By Tyler Sonderholzer
In their third league game and 13 game overall, Barons’ baseball defeated the Newport Harbor Sailors by a score of 10-4 thanks to a stellar offensive performance and solid pitching.
“As a team it was important to get this win, even after a bounce back win against Aliso Nigel,” senior Daniel Cunneen said. “It was time to secure a big win and we did just that.”
Senior Kevin Dow was the starting pitcher for the Barons and got the leadoff hitter for the Sailors to ground out to senior first baseman Dylan Krause. The second batter hit a fly out to senior left fielder Sean Sullivan on the first pitch of the at-bat, however, Dow walked the third batter of the inning to give the Sailors a runner on first with two outs.
The fourth batter of the inning grounded the ball to senior second baseman Tyler Arevalos, however, his throw flew past Krause and the Sailor runners advanced to second and third.
The fifth batter of the inning popped it up in the infield. However, the runner on third scored on a fumble by the Barons to make it 0-1 Sailors. Dow got the final batter of the inning to strike out.
Arevalos led off the Barons’ offense in the bottom of the first, but grounded out to third base and junior shortstop Johnny Long grounded out to the shortstop to make two quick outs. Senior Tim Grack singled to right-center to give the Barons their first runner of the game and sophomore designated hitter Tyler Peshke doubled to center field to tie the game at 1-1.
Krause hit a long fly ball to left field that the Sailors caught just before it hit the wall, ending the inning.
Dow had a strong top of the second by striking out the leadoff batter, getting the second batter of the inning to pop out to Grack and the final batter to ground out to Arevalos.
Senior center fielder Connor Chapa led off the bottom of the second by hitting a single to left field on the first pitch he saw. Chapa then stole second during Sullivan’s at-bat and Sullivan walked to put runners on first and second base with no out for senior right fielder Tristan Moore.
During Moore’s at-bat, Chapa stole third base while Sullivan stole second Moore then doubled to left field to bring home Chapa and Sullivan and gave the Barons a 3-1 lead. DeMaria then singled to put runners on first and third with no outs. Arevalos then singled to right field to drive home Moore to extend the lead to 4-1.
Long was up next for the Barons and Arevalos stole second to put runners second and third. Long then doubled to right field to bring home DeMaria and Arevalos to extend the lead even further to 6-1.
Grack then grounded to the shortstop, however, his throw went past the first baseman and Long was able to score on the play. Peshke then singled to center field to drive home Grack to make it 8-1 Barons. Krause grounded the ball to the shortstop but his throw went out of play, meaning Grack would advance to third and Krause would advance to second.
Chapa then walked to load the bases with no outs for Sullivan. However, Sullivan flew out to center field to get the first out of the inning. Moore struck out for the second out of the inning and DeMaria grounded out to third base to end a stellar seven-run inning for the Baron offense.
Dow returned on the mound for his third inning of work and got the leadoff batter to ground out to him. The second batter of the inning flew out to Moore while the third batter of the inning singled to center field. The fourth batter of the inning hit a long two-run home run to left field to cut the Barons’ lead to 8-3. The inning ended on a fly out to right field.
The bottom of the third was very quiet for the Baron offense as both Arevalos and Long grounded out to second base and Grack struck out.
In the top of the fourth inning, Dow gave up a lead-off home run which cut the Barons’ lead to 8-4. Dow stormed back by striking out the second batter of the inning, getting the third batter to fly out to center field and striking out the final batter of the inning.
It was Dow’s last inning on the mound and he pitched four innings, getting four strikeouts, walking one and giving up two hits and three earned runs (he gave up another run but it was not earned due to an error by the defense).
Peshke led off the bottom of the fourth inning by striking out while Krause hit a single to left field. Chapa flew out to left field to make it two outs while Sullivan singled to center field. The inning ended when Krause got picked off at second base.
Cunnen replaced Dow on the mound for the top of the fifth inning and got the first batter of the inning to fly out to right field and the second batter to ground out to third base. Cunnen hit the third batter of the inning but got the final batter of the inning to fly out to Arevalos.
It was Cunnen’s only inning of work and he pitched one inning, didn’t give up any hits or runs and hit one batter.
Senior Pedro Cornejo replaced Moore and he led off the Baron offense in the bottom of the fifth inning by getting hit by the pitch. DeMaria got an infield single as the shortstop could not cleanly field the ball. Arevalos flew out to right field for the first out of the inning. Long singled to right to make it bases loaded with one out for the Barons.
Grack drew a walk, which brought home a run to make it 9-4 Barons. Peshke flew out to deep right-center field and DeMaria tagged on the play to extend the lead to 10-4. Krause flew out to center field to end the inning.
Freshman Josh Grack replaced Cunneen on the mound for the top of the sixth and he had a stellar inning, striking out all three batters.
Grack only pitched one inning giving up no hits or runs and striking out three batters.
The bottom of the sixth started out slow as senior Noah Fox, replacing Chapa, grounded out to the Sailor shortstop and Senior Matthew Solorzano, who replaced Sullivan in the lineup.
Cornejo singled to right field to keep the inning going and freshman Joseph Ledesma, in place of DeMaria, struck out to end the inning.
Senior Kyle Umphenour, replacing Grack on the mound, was chosen to close the game out for the Barons. Umphenour made quick work of the Sailors as he got a one-two-three inning by getting the first batter to ground out to Grack, the second batter of the inning to line out to Grack and the third and final batter of the game to ground out to Long to end the game.
Umphenour pitched one inning without giving up any hits or runs.
“This year’s team has unmatched chemistry that can take us very far,” Cunneen said. “But this can only be the case if we play our cards right, using small ball to our advantage.”
The Barons defeated the Sailors by a score of 10-4 and improved their league record to 2-1 and overall record to 6-7. The team next plays Friday against Corona del Mar in an away-league game.
