Wrap-up: Uni, Irvine, Woodbridge and Northwood capture tourney victories

University pitcher Jose Rodriguez got the win Saturday. (Photo Courtesy of katiedistasophotos)

University’s baseball team opened the Ryan Lemmon Invitational with a 2-0 victory over El Modena Saturday at the Orange County Great Park.

University pitched Jose Rodriguez, who teammates have nicknamed the “Ice Man” recorded the victory.

“He got his first varsity win against Portola with 20 pitch, two inning shutout relief outing and then gets his second varsity start and preceded to throw a three-hit complete game shutout in 76 pitches,” said University Coach Michael Thompson.

Rodriguez did not have a walk and hit one batter.

“Ice man has been fantastic for us all year, but this week and today especially he was a man ready to make the most of his opportunity,” Thompson said.

“He threw 70 percent strikes and was an absolute machine out there. Very happy for Ice Man as he is a guy who has worked hard and been a great team guy for his four years at Uni and seeing him have success this year has been a lot of fun to watch.”

Thompson explained that Thompson “got the nickname Ice Man as early in the year any situation he went into he was calm, cool collective and threw the ice on any offense. “

Andrew Keys had a lead-off single, Jacob Carroll doubled down the left field line and Jackson Lobianco had a two-run single for the only runs for Uni (8-9 overall).

Also Saturday:

Irvine 2, Centennial 1: The Vaqueros opened up the Ryan Lemmon Invitation with another exciting finish.

“It was another exciting down to the wire game where we were able to get it done at the end,” said Irvine Coach Gabriel Cota.

“Yoni (Bracha) pitched his best game of the year and really held Centennial in check. Leonard Memon was able to get a squeeze down early to score a run and got a base hit out of it. In the seventh a huge double by Casey Kudell, a single by Edward Del Pozo, and a sacrifice fly by Camron Hicks sealed it.

“An amazing double play turned by Grant Lockwood and Patrick Hackworth gave us a chance to get the walk off.

Irvine was led by Bubba Filia, who was 2 for 3 with a run scored and Memon, who was 1 for 3 with an RBI. Bracha pitched all seven innings, allowing one earned run and two hits while striking out three.

Woodbridge 3, Canyon 2: Connor Tallakson pitched five innings for Woodbridge allowing two hits and striking out four. Mekhi Wright pitched for 1 1/3 innings allowing one hit. Will Rudy finished up on the mound working 2/3 of an inning to notch the save.

Sophomore Luke DeVries was 1 for 2 and drove in what proved to be the game winning run in the fifth inning.

“That was a tight game,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. “Canyon took advantage of our errors in the second and put two runs on the board, and like we have done all year, we battled back and came up with two runs of our own in the bottom half of the second.

“Our young guys stepped up for us tonight. Sophomore Jack Bunnell put together a real tough at-bat and battled with two strikes to drive in the tying run in that second inning, and was able to put together a great at bat in the fifth driving a ball deep enough to right field, with two strikes on him, to allow our runner at second to advance to third.

“Bunnell was 0-2 in the box score but those were crucial at bats for us.  Then Luke DeVries put together a really tough at bat and was able to drive in the go ahead run after battling with two strikes. So it was nice to see those two sophomores have good days at the plate.

“Our pitching was really good tonight. Connor Tallakson got his first start of the season and he did an outstanding job. He kept them off balance.  Mekhi Wright came in and pitched extremely well in relief, then Will Rudy came in for the last two out to earn the save. It was a good team win.”

Northwood 5, El Segundo 3: The Timberwolves opened the Santa Ana Elks Tournament with a win.

“We beat a pretty good team today,” said Northwood Coach Rob Stuart. “It didn’t look good early but we battled. Our pitching was great. But we just couldn’t score then all of a sudden it was a walk, a hit, a double, hit, hit, hit. We scored five runs in a hurry.”

Josh Finklestein was the starting pitcher for the Timberwolves, throwing four innings, allowing two runs on three hits. German Valdez pitched two scoreless innings and earned his first varsity win.

Justin Bonnell relieved in the seventh inning and notched his fifth save. Steven Shinmamchi and Kyle McCaghren had a pinch-hit RBI. Arthur Liu was 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI.

ALL OF SATURDAY’S SCORES AND MONDAY’S SCHEDULE