Estancia baseball team caps big week by winning Battle for the Bell Trophy

Estancia players and coaches celebrate after winning the Paul Troxel Trophy. (Photo courtesy Estancia Athletics).

It was a big week for Estancia High School’s baseball team which took both games in an Orange Coast League series against Costa Mesa and won the Battle for the Bell trophy named in honor of former coach Orange County coach Paul Troxel.

“I talked to our players after the game and ceremony of winning the bell to talk about the importance of Paul Troxel for both programs and for the community,” Estancia Coach Nate Goellrich said Saturday.

“He coached at both schools and was a great coach and great human being. I have coached at both schools (varsity assistant coach at Costa Mesa from 2008-2011, head varsity baseball coach at Estancia 2012-2017, 2022-current) and both school baseball communities speak highly of the coach and human being Coach Troxel was. His passing came too soon and for us to be the 2023 Bell winners is a honor for us.” 

The series was not held in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Costa Mesa won the series in 2021 and 2022.

“To me, winning Battle for the Bell is important because it means we won another big series in our league. For our players, it was important because we had not won it for a couple of seasons, for our seniors this was the first time they won the bell,” Goellrich said.

League leading Estancia (14-2, 7-1) won Friday’s makeup game 5-0.

“Andrew Mits worked out of a bases loaded situation in the top of the third inning,” Goellrich said. “Costa Mesa got bases loaded with a single and two walks with one out in the inning. Andrew then struck out Michael Joyce and then Cole Lefebvre made a great play at third base by a ball hit by Matt Anderson to get the force out at 3rd base.”

Estancia then scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth. The inning started with a single by John Uchytil then a walk by James De La O. 

The Eagles then loaded the bases with two outs. Freshman Sawyer Atkinson then reached on an error, allowing Uchytil and De La O to score. 

Estancia added three more in the fifth inning. Cole Lefebvre doubled down the right field line. Gabe Avila singled on a bunt. Uchytil had a single to right field to drive in Lefebvre and Avila moved to third base. 

Uchytil then stole second with De La O up to bat. Later in the same at bat Avila scored on a wild pitch with Uchytil moving to third. De La O then hit a sacrifce fly to right field to drive in Uchytil. 

After giving up a single with two outs in the fourth inning, Mits then retired last 10 batters he faced to throw a complete game shut out. He allowed three hits, walked three and struck out 10.

The Eagles won the opener of the series 10-5 at Costa Mesa.

Estancia has another big series starting Tuesday with Orange at Estancia.

“They are the defending league champions and we were the only team to beat them, we swept them 3-0 in the series,” Goellrich said.

The teams also play Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Orange.

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