Irvine rolls past Sailors

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - The Newport Harbor High baseball team is going

through a slump. Not at the plate, but with the glove.

Five Sailor errors were not the lone reason for Newport’s 16-2 Sea

View League loss to visiting Irvine, but it sure didn’t help much.

“It’s definitely not from a lack of practicing, that’s for sure,”

Harbor Coach Jim Kiefer said. “I think a lot of it has to do with

concentration. The guys are going through performance anxiety out there

and right now, it’s spiraling out of control.”

Newport Harbor (4-5, 1-4 in league) has committed 16 errors in the past three games. Two of those miscues helped the Vaqueros (9-1, 4-1) put

a stranglehold on the game in the very first inning.

After Irvine leadoff hitter Chad Hazlett reached with a single, a

throwing error moved him all the way to third, where he later scored on a

groundout by Keith Williams.

A missed foul popup near the first-base dugout allowed Irvine’s Jon de

Vries to eventually reach on a walk. He later scored on a line-drive,

two-run home run by Chris Lewis, giving Irvine a 3-0 advantage.

“We throw the ball all over the yard and a guy hits one off his shoe

tops for a home run,” Kiefer said. “The tone of the game was set early

and it wasn’t in our favor.”

Newport Harbor had a chance to cut into the lead in the bottom of the

first. Alan Lane led off with a single to center and after two

strikeouts, Garrett Brant and Chris Ward each followed with hits to load

the bases. But Irvine starting pitcher Aaron Rippo (2-0) wiggled out of

the jam by retiring the next Newport hitter.

“We had a chance to get right back into the game, but we couldn’t get

the big hit when we needed it,” Kiefer said. “If we get a couple of runs

there, we take some of the momentum back, and (then) who knows? The game

was won right there.”

The Vaqueros were at it again in the third. Back-to-back walks,

followed by a Newport Harbor error on a sacrifice bunt, led to two more

runs before an RBI bunt single by Travis Hault extended Irvine’s lead to

6-0. Four of Irvine’s runs were unearned.

“We needed to get a quality start from our pitcher today and we just

didn’t get it,” Kiefer said. “The defense didn’t help much, however.”

Irvine managed to earn all three of its runs in the fourth inning when

Dan Beachant ripped a bases-loaded double off the left-field fence,

clearing the paths and giving the Vaqueros a 9-0 advantage.

An unearned run gave the Vaqueros a 10-0 lead in the fifth inning, but

Newport Harbor held off the mercy rule for one inning, thanks to an RBI

double by Donovan Wong and an RBI single by Brant.

“We managed to hit the ball pretty well out there,” Kiefer said of the

Sailors’ 10 hits. “We just didn’t get that big hit early and that really

hurt us.”

Irvine ended its offensive onslaught with a six-run sixth inning.

Lewis, who finished the game 2 for 4 with three runs scored and four

RBIs, had a two-run double to key the attack.

Lane went 3 for 4 with a run scored, much to the delight of Kiefer.

“That was our biggest positive, without a doubt,” Kiefer said. “He’s been

slumping for a little while, so we got (together) with him and told him

to step it up and he did just that. It was very nice to see.”

Newport Harbor plays at Laguna Hills Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Irvine 16, Newport Harbor 2

Irvine 303 316 - 16 12 1

Newport Harbor 000 020 - 2 10 5

Rippo, Becker (5), Egan (6) and de Vries; Forsythe, Glenn (4), Torrey

(6) and Brant, Metkovich (5), Brant (6). W - Rippo, 2-0. L - Forsythe,

1-2. 2B - Beachant (I) 2, Lewis (I), Wong (NH), HR - Lewis (I).