First place Beckman takes big early lead and rolls to 13-5 victory over Woodbridge

Jakob Ho of Beckman makes a great catch in the outfield Friday. (Photos courtesy Rosalene Ledendecker, For OC Sports Zone)

Beckman High’s baseball team is on a roll as the Patriots close in on their eighth Pacific Coast League title. 

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo

Friday afternoon Beckman hosted Woodbridge and pounded out 13 hits en route to a 13-5 win.

The Patriots (17-4, 10-1) have won 14 of their last 16 games and seem to be peaking at the right time of the season. Woodbridge dropped to 9-13 and 3-8.

Beckman’s trio of second baseman Sean McLain, center fielder Ricky Teel and shortstop Connor McGuire recorded six hits, scored five runs and had five RB in three innings of play. 

“There’s a reason why they bat 1-2-3 in the lineup,” said Beckman coach Kevin Lavalle. “This was a complete win, everybody got to play today and they all came ready to play.”

After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, the Patriots sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom half of the first. They hammered out eight hits, including three bunt singles, and scored eight runs. Seven different Patriots batters recorded an RBI in the opening frame as Beckman took an 8-1 lead.

The key blows in the inning were Logan Jackson’s two-run double and McLain’s RBI double. 

“I try to do my thing when I get up there,” said McLain, who is headed for Arizona State next year. “Ricky (Teel) and Connor (McGuire) move me along and we dropped an an eight bomb. We stayed to the basics and nobody tries to do too much.”

Seemingly out of the game, the Warriors didn’t quit. They pushed a run across in the third inning and had the bases loaded with one out before a base running miscue lead to a double play with a runner being tagged out at third base to end the inning and foil the rally.

Still Woodbridge would not go away. Trailing 10-2, the Warriors took advantage of two hits, two walks, a Beckman error and a hit batter to score three times in the sixth inning and cut the lead to 10-5. Grant Martine then came to bat with the bases loaded and hit a blistering line drive that Beckman third baseman Alec Gomez snagged to end the inning.

“That’s been a microcosmic example of our season,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker.  “In that situation all you want the kid to do is hit the ball and he did. I have great kids. They continue to fight and they never give up.”

The Patriots added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to close out the victory.

“Everyone knows their roles and we are able to close out games when we have to,” said Teel, who had two hits and scored two runs and had an RBI and was on base three times. 

McGuire said the team’s hitting has been the key.   

“It was important that we responded right away in the first inning,” said McGuire, who had two hits and three RBIs and will play at UCI next season. “We take pride moving runners over and building momentum. We’re swinging the bats well and we’ve had a lot of big wins.”

With four regular season games remaining, Beckman leads the PCL by two games over Northwood and will be hard to catch.     

Friday marked the third time that Beckman has defeated Woodbridge in PCL play this season. 

“I think we played our three best games of the season in the wins we had against Woodbridge this year,” Lavalle added.

Trevor Ernt earned the victory for the Patriots while Jack Bunnell suffered the loss. The Patriots eight runs scored in the first inning, which was their largest output in an inning in league play so far this season. 

Noah Reid led the Warriors with two RBI.

-Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone