Sailors suffer tough loss

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - The Laguna Hills High baseball team followed “Wee”

Willie Keeler’s guide to successful baseball against Newport Harbor.

The Hawks took the adage “Hit them where they ain’t” to a new level in

Tuesday’s 8-5 Sea View League win over the scrappy Sailors.

“You have to give Laguna Hills credit,” Newport Coach Jim Kiefer said.

“They put the ball in play and when you do that enough, balls are going

to find open spots in the defense. They made their own luck today.”

Laguna Hills (6-4 in league) its short game and a favorable call by

the bases umpire to turn a 5-4 deficit into an 8-5 advantage.

With one out and Newport up 5-4 in the top of the sixth inning, Justin

Hallenbeck walked and went to third on a successful hit and run play with

Chris Turner, whose grounder bounded through a vacated hole left

unattended by a covering second baseman.

With Turner running, Brian Anderson hit a come-backer to Newport

pitcher Chris Ward, who turned and fired a strike to shortstop Ryan

Torrey, but the umpire called the runner safe. Hallenbeck scored from

third and after a Newport error, runners were at second and third still

with only one out.

“That play really broke our backs,” Kiefer said. “From where we were

standing, it didn’t looked like he beat the throw, but what can you do?”

From there, a two-run bloop single by Daniel Miltenberger and a

sacrifice fly by Dustin Hicks capped the four-run sixth inning.

Alan Lane led the Sailors (5-9, 2-8 in league) with three hits and two

runs scored while Mike Jones added two hits.

“It’s important for those guys to get on base for our RBI guys to do

their jobs,” Kiefer said. “They’ve done a great job of getting on base

these past few games.”

Lu Castillo, an early substitution for Jon Vandersloot, who left the

game with a severe headache, made the most of his opportunity. He went 1

for 2 with a run scored and two RBIs.

Newport trailed 3-1 early, but took the lead in the third inning. Lane

and Garrett Brant had back-to-back doubles to lead off the frame. After

Brant advanced to third on a ground out, Castillo lifted a sacrifice fly

to center, scoring Brant.

Ward walked and stole second base, just in time to score on Cody

Forsythe’s single up the middle, giving Newport a 4-3 advantage.

After Laguna Hills tied the game in the top of the fifth inning,

Newport responded with a run of its own. Castillo singled, went to second

on a successful sacrifice bunt by Ward and scored on a two-out single by

Cameron Pemstein.

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Laguna Hills 8, Newport Harbor 5

Laguna Hills 111 014 0 - 8 14 2 Newport Harbor 103 010 0 - 5 11 3

Anderson, Miltenberger (6) and Hicks; Forsythe, Ward (4) and Brant. W

- Anderson. L - Ward. Sv - Miltenberger. 2B - Hallenbeck (LH), Anderson

(LH), Johnson (LH), Hicks (LH), Barnum (LH), Lane (NH), Brant (NH).