Newport Harbor sets tone early and goes on to beat Canyon 6-2 in Ryan Lemmon Invitational

Newport Harbor was led offensively by shortstop John Olmstead. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Newport Harbor’s baseball team evened its record at 1-1 in the Ryan Lemmon Invitational, defeating Canyon 6-2, Monday evening at the Orange County Great Park Stadium.

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

Cameron Mahaffy of Newport Harbor gets ready to take his swings Monday night.

Canyon's Gabe Gallardo fires a pitch in Monday's game.

Newport Harbor players celebrate after Monday's victory.

The Sailors (11-7) scored three runs in the first inning and three more in the fifth inning.

“We talk about pitching and defense,” said Newport Harbor Coach Evan Chalmers. “And we did both of those things very, very well tonight. We had guys throwing strikes. Their guy was throwing pretty hard so he kind of had our guys down in the lineup a little stumped.

“So we had to mix it up a little bit and we had some guys come in and pinch-hit. Mac Briggs got the RBI late (on a sacrifice fly) to tack on another run but we had some balls really hit hard. This is a big park. I think three of them would have gone out of most Orange County parks. We’re happy and we need to get back on the winning trail because we’ve kind of had a couple bumps in the road.”

James Ferrell pitched the first five innings for Newport Harbor, scattering six hits and allowing two runs. Will O’Neill came on to pitch two scoreless innings.

Leading the way offensively for Newport Harbor was USC commit John Olmstead. The shortstop was 3 for 4 with three runs scored.

“It was just a solid team effort from everyone; we came out pretty fired up,” Olmstead said. “Everyone was firing on all cylinders. James threw magnificently on the mound and we put a few good swings on the ball and put up some runs. It was a good day. The early lead is huge.

“If you can jump out on top at the beginning, it sets the tone for the rest of the game.”

Canyon (9-10-1) scored its two runs in the fifth inning. Cameron McGee singled and eventually came home on a ground out by Izak Maracine and Jacob McClure drove in another run with a sacrifice fly driving in Ethan Schmidt, who singled.

Newport Harbor, which had eight hits, also had a strong performance from Cameron Mahaffy, who had two singles and scored a run, Braham Duncan, who scored two runs and had an RBI and Clay Liolios, who had a double and scored a run.

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