CdM loses close one

CORONA DEL MAR — One step this way, two steps too short, and a step the other way, and the Corona del Mar High baseball team fell off stride.

The Sea Kings were on path to get another chance to reach a third straight Beach Pit Classic championship game.

But they shot themselves in the foot each time against visiting Canyon of Canyon Country Monday.

A second baseman fielding a grounder collided with a base runner heading to second in the top of the fifth inning. Soon the shortstop let a grounder come to him and the ball went under his glove and between his legs to the outfield, costing CdM two runs.

In the seventh with the game tied, the bases loaded and one out, the right fielder gloved a line drive for an out. But he dropped it before throwing it back.

He never stepped toward the plate to make a play at home.

The runner, on the bag ready to tag up, easily scored the game-winning run with no throw, allowing Canyon to win, 3-2, and advance to today’s semifinals.

Some Sea Kings at the end just stared at the ground, their cleats. Three missteps cost them an opportunity to play in the tournament’s winner bracket title game for the second straight year after winning the consolation title two years ago.

The first words out CdM Coach John Emme’s mouth said it all.

“It didn’t really matter,” he said before explaining the first incident, which looked like runner’s interference. “[The umpires] ruled that the second baseman [Kevin Holland] made the play and was trying to tag the runner out. That truly wasn’t the case. It’s happened to use twice this year.”

The breaks aren’t going the Sea Kings’ way this season. Defensively, they’ve hurt themselves with breakdowns.

The routine plays are routinely resulting in errors at crucial times. They had four against Canyon, even the exact number they couldn’t seem to get right afterward.

The Sea Kings (7-9) go into today playing Woodbridge in a fifth-place semifinal at home at 11 a.m. Take away the mistakes and CdM should be in the semis competing against Saugus at home at 2 p.m.

But it’s Canyon (6-9-1) playing a familiar Santa Clarita Valley foe.

The Cowboys found themselves in the Beach Pitt Classic, the four-day, 16-team tournament, after their usual spring break tournament in San Diego conflicted with their schedule. Coach Brandon Montemayor is glad it did.

A blowout win in the opener against Rancho Alamitos Saturday, and now a tight one against CdM, Montemayor likes what he’s seeing before the Cowboys play a Foothill League rival they lost to 12-5 on March 28. Canyon has won two straight, just like it did in early March before losing eight straight games.

Starter Sean Gavin threw a solid six innings, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out four in the win. Gavin (2-3) gave way to reliever Austin Engel after hitting CdM’s Mitch Sands, the leadoff hitter in the seventh.

Andy Rovzar moved Sands into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Engel struck out the next batter. Next came up Holland, the second baseman involved in a couple of game-changing plays.

The first prevented him from making a play when the runner moving to second got in the way in the fifth, the inning in which Canyon went ahead, 2-1. In the bottom half of the inning, Holland tied the game at 2-2 by driving in Sands with a single to left field.

Sands this time stood on second. Holland, CdM’s best hitter, battled back from an 0-2 count, but all he could do was fly out to right field to end the game.

“They’re a Division I school,” said Emme, whose team is in Division III. “We’re just going to take one game at a time.”

Right now the young Sea Kings are taking baby steps.

Beach Pit Classic

Quarterfinal

Canyon 3, Corona del Mar

SCORE BY INNINGS

Gavin, Engel (7) and Sarmiento; Weinberger, Doering (5), Rovzar (5) and Attyah. W – Gavin, 2-3. L – Rovzar, 0-3. Sv – Engel. 2B – Amoroso (CdM), Moskovits (CdM), Sands (CdM).

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].