Newport Harbor captures Sunset League victory over Los Alamitos with late rally

Newport Harbor’s baseball team after Tuesday’s league victory. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Playing in blustery conditions, Newport Harbor High School’s baseball team rallied and scored four runs over the final two innings to capture a thrilling 6-4 victory over Los Alamitos in a Sunset league Tuesday afternoon at Los Alamitos.

The Sailors (10-2, 6-1) have won eight of their last nine games and remain in second place in league behind Huntington Beach, who defeated Corona del Mar on Tuesday. The Griffins (11-3-2, 4-3) and Newport Harbor will face each other on Wednesday at Newport Harbor and again Friday back at Los Alamitos.   

Trailing 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning, the Sailors managed to score a run without the benefit of a hit. Pinch hitter Cameron Hatfield worked a one-out walk, moved to third on a throwing error and then scored on Adam Martin’s sacrifice RBI fly to tie the score at 3-3.

“We stayed together as a team and came back when we were down,” said Martin, who had three hits and two RBI in the game.

Los Alamitos had an opportunity to score in the bottom of the sixth but a base running gaffe at third base ended the inning and their rally.

In the top of the seventh inning, Lucas Perez led off for the Sailors and reached first base when he was hit by a pitch by Los Alamitos relief pitcher Ryan Deck. Cole Harrison’s fly ball to center was misplayed, allowing Perez to reach second and Harrison first base with no outs.

Wyatt Gahm laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved both runners up a base. Elijah Haseth was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Hatfield drew a base on balls to score Perez.

Ethan Maddies relieved Deck. Henry Mann followed with a seeing eye single up the middle that was just out of the reach of Griffins shortstop Tyler Smith. Two runs scored on the play and the Sailors led 6-3.

“I was a little nervous when I came to bat in the seventh inning, but I wanted to be aggressive,” said left-handed swinging Mann, who had two hits, two RBI and a key sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning that sparked Newport Harbor’s momentum.

However, Los Alamitos did not go quietly in its half of the seventh.

Tyler Clark came on in relief of Gavin Guy to start the fifth and had only given up one hit in two innings. However, in the bottom of the seventh inning, after getting the first two batters out, Kaden Carrion reached first base after getting hit by a pitched ball.

Sutton Deninno then singled to right and Carrion raced to third. Ryan Williams then relived Clark and walked Wyatt Joyce to load the bases. Tyler Smith then drew a walk, scoring Carrion and cutting the lead to 6-4. However, Williams ended the drama when he got Jerry Garfiaz to ground out to second to end the game.

“I’m a pitcher who doesn’t strike out too many batters, so I have a lot of trust in my defense behind me,” said Clark. “Our goal is to win this series.”

Sailors coach Josh Lee said he expected a battle.

“Anybody can beat anybody in this league,” said Lee. “Today, we won and who knows, maybe tomorrow, they’ll get us, but we expected a battle. Our guys never quit. They expect to win even when our backs are against the wall. I’m not surprised at all.”

“We made a few errors and that was the key today,” said Griffins first year head coach Scott Talanoa. “We preach defense, defense, defense, and we practice defense a lot, but we know mistakes are going to happen. But this team is resilient, we’ll rebound and play better in the next two games. That’s been our MO this season.”

Los Alamitos scored single runs in the second and third innings, including James Reveles’ inside the park homerun to right center in the third. Reveles drilled the ball to right center and Griffins’ center fielder Ryan Williams was racing towards the ball when a strong wind seemed to blow his hat over his eyes causing him to lose site of the ball momentarily and allowing the ball to get by him and roll to the fence. Reveles circled the bases, sliding in headfirst safely at home.

After the Sailors tied the score in the top of the fourth inning, Los Alamitos got an RBI single by Damon Valdez to put the Griffins up 3-2.

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