Rios stuns Griffins

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NEWPORT BEACH — Alex Rios’ father teased those bundled up on a windy and cold Wednesday.

Aaron Rios, the public address announcer, tried his best to warm up the baseball crowd at Newport Harbor High.

“I just wanted to let everyone know we’ve run out of hot chocolate,” said Aaron, drawing some laughter because the nearest place selling anything hot was the local coffee shop a few blocks away.

“We’ve run out hand warmers, too.”

You might laugh because the coldest person at Newport Harbor was Aaron’s son. In his three previous at-bats against Los Alamitos, Alex struck out each time.

The Sailors needed their clean-up hitter to heat up really fast in the bottom of the eighth, trailing by one run with two runners on. With one swing of the bat, Alex got to run around the bases at his own pace, getting the home fans to take off their blankets and jump and celebrate.

Rios belted a walk-off three-run home run, lifting Newport Harbor to an 11-9 Sunset League victory in extra innings.

The ball traveled over the center-field fence. Wind or no wind, this one was way out of here, sending the Sailors (7-9, 3-3 in league) into sole possession of third place in league.

Los Alamitos (7-8, 2-4) falls one game behind in the chase for the league’s automatic third playoff berth. The defending league champion was so close to climbing back into league contention.

Coach Mark Clabough said the Griffins had no business winning the game.

“If we would’ve won, I would’ve been embarrassed. I would’ve been embarrassed to win that game,” said Clabough, whose team on Friday plays host to Newport Harbor in the rubber game of the three-game series. “That was poorly played, on our part.

“No, [Friday’s game is] not a must-win. But we better win.”

The Griffins let this one get away, or you can say the Sailors took it. Either way, Newport Harbor defeated Los Alamitos for the first time in Sunset League play since returning to the league in 2007.

Coach Evan Chalmers said he prepared three speeches for his Sailors at the end. They basically changed course in the last four innings.

The first speech was based on Newport Harbor’s fight against UC Irvine-bound senior Beau Wright. The Sailors rallied for five runs in the fifth, taking a 7-6 lead on a two-run home run to center by Blake Davey.

Davey wasn’t finished, neither was Los Alamitos.

Clabough called on a pinch-hitter in the sixth and it took two pitches for the move to look brilliant. Kevin McGougan pulled a two-run homer down the right-field line, putting the Griffins up, 8-7.

Wright returned for the bottom half of the inning, mowing down batters to finish with seven strikeouts in six innings of work. The left-hander, who combined to throw a two-hitter against the Sailors in a 13-2 victory last month, left. John Heacock entered in relief.

This is where Chalmers’ speech took a different path.

In the bottom of the seventh, Davey homered again to center, this time a solo blast to tie the game.

But another left-handed pinch-hitter hurt the Sailors with a home run. John Millar gave the Griffins a 9-8 lead with a solo shot to center, and Newport Harbor appeared on its way to losing a second straight close game, the other in the Beach Pit Classic Championship, with Cody Green in relief.

Green kept the Sailors in it, pitching two solid innings. The top of the lineup set things up for another dramatic finish and allowed Green to improve to 2-1.

Back-to-back singles by Austin Wobrock and Jacob McCann put runners on first and second for Rios.

On deck was Davey, who was two for two, slamming his fourth and fifth homers of the season, to go with three runs batted in and two walks. Heacock (2-3) wanted no part of Davey, yet the right-hander fell behind in the count on Rios.

When it went to 3-1, the senior, who tried to uppercut every pitch before his latest at-bat, took a deep breath before digging into the batter’s box.

Rios’ father told him what was coming. Son already figured it out.

“I knew he was going to give me something to hit,” Rios said. “I hadn’t hit the fastball all day, and I knew if he threw me a fastball, I was going to crush it. I just stayed short.”

The home-run call ran a little longer than usual and you understand why. It was Rios’ first walk-off home run, plus his father announced it.

Sunset League

Newport Harbor 11, Los Alamitos 9

SCORE BY INNINGS

Wright, Heacock (7) and Hartong; Freiberg, Vasquez (5), Vlahakis (6), Green (7) and Davey. W – Green, 2-1. L – Heacock, 2-3. HR – McGougan (LA), Millar (LA), Davey 2 (NH), Rios (NH).

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