Mike Sciacca
Huntington Beach High's baseball team began its 2004 season with a
pair of impressive wins at the Newport Elks Tournament.
The Oilers opened the tournament with a 5-3 home victory over
defending CIF-Southern Section Division I champion Arlington, then
came back the next day to upend South Coast League co-champion
Mission Viejo, 6-1.
In the third game of the tournament Monday, Huntington and
Pacifica fought to a 4-4 tie, but the Oilers still advanced to the
tournament's semifinals.
In the victory over Arlington, Justin Latempa got the victory and
George Chace closed out the win in the seventh. Latempa struck out
seven and limited the Lions to just two hits.
David Mendoza led the Oilers offensively with a pair of hits and
an RBI. Joel Bernstein singled, Hank Conger had two RBIs and Brett
Sonsma and Jeff Van Doornum each had an RBI.
In the 6-1 win over Mission Viejo, Conger and Lucas Aumiller each
had a hit and two RBIs, Latempa, Van Doornum and Tony Katreeb each
had a hit and Sonsma had an RBI.
Bernstein struck out six en route to the pitching win.
In Monday's 4-4 tie with Pacifica, Bernstein went three for five
with two doubles, Mendoza had two hits and an RBI, Katreeb and Van
Doornum doubled and had two hits and Aumiller singled twice.
Chace notched the win, striking out three, and Chris Palmer struck
out four in relief.
Ocean View is also at the Newport Elks Tournament, and the
Seahawks split their first two games.
In its opener, Ocean View limited Troy to just two hits, but the
Warriors still managed a 2-0 victory. Senior Alex Burnett struck out
eight and didn't allow a walk in five solid innings for the Seahawks.
Ocean View came back Monday to easily get past host Garden Grove,
11-7. The Seahawks scored four, first inning runs, three coming on a
home run by senior third baseman Marc Fernandez. In the sixth inning,
they tagged on four more runs, capped by Burnett's three-run homer.
Ocean View closed out its scoring in the seventh by scoring three
more runs, two coming on a single by Burnett, who finished with five
RBIs.
Starting pitcher Jeff Roth threw five strong innings, giving up
one hit and one walk. John Vega replaced Roth, but after Garden Grove
narrowed the lead to 11-7 with no outs in the bottom of the seventh,
Roth was re-instated. Roth proceeded to send down the next three
Argonaut batters to end the game.
"Even though we won on Monday, we actually played better on
Saturday, we just did not hit well," Ocean View coach Aaron Kavanagh
