Northwood moves into tie for second with Irvine; Woodbridge and Loara also win

Northwood’s baseball team defeated Irvine 9-0 in a Pacific Coast League game at Northwood Friday afternoon and moved into a tie for second place with the Timberwolves.

Andrew Kotin threw a complete game for the Timberwolves, struck out eight and gave up two hits.

Kyle McCaghren was 2 for 3 with two RBI for Northwood (3-5-1, 3-2).

“True team effort,” said Northwood Coach Rob Stuart. “Every player contributed. We were scrappy at the plate and got some key hits, ran the bases well and took advantage of some bad hops and wind blown hits.

“Andrew Kotin was spectacular. Our guys played really well today. Nice to see them rewarded for their hard work.”

Irvine fell to 8-3 overall and 3-2 in league.

Also Friday:

Woodbridge 6, Portola 0: It was one of three shutouts in the Pacific Coast League Friday. Beckman also had a shutout, defeating University 10-0 (to read about that game, please click here)

The Warriors (6-6, 2-3) won behind the strong pitching from junior Max Montplaisir, who hurled a complete game shutout. He pitched seven innings, allowed four hits, struck out six and walked one.

“It was a good team win for us today and we had a lot of guys contribute in the victory,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker.

“We really needed Max to set up today and it was great so him go out and put together that kind of an outing. Max is a really competitive young man and a team guy, so I had no doubt that he would go out and give us his best. When he is in the strike zone he is tough to hit. He was really efficient, I think he threw under 75 pitches.”

Woodbridge was led by junior Ian Hardy who had two RBI and an RBI single in the fourth inning.

Senior Jeffery Quezada had a two-run single for the Warriors.

“Portola’s starter kept us off-balance early and was commanding the strike zone with 2-pitches, making it difficult for us early,” Brucker said.

“He did a really good job. I was proud of the way our guys stuck with it and continued to compete. Hardy and Quezada came through with some good at bats for us and I think both (Grant) Martine and (Noah) Reid had good approaches today.”

Portola fell to 4-7 overall and 1-4 in league.

Loara 1, Rancho Alamitos 0: The Saxons improved their record to 4-0 in league. Matt Blackney threw his third complete game of the year on just 64 pitches in a game that lasted only one hour and five minutes.