Baseball: Sailors fall to Irvine in league opener

IRVINE - The Newport Harbor High baseball team battled defending

Sea View League champion Irvine right to the end, but fell short in a 5-2

loss.

“It wasn’t a bad performance for us, but obviously we would like to

come out on the winning end of things,” Newport Coach Jim Kiefer said.

“We made a couple of mistakes and Irvine is good enough to take advantage

of them.”

Newport (3-2, 0-1 in league) jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Donovan

Wong smacked a two-out RBI double in the top of the first inning.

Sophomore Ryan Torrey came through with an RBI single in the fourth

inning, giving the Sailors a 2-0 lead. Torrey was 2 for 3 with an RBI.

Sailors’ starting pitcher Cody Forsythe pitched out of a first-inning

jam, then blanked the Vaqueros (5-1, 1-0) in the second and third innings

before falling into trouble.

With one out, Irvine put together a string of hits and timely

offensive execution for a four-run fourth inning, taking the lead for

good. Garrett Brant threw two-plus innings of solid relief for the

Sailors.

“I still think they’re the top team in our league,” Kiefer said.

“They’ve got two solid pitcher and their catcher and shortstop are

all-leaguers too.”

The Sailors will host Laguna Hills on Friday, beginning at 3:15 p.m.

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Irvine 5, Newport Harbor 2

Newport 100 100 0 - 2 5 0

Irvine 000 401 x - 5 8 1

Forsythe, Ward (5) and Brant; Smith, Parker (7) and de Vries. W -

Smith. L - Forsythe, 1-1. Sv. - Parker. 2B - Wong (NH), Egan (I).