Woodbridge extends league winning streak to four with victory over Northwood

Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker talks to his team after Friday night’s PCL game with Northwood. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Woodbridge’s baseball team won its fourth consecutive game to start Pacific Coast League play, defeating Northwood 7-1 Friday night at Ryan Lemmon Stadium.

Starting pitcher Alex Johnson, who got the win, pitched the first four innings. allowed one run and two hits and struck out four. Ian Chen came on to pitch two scoreless innings and Caden Camacho pitched a scoreless seventh inning for league-leading Woodbridge (7-5, 4-0).

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Johnson also helped himself offensively, going 3 for 4 with two RBI to help the Warriors complete a two-game league sweep over the Timberwolves.

“To get a victory is a big thing,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. “We were fortunate to get two from Laguna Beach last week and that put us in a pretty good position. We keep telling the kids we got to take it one game at a time in our league, anybody on any given day can beat anybody. We have to play catch, throw strikes and put the ball in play and I think tonight was our best offensive game of the year from the standpoint our at bats were pretty good, guys were battling, it was good to see that improvement from game one to game 12.”

Woodbridge had 10 hits and capitalized on seven walks and two hit batters by three Northwood pitchers.

Leadoff hitter Caleb Camacho had a hit, walked twice and scored two runs, Kyle Underwood had an RBI single and scored two runs and Ezra Camacho had a single, walk and a run scored.

Caleb Camacho led off the bottom of the first inning with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a double by Johnson. The Warriors added three runs in the second inning. Vaughn Tase doubled and scored on a single by Underwood.

Lucas Render reached on an error and came around to score on a wild pitch. Vincent DeMarco was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in another run.

“It’s a big win, it’s our second series in league, I think we came in just wanting to put runs on the board early and get those two wins,” said Johnson. “I think the energy in the dugout was good, everybody wanted to win, so it’s exciting coming off of Laguna and then going into the next series just wanting to continue. We got to keep this pace and I think we will be fine.”

Three brothers from one family started for Woodbridge. Catcher Caleb Camacho, right fielder Caden Camacho (who pitched in the seventh inning) and second baseman Ezra Camacho, all contrbuted to the win and had a hit. Caden Camacho had a double in the third inning.

Caleb and Caden are juniors and Ezra a freshman.

Northwood (4-8, 1-3) scored its only run in the third inning. Garrett Laurent singled and came home on a groundout by Collin Laurent.

Woodbridge took advantage of three walks and a hit batter to push across three more runs in the sixth inning. Henry Uhrik earned a bases loaded walk and DeMarco drove in another run on a groundout.

Northwood, with a second half surge, finished 15-16-1 last season and advanced to the semifinal round of the CIF playoffs. But most of the players on that team graduated, resulting in some growing pains this season.

“Credit to Ryan and his group,” said Coach Ben Owens. “Johnson was really good today and kept us off balance. We punched out way too many times, it’s really hard when you’re not putting the ball in play. It makes the game easier for that side and we just didn’t make a couple big pitches when we needed to. But we’re trying to figure it out, plugging along and learning every day we’re out here. We will keep pushing forward, we got Portola next week and that’s just as important as anything else.”

Owens said the Timberwolves have six new starters and “every guy who throws is brand new for the most part. We return five innings from last year, so they’re getting their first taste of kind of what this league is. We will figure it out, it just takes time and we want to make sure we’re going in the right direction, which I think we are.”

Oliver Painting started for Northwood on the mound and pitched the first four innings. Joseph Kim and Dylan Trinh finished pitching duties for the Timberwolves.

Northwood reached the semifinals for the first time since 2004 last season, led by standout pitcher Paul Grossman, who is now at USC.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com