Top-seeded Northwood starts fast, but St. Anthony rallies and earns trip to CIF finals

Fifteen Northwood seniors meet for the final time as a team following Tuesday’s playoff game in Long Beach. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

It was a promising start for Northwood High School’s baseball team Tuesday in the CIF Division 5 semifinals against St. Anthony High at the school’s athletic complex in Long Beach, a few miles from the school campus.

The top-seeded Timberwolves scored three runs in the first inning, two coming on an RBI single by Carter Liu but two St. Anthony pitchers, starter Jaylen Butler and reliever Benny Lane, blanked Northwood until the seventh inning leading the Saints to a 6-5 victory.

St. Anthony (21-8) moves on to the CIF finals for the first time in 10 years to meet Elsinore this weekend at either Blair Field in Long Beach or at Cal State Fullerton.

Northwood (15-16-1) was in a semifinal playoff for the first time since 2004 and was trying to reach its first CIF title game.

“It’s tough, three run-lead there in the first, if we just find ways to add I think we’re in a different situation but credit to the lefty, he made some pitches and got some plays behind him and he made a couple plays himself and we just kind of lost all our energy and our momentum and then …. they hit a jack and the momentum flipped to their side,” said Northwood Coach Ben Owens.

“And we just couldn’t recover there until the end. The end of the day, you had a chance and that’s all we can ask for, we gave it everything we had. Credit to St. Anthony today, they were just better than us.”

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Lane, the team captain, belted a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning, his ninth of the season, to put the Saints ahead 6-3.

“Jaylen Butler did a great job after that first inning and kept us in it, we were able to shut them down for three more innings, then we brought Benny in, that’s who we want to finish the game with was Benny because he’s a senior and he’s been there and he’s been doing it all year long and we were able to add on some big, big runs,” said Saints Coach Kris Jondle.

“We were down 3-0 and John Arnold’s home run was massive, it was a big momentum shift right there, it got us right back in it. We come all the way back from that deficit and Aidann Ruiz with that big two-run single put us on the lead 4-3.”

But Northwood tried to battle back.

Trailing by three going into the seventh, Bert Chubb doubled for Northwood with one out. But when a ball went to the backstop on a pitch, he tried to advance to third and was thrown out on a close play for the second out. Ethan Tsou walked and stole second and Kai Tsunishige singled to drive in a run and the cut the lead to 6-4.

Koji Yoshimizu then reached on an infield single keeping the game alive. Paul Grossman followed with a clutch RBI double down the line to make it 6-5 and put runners on second and third. But the game ended when catcher Colin Carlson flied out to deep left field.

After scoring three runs in the first inning, with one run coming home when Roman Suarez reached on a fielder’s choice, the Timberwolves were unable to cash in scoring chances in the second and fourth innings.

In the bottom of the fourth Arnold belted a two-run home run for St. Anthony to cut the lead to 3-2.

In the fifth inning, Aidann Ruiz had a two-run single to give the Saints a 4-3 lead. Then Lane’s two-run homer in the sixth inning put St. Anthony ahead 6-3.

St. Anthony had 10 hits off Northwood pitchers Liu and Garret Stevenson, who came on in the fifth inning.

“It was a big game for us, it’s win or go home and at the start it looked a little rough, pitcher came out and gave up three runs, it was no biggie for us, we knew we had to score to win,” said Lane, who was 2 for 4 with two runs scored.

“I feel like he held down the fort for us on the mound, we had to do the same for him and give him insurance so I felt like that one inning that we blew it open with that home run from John Arnold, that was one of the biggest swings he’s taken in his high school career.”

Lane was happy to close out the game on the mound.

“My only thought process was get outs, make quality pitches,” said Lane, who has committed to Cal State Monterey Bay. “I came in and shut the door and do exactly what the coaches ask of me. We can win if I just do what they say and we all buy in at the same time, we all can win. It’s kind of hard to stay humble, but we know if we play our game, no one can stop us.”

It was a tough ending for a talented group of 15 Northwood seniors, who met in the outfield after a game in a meeting led by Grossman, one of the best pitchers in the school’s history who is headed to USC next season.

“We got up early and we struggled to add on,” said Grossman, who earlier in the day was selected to play in the OC All-Star Game. “They were able to hold our runners and we were unable to produce after the first inning. It’s tough for our pitcher to keep putting up zeroes and we needed to add on but credit to them, they made the pitches when they needed to, we just weren’t able to capitalize on them.”

Grossman was excited, however, after the double in the seventh gave his team hope.

“That was probably one of the bigger at bats of my high school career, competing and putting the ball in play, you always got to compete when you’re out there,” he said. “I just didn’t want to be the last one to go down on my team. Luckily, I was able to get to a 2-2 count and knew I had to put the ball in play and luckily the ball dropped on a tough play by the left fielder and we were able to score a run and honestly get our clutchest batup to the plate and he was able to put a good swing on the ball. They just made a good play, they were positioned good. You can’t complain about that, that’s baseball.

“I would live or die with Colin Carlson’s bat with the game-winning run on, he’s already done it this year against Uni, he had a bases clearing double and he won us the game when we were almost out of playoff contention, to see how far we’ve come from them, I’m really happy for the guys. These are my brothers and I grew up with them, so it’s awesome.”

Owens said he was proud of his team and especially the Northwood seniors who led a second half surge to help the team qualify for the CIF playoffs and then make a long run.

“We will grow …. I couldn’t be more proud of the team. I knew we would be a playoff team, I didn’t know honestly how deep we would go,” he said. “Kids kind of gave everything and bought in to what we were talking about and next thing you know, we’re kind of on this little run.

“Some of these young guys who are sitting in the dugout now got a little bit of taste of what it’s like …. hopefully we can make another run at it, we’ve got some retooling to try and figure out a way to get ourselves right back in this situation soon.”

Owens noted Grossman’s career with the program.

“He gave everything on the mound, unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to throw him today, but came up with a big double in the seventh inning, he’s a good two-way player and I think he will have some success at USC and I’m looking forward to seeing him on the Big 10 Network,” Owens said.

Northwood fans stayed around until after the team and the seniors had meetings on the field and gave the players a big round of applause as they left the complex and headed back to OC.

As for the seniors only meeting, Grossman said;

“We just told ourselves stories about how we grew up and played Little League together, Little League all-stars, travel ball, just looking around in a circle, I’ve known these guys since I was 7 or 8 and some of these guys I’ve been best friends with since I was 7 and 8.

“It was tough, but ultimately we’re still going to be brothers for life, so most of us will be close still and we’re always going to support each other for the rest of our lives. We’ve gotten closer as the season goes along, we’ve dealt with adversity all season, we started off rough but we battled through.

“We treat each other like brothers, we’re being honest with each other and I think that’s what real brothers do.”

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