Woodbridge regains first place in PCL with 13-2 victory over Laguna Hills

Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker talks with his players after Wednesday’s PCL win over Laguna Hills. (Photo Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

Woodbridge High School’s baseball team is back on top of the Pacific Coast League standings.

The Warriors regained a one-game lead over Laguna Hills, defeating the Hawks 13-2 in a PCL showdown Wednesday at Ryan Lemmon Stadium.

The two teams split the four games this season. Woodbridge had to bounce back from Tuesday’s loss in which Laguna Hills captured a 2-1 walk-off win behind the outstanding pitching of Billy Schellenberg on the Hawks field to move into a tie for first place.

“I’m just real proud of the way this group competes,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. “We have three losses on the year and in every instance we’ve come back and been in a position to win the game. This group doesn’t give up.

“That was a really emotional and tough loss yesterday and it takes a lot to come back and respond the way they did, so I’m real proud of the response and obviously our offensive approach was really good today against a really good pitcher (Scotty Kato), one of the top two or three pitchers in the league. But we still got eight games left. It’s going to be a dog fight the whole way. We’re going to enjoy it and get ready for Irvine next week.”

Starter Dylan Blakey, who pitched the first four innings, got his first win of the year for Woodbridge, striking out three allowing two hits. Lucky Ramanathan came on to pitch three scoreless innings to get the save. He allowed one hit and struck out two.

Woodbridge led 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning and broke the game open with six runs. Nathan Perry had an RBI single, Sean McCance had a bases loaded walk to drive in another and Brandon Abernathy had a bases clearing triple. Jack Bunnell capped the inning with a sacrifice fly. Woodbridge took advantage of five walks in the inning.

Woodbridge led 2-0 after the first inning McCance got the inning started with a double and stole third. Abernathy then singled and later scored on a passed ball.

Laguna Hills (12-4) battled back in the top of the second inning. Zach Ferranto reached on a sun double to right field, Jordan Volk was hit by a pitch and both runners later scored on a two-run single by Andrew Pinette.

Ramanathan came on in the fifth and blanked Laguna Hills the rest of the way.

“We were fired up more than ever, we knew we needed to be first, we deserved to be here,” said Ramanathan. “The result on that scoreboard is exactly how it should be every game. We just have to keep practicing like we have been and keep playing like we have been with all the fire we got and we will get it done.

“Blakey did a great job, I just tried to make sure and finish what he started and get the win.”

Woodbridge, which outhit Laguna Hills 12-3, was led by Abernathy, who had three hits and five RBI; Perry, who had three hits and three RBI; McCance, who had two hits, two RBI and four stolen bases and Bunnell, who had two hits, an RBI and a stolen base. Christian Ballistreri had a pinch-hit single in the sixth for the Warriors.

Kato, the Laguna Hills starter, pitched into the fifth. Laguna Hills Coach Drew Hillman used four relief pitchers the rest of the way.

Woodbridge still has two more games with defending PCL champion Beckman in the last week of the season. University defeated the Patriots 4-0 on Wednesday. Woodbridge now has a two-game lead over the Patriots.

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