Northwood was led by (from left) Spencer Collins-Williams, Colin Carlson and Paul Grossman in the win Friday. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Northwood High School’s baseball team continued its second half surge, defeating University 2-1 in a Pacific Coast League match-up featuring outstanding pitching on a cool afternoon Friday at Northwood.
Northwood came into the game tied with three other teams for third place, but after the win, moved into sole possession of third place with one week left in the regular season. The Timberwolves (11-14-1, 7-5) finish up with Sage Hill for a two-game series Wednesday at Northwood and Friday at Sage Hill.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
It was a rough start for Northwood this season and CIF playoff hopes were fading after the first round, but the Timberwolves have gone 6-2 in league after spring break to get back into the playoff chase. Four teams from the league earn automatic berths in the league. Laguna Beach clinched first place and Irvine is in second place.
University (12-12, 5-7) needs to win at least one game next week against league-leading Laguna Beach to be considered for an at-large berth with a .500 record.
“It puts us still in control of our destiny which is exactly what we talked about all week is continuing to handle our side,” said Northwood Coach Ben Owens. “We’ve given ourselves a chance to find our way in there and hopefully we can do it again next week. We don’t have to rely on somebody to do something for us, we can do it for ourselves.”
Northwood ace Paul Grossman, a USC commit, delivered in the biggest game of the year allowing one run and four hits while striking out nine to improve his record to 3-2. Another lefthander Spencer Collins-Williams pitched a scoreless seventh inning, striking out one.
University starter Andrew Shean also pitched well, but was victimized by four errors. He allowed seven hits and struck out four in six innings.
“It was a very competitive game, two really good pitching performances, we came up short, the difference in the game was four errors, we clean that up and the outcome could have been different,” said University Coach Jesse Anderson. “But I thought the pitching today was excellent and it was fun to watch.
“Shean has been doing that all year so when we go into a game with him on the mound, we know we’re going to have a shot to win. He had his no-hitter this year and he came close a couple of other times.”
Uni’s leadoff hitter Buxi Wu led off the game with a double and went to third on a wild pitch. But Grossman struck out the next three hitters to work out of the jam.
Northwood moved ahead 1-0 in the second inning when Kozi Yoshimizu drove in Carter Liu, who singled, with a base hit. There was also a hit batter and error in the inning.
University tied the game in the third inning on an RBI double by Chase Nguyen, driving in Wu, who walked.
Northwood regained the lead in the fourth inning. Kai Tsunishige singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Colin Carlson, who had a go-ahead triple in Wednesday’s win over University. Carlson was 2 for 4 Friday.
“Colin has been on this week,” Owens said. “He had a big hit Wednesday to take the lead in the seventh when we were down and then today stepped up and didn’t try to do too much.”
With Grossman, who had a big win last week against league champion Laguna Beach, on the mound, Owens liked the Timberwolves chances.
“Paul in back to back outings just kind of controlling and commanding the strike zone, and when he’s doing that, he’s hard to hit,” Owens said. “Kudos to him, he’s been great the last two starts.”
Grossman was excited to get the win.
“It wasn’t pretty but we got the job done,” Grossman said. “Guys battled but we left a lot of guys on the bases today so we need to clean that up. Our pitchers threw well. I didn’t have my best stuff, but I competed really well today and I was able to get outs when I needed and I had full trust in Spencer, he’s had a solid year, but today really showed who we thought he was going to be, he came in and closed the door and was really impressive out there.
“Our goal at the start of the season was to make the playoffs and make a run in playoffs and every guy is buying in right now so I think we will be able to do well in playoffs.”
A meeting among players only seemed to turn the Timberwolves’ tide.
“After spring break, we had a talk as a team which way do we want to go and as a team, we decided we want to finish strong,” Grossman said. “We grew up with all these boys and love all these guys and as a team we wanted to make playoffs and make a run. Now we control our own destiny. We have two more games and we can’t let the foot off the pedal. We’re going to be ready to come on Wednesday.”
Collins-Williams, the reliever, and Carlson, the catcher, were happy to contribute to the win.
“It felt amazing, honestly,” said Collins-Williams about coming on in the seventh. “To start the year, I didn’t really have a good start, I was down in a hole. I really appreciate Coach Owens taking the time to talk to me not just as a pitcher but as a human being and had the trust in me to put me in the game today. I feel some of us have known each other for nine or 10 years and it really felt good getting these outs today. Obviously, trust my catcher Colin, he called a great game and it meant a lot, and we’re not done yet, we got to keep going.”
“It felt good, we had some rough spots, we got guys on a lot and couldn’t follow through with it but it was good that we could pull it out,” added Carlson. “We were not sure if we were going to make it for a while, and then we started turning it around and we’re starting to play much better baseball. We had glimpses throughout the year but as long as we can pull it together, we will be good for the playoffs.”
Carlson capped a big week with the eventual game-winning RBI single.
“I was seeing the pitcher really well,” he said. “I got a little mad at the umpire earlier in the game and I just kind of took that out on the ball and it felt good coming off the bat and brought it in.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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