University Coach Wes Shaw talks to his players after Tuesday’s win. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
University High School’s baseball team kept its CIF playoff hopes alive with a 3-1 Pacific Coast League victory over Northwood Tuesday at Uni behind a complete-game effort of pitcher Austen Barnett.
Northwood (17-9, 13-6) has already clinched second place in the league and a trip to the CIF Division 4 playoffs. However, the places third through seven are a bit scrambled. Four teams from the league automatically advance to the CIF playoffs.
So Tuesday’s game meant a lot more to University.
University Coach Wes Shaw believes there is a possible lane open for his team (12-13-1, 7-11-1) to earn a CIF Division 6 at-large bid should the Trojans finish with wins against last place Sage Hill on Wednesday at Sage Hill and Thursday. at Uni. Two wins would put the Trojans overall record at 14-13-1, better than the .500 requirement for at-large teams.
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It won’t be known until Monday at 10 a.m. how many, if any at-large spots will be available when the CIF playoff draw is announced.
A loss Tuesday vs. Northwood would have most likely eliminated the Trojans from an at-large consideration.
“We’re battling for our lives,” Shaw said. “They responded, they played solid, we didn’t kick the ball around and it was another real good pitching performance by Austin Barnett, that’s two really good outings by him, he was in command. I had a lot of confidence in him.”
Barnett went the distance, allowing seven hits and striking out four.
“The baseball gods were good to us today, I’m really proud of these kids, they battled and they know what is at stake, they just need to stay focused and I think we will be all right; we need to take care of business tomorrow,” Shaw said. “We can’t take anybody for granted for sure; you can’t overlook anybody.”
Shaw believes there will be some at-large berths available in Division 6 and if the Trojans win their final two games, they warrant one of them. Uni can’t afford another loss.
“We’re in a good spot, in the top 40 of Division 6, we have the strongest strength of schedule of anybody, no one is even close to us,” he said. “Look at our record, we’ve only been blown out one time all year and that was in the tournament against El Toro but all the other games have been very close and competitive.”
Northwood scored its run in the second inning. Jordan Kim singled and advanced to second on a passed ball. He then went to third on a bunt single by Rylan Littlejohn and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kaden Chan.
University moved ahead with two runs in the third inning. Luke Weston singled with one out and scored on a single by Michael Dougherty. Alex Zive, who had walked, also came around to score on a throwing error on Dougherty’s single to make it 2-1.
The Trojans got an insurance run in the fifth inning. Weston singled, stole second and scored on a single by Zive.
Northwood threatened in the sixth. Adam Harper singled to lead off went to second on an error but was stranded there. Barnett then shut down the Timberwolves in order in the seventh.
“I would almost say it was a do-or-die game because we needed this game to even get a chance to go inthe playoffs so I just went out there to try and give it all I had,” Barnett said. “I wasn’t in the lineup today hitting so I thought I might as well do as much as I can do on the mound.”
Weston and Zive had two hits each for University.
Northwood, the top-ranked team in this week’s CIF Division 4 rankings, will try and bounce back with the first of two games Wednesday at home against league champion Woodbridge. The teams also play Thursday night at Ryan Lemmon Stadium.
“Their guy threw a lot of strikes, they played good defense and took care of business,” said Northwood Coach Doug Euper. “We struggle to score runs, it’s no secret, that’s been our whole season.”
Bobby Bangs pitched well for Northwood, allowing one earned run and four hits while striking out six in four innings.
“He did good,” Euper said. “He deserved better. Our pitchers are going into every game almost needing a shutout. If we can’t score runs, we’re just not going to win games.”
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—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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