Dylan Blakey had a grand slam and five RBI Friday for Woodbridge. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)
Woodbridge High ace Jack Bunnell had plenty of offensive support Friday in the opening round of the CIF DIvision 4 baseball playoffs.
Woodbridge had 15 hits in the opener and rolled to a 13-0 victory over Fullerton at Ryan Lemmon Stadium. Bunnell, who had three hits, two RBI and two runs scored, was steady on the mound, allowing just two hits and striking out nine in six innings. Lucky Ramanathan came on to pitch a scoreless seventh inning.
The Warriors move on to the second round Tuesday against Charter Oak at Charter Oak.
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Woodbridge (22-3) had two home runs, a solo shot to right field by Jaden Hoang-Tieu in the second inning and a grand slam over the center field fence by Dylan Blakey in the third inning that broke the game open and gave the Warriors a 5-0 lead.
“That’s his second grand slam, he hit one at Uni earlier in the year,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. “I don’t think I’ve seen many ballls hit off that batter’s eye here at all. He crushed it. He’s just a really strong kid, he does that in BP all the time. He can do that in any at bat and when the fastball is the zone he crushes it.”
Blakey, who had five RBI, also had a double and drove home another run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. But the grand slam will stand out.
“It was bases loaded and a close game and I was looking for a pitch to hit and I got my fastball down the middle and put a pretty good swing on it, it went far,” said Blakey, who expects to start on the mound Tuesday.
Woodbridge also had big offensive effortrs from Luke De Vries, who had two hits, a double and an RBI and Connor Tallakson, who had a hit and two RBI.
Brucker was also pleased to see Hoang-Tien belt the home run to give the Warriors an early lift.
“Jaden has been solid all year for us,” Brucker said. “He’s had some really good at bats. I was glad to see that one go out for him. I think offensively we need to execute a little better. We had a couple opportunties to get bunts down. When guys are hitting the ball on the line, it’s tough to defend us.”
Woodbridge added five runs in the fifth inning. Bunnell had a two-run single, Tallakson had an RBI single. Woodbridge scored three more runs in the sixth inning.
Fullerton’s best chance to score came in the first inning. Kyle Kim walked and Bryce Mays was hit by a pitch. But Bunnell got Nico Savage to ground out.
Nate Norman and Sebastian Fany hit the Indians two hits. Fany was also the starting pitcher before being relieved in the third inning. Fullerton, led by first year coach, Kyle Davis, finished 14-12.
The University of Washington bound Bunnell (6-0) was in command.
“That’s what he does, he just fills up the zone,” Brucker said. “What’s special about him is that he has command of three pitches. He can throw any pitch at any time and any count. His change-up is just kind of devastating because he commands it so well.”
–Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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