Laguna Beach catcher Aidan Booth, the MVP with Guy Lemmon (right) and Dick Owens of the Ryan Lemmon Foundation (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Laguna Beach’s baseball team scored four runs in the fourth inning and went on to defeat Yorba Linda 11-1 in the championship game of the Ryan Lemmon Invitational at the Orange County Great Park Stadium Wednesday night.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo
The Breakers (14-8) got a strong performance from catcher Aidan Booth, the tournament MVP. Booth had a bases clearing triple in the fourth inning and wound up with four RBI.
“I have to say Cutter threw strikes and everyone else threw strikes the last game,” Booth said. “I got a couple good pitches to drive throughout the tournament and put some barrels on the ball.”
The triple was the big blow of the game. Kolton Freeman also had an RBI single in the fourth for the Breakers.
“I was ahead in the count and I got a really good pitch to drive,” Booth said. “I stuck my barrel out there and nailed it.”
The Breakers’ starting pitcher Cutter Clawson went the first six innings and did not allow an earned run. The lefthander (6-1) allowed just three hits and struck out seven.
“It was just so awesome; I have to give it up to my team going up 6-0 so early in the game made me so comfortable out on the mound,” Clawson said. “It gave me all the confidence in the world and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Clawson also scored three runs and doubled in the first inning. Will Potratz also had two hits and scored three runs, Aidan Kidd had an RBI double, Jeremy Hayes had two hits and an RBI and Nolan Smith scored two runs and had an RBI for Laguna Beach.
Yorba Linda (14-7) scored its only run in the first inning when Blake Wink reached on an error and came home to score on an RBI single by Dylan Strong.
Trailing 2-1, the Mustangs had a chance to tie the game in the second inning when Ryan Brech singled and RJ Vanderhook singled. But Clawson worked out of trouble.
After that, Yorba Linda scored four in the fourth, one in the fifth and two runs in the sixth and seventh innings to roll to the crown.
Peyton Fullerton came on to pitch a scoreless seventh inning for Laguna Beach.
“The team played well and we played Breaker baseball,” said Laguna Beach Coach Jeff Sears. “Cutter is a gamer. The adrenaline got to him early in the game. He gave up an unearned run. And then all of a sudden, he said, ‘that’s enough.'”
Sears was also pleased with the effort of Booth.
“We don’t go very far without Aidan Booth because he caught six games in seven days and he caught every inning and all of them were wins.”
RELATED: Final scores from the last day of the invitational
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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