The barons went into the 7th inning with a strong lead, up 4-1. Things started to become distressing though when Oiler stand out Bret Urabe came up to the plate with no outs and bases loaded. The Barons lead fell to pieces when the worst came, a grand slam that put the Oilers up 5-4, a lead that would not be broken when the Barons had their chance in the bottom of the 7th.
Huntington Beach High School came out of preseason undefeated, 7-0, and with an ERA below 2 and an average run total of over 7 per game. Coming into Sunset they were ranked 3rd in the county.
Fountain Valley came into the Sunset league 6-1, and was considered by many to be the best team behind H.B. in Sunset.
Thus, Fridays game was a huge early season opener for both teams to make a statement upon the Sunset League.
The Barons established an early hold on the game in the bottom of the first. After a quick 3 outs on defense the Baron batters provided a strong first inning getting the bases loaded with the top of the order. Turner Clouse hit in the first run of the game, and then was sent in himself on a sac-fly by Dan Patzlaff, which put the Barons up 2-0.
The lead would hold through the next batch of innings. Monty Plattner pitched very well allowing only 2 hits through the first 4 innings, throwing 3 k’s to do the job. The H.B. batters had trouble tracking the ball and could only battle off ground rollers and pop flies.
After a sleepy 2nd inning at bat the Barons lit up the Oilers once again in the 3rd inning as the top of the order came back up to bat.
Jordan Lucio started off the inning with a single. Clouse could not capitalize on the base runner and struck out. In the next at bat, Conor Bitzer who had been subbed in as a pinch runner stole second, as Jake Shattles looked off the Oiler pitcher for a walk.
With 2 runners on base Brock Lundquist hit a massive 2-run Triple to really establish the lead for the Barons at 4-0.
The pitcher rattled, the next batter Brand was hit in the leg and walked to first with only 1 out. However with runners on 1st and 3rd the next two Barons left the 2 runners on base and went into the 4th inning still up 4-0.
The 4th inning saw very little action from both sides as the Barons turned a double play on defense. The bottom of the inning was no better for the Barons with two straight pop flies, and a strikeout.
The first sign of life for the Oilers came in the 5th inning. On the first at bat and only a few pitches in the Oiler batter hammered a homerun to right field that sent him around all the bases and put H.B. on the board in a game that was starting to slip away. The Barons were safe the rest of the inning, turning another double play.
In the bottom of the 5th the Barons were on the verge of putting away the game, getting two men on with only one out. However the middle order could not capitalize and left 2 men on base to end the inning.
The game was becoming quite long for starting pitcher Monty Plattner who had pitched a wonderful 1-run game so far. The defense played well behind Monty to stop any hope for H.B. in the 6th. First baseman Christian Rodriguez made a play from the seat of his pants to make the first out and 2 other batters were handled easily by the infield.
The bottom of the inning held a similar fate for the Baron batters who could not mange to get on base and put any more distance between them and the Oilers.
In what could be the final inning of the game, head coach Ron Laruffa kept starter Plattner in to try and close out a full game. Things started off shaky though for the starter. The first batter managed a single off of Plattner. The next two batters Plattner faced he showed signs of losing his placement, throwing a walk, and beaning a batter. At this point the bases were loaded with no outs and H.B. star Brett Urabe was at the plate.
A Grand Slam to left field by Urabe sent the Oilers up by one, by a score of 5-4.
Plattner was kept in the game and pitched an out against the next batter. But after giving up a single, Tanner Brown replaced the starter as a reliever. The Baron reliever was able to end the inning without much fuss, but the damage had been done to the Barons and the game was forced into the bottom of the 7th for a do or die offensive at bat for the Barons.
Turner Clouse, senior stand out for the Barons started off the come back patiently with a walk. Patzlaff poised to send in the winning run hit a long fly ball out to the warning tracks, but the Oiler outfielder grabbed it. Clouse was almost to third when the ball was caught and was thrown out at first.
The Barons were now one out away from losing. The next batter Brand was walked on base, but Tanner Brown couldn’t keep the game going and in the final at bat of the game hit a pop fly to end the game.
Coach Ron LaRuffa commented after the game on Plattner “He (Plattner) did a great job. He held them in check for six innings…I probably left him in too long. I probably should have had a quicker hook and gone to my reliever two batters before”
The Barons played a very strong opener against what could be the best team in Sunset League. The result won’t go their way but certainly the play both offensively and defensively went the Barons way, which bodes well for the rest of the season. The Barons go to (6-2) on the year and (0-1) in league play.
In his final thoughts on the game coach LaRuffa shrugged, “We beat them for six innings but the game is seven innings long. You got to finish. You got to finish.”
The Barons play next week on Wednesday and Friday, at Edison(1-0) and at home against Marina(1-0), respectively.
