eight-hitter in a 2-0 win, helping the two-time defending league champion Patriots remain undefeated in league and take sole possession of first place.

Cohen, a junior, struck out only four hitters, but he was efficient during his eight innings. He threw 103 pitches, 72 for strikes.

Not bad for someone who didn’t think he would go past four innings for Beckman (10-1, 4-0 in league), ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 poll. Cohen (3-0) turned in his longest outing of his career, doing so against No. 4-ranked CdM (8-1, 3-1), the league runner-up finisher a year ago.

“He didn’t throw a lot of pitches,” Beckman Coach Kevin Lavalle said, “but we went into that eighth inning, the pitching coach and I were kind of talking about, you know, what we should do. I said, ‘That’s your call. In the 0-0 games, I don’t get involved with the pitching.’”

Bringing back Cohen for the eighth made sense after the Patriots took the lead, becoming the first team to score on CdM since Chino Hills Ayala did in the fifth inning of the Sea Kings’ 5-4 win on March 10.

Connor Fidone, the team’s leadoff hitter, started things off with an infield single up the middle. He beat second baseman Robby Hurst’s off-balanced throw to first. For the third time against Larsen, Beckman got the first batter onboard, and this time it took advantage.

Matt McLain’s sacrifice bunt moved Fidone to second base. Seven pitches later, after Tyler Geurts fell behind 0-2 and worked his way to a full count, he singled to center field and the Patriots waved Fidone home. The San Francisco State-bound senior made it without a challenge because the ball went underneath center fielder Brenden Hueston’s glove for an error.

“I don’t think he scores on that play,” CdM Coach John Emme said if Hueston fields the ball and fires it home to get Fidone. “But, you know, we had three errors and they didn’t have any, so that’s the difference, and they got, you know, clutch hits there at the end. We had opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them.”

Geurts, who went two for three, reached second on the error, setting things up for clean-up hitter Austin Schell. He brought Geurts home with a double down the left-field line, ending Larsen’s day.

Larsen (4-1) threw 118 pitches. He allowed six hits, walked one and hit one.

“Originally, we thought we were facing [Chazz] Martinez [at the start], and then we saw they were throwing Larsen,” Cohen said. “Coach gave us a great pre-game speech about how it just doesn’t change anything.”

Nothing has changed whenever Beckman faces CdM, as it pushed its winning streak to 12 games against the Sea Kings.

There was a scare in the bottom of the eighth. The first two batters Cohen saw were left-handed. Kevin McCarthy, who fell behind 0-2, singled to center, and with the tying run up, Preston Hartsell drove the ball to deep center.

“When he hit the ball, the first thing we all thought is, ‘Oh, God! It’s tied 2-2,’” Lavalle said. “Then [Fidone] catches it. On a different day, that ball is probably gone.”

Emme said the wind was blowing, just not in CdM’s favor. Still, the hosts had a chance to strike first in the sixth.

With two outs, Hurst singled to left and then stole second base on Cohen’s first pitch to Nick Premer. On the next offering, Premer singled to left and Emme sent Hurst home, but left fielder Jake Groves hit the cut-off man, third baseman Willie Lajoie, who threw out Hurst at the plate.

“The way he came up with that ball [in left field], he makes that play probably one out of 100 times, so I’m going to send that kid every time,” Emme said. “That thing short hopped him and came up on him, and so with two outs, you have to take that chance. It was less of a chance that he comes up with it and they make two [successful] throws. It is unfortunate it didn’t work, but that’s something we’d do every time.

“You’ll find out if you’re champion by how you respond to a game like this [at Beckman on Thursday], and that’s what we’re going to find out.”

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Pacific Coast League

Beckman 2, Corona del Mar 0

8 innings

SCORE BY INNINGS

Beckman 000 000 02 – 2 6 0

Corona del Mar 000 000 00 – 0 8 3

Cohen and Schell; Larsen, Shadid (8) and Di Ferdinando. W – Cohen, 3-0. L – Larsen, 4-1. 2B – Schell (BM), Premer (CdM).