Sailors display muscles

Bryce Alderton

Hours of labor in the weight room make athletes sweat as they exert

their muscles, attempting to lift pounds of iron. Grueling work at

times, but an exercise that paid off Wednesday for the Newport Harbor

High baseball team.

The Sailors powered 11 hits and came back from two three-run

deficits to beat visiting Garden Grove, 9-5, in 5 2/3 innings in the

fifth-place game of the Pride of the Coast Tournament. The game was

called at 2:45 p.m. to give Pacifica and Dana Hills the best possible

chance of beginning the tournament championship game near the 3 p.m.

scheduled start.

Newport and Garden Grove, scheduled to start at noon, began a half

hour late. It had taken Newport 12 innings to defeat Santiago, 7-6,

in the fifth-place semifinal that began at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“It made a difference,” Newport Coach Joel Desguin said about the

newfound workout routine he and assistant Evan Chalmers implemented

the day after last season ended.

The Sailors do “an intense lifting session” Monday and work with

medicine balls and jump ropes, among other exercises, two other days

a week in addition to running, Desguin said.

“To be able to play 18 innings is an accomplishment and we weren’t

dragging,” he said. “Kids are going to hit the way they will hit,

but, by getting stronger, they will be able to hit it harder and

throw it farther.”

Newport produced five extra-base hits, two in a three-run fourth

inning that increased the margin to 8-5 over Garden Grove.

Center fielder Ryan Torrey blasted his first home run of the

season -- a solo shot -- over the left-center-field fence to lead off

the fourth inning. The rally continued as second baseman Mike McLean

singled in a run and shortstop Dave Erickson doubled in another.

McLean and Erickson each went 2 for 4 with two runs scored.

Erickson said Newport (7-11) took extra batting practice before

Tuesday’s games, but he also pointed to the defense as contributing

to the effort against Garden Grove.

Polished fielding only gave Newport starter Joe Cantarella the

support he needed to go the distance against Garden Grove, striking

out six in 5 2/3 innings to pick up his third victory.

Cantarella shook off a three-run second inning by the Argonauts,

in which they tallied four hits, to allow only one run the rest of

the way. The junior right-hander struck out the side in the fourth

inning.

“I was nervous the first couple innings ... I just tried to be

accurate with my pitches,” Cantarella said.

And accurate he was, fooling the Argonauts into several called

strikes on check swings.

The opposite was true of Newport hitters, who connected for seven

of their 11 hits off Grove relievers. Cantarella walked twice,

singled and scored a run. Senior Ryan Rowe scored twice and walked

three times to go with one double while third baseman R.J. Muller

singled and doubled in four at-bats with one run scored.

First baseman Nick Sacco walked three times and showed his

flexibility by doing the splits to scoop a ball headed for the dirt

as Newport attempted to turn a 5-4-3 double play in the sixth inning.

Catcher Jeff Sanchez added an RBI single to right in the bottom of

the sixth.

Appropriately, Sanchez singled to right to score Rowe with the

game-winning run against Santiago. Rowe had walked to lead off the

inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Heenan. A

strikeout and a walk to Erickson set up Sanchez’s hit to end a game

that lasted more than three hours.

Newport scored six runs in the the fourth, though Santiago

answered with six in the fifth.

Sophomore Patrick Keehan earn his first win of the season in

relief of Torrey, who finished with four strikeouts.

*--*

Pride of the Coast Tournament

Fifth place game Newport 9, Garden Grove 5

Score by Innings

G. Grove 131 000 -- 5 8 2

Newport 113 30x -- 9 11 0

J. Corona, R. Corona (3), Levesque (4),

Chellar (5) and Rios, Maselli (5); Cantarella

and Sanchez. W -- Cantarella, 3-4. L -- R.

Corona. 2B -- J. Corona (GG), Erickson (NH),

Muller (NH), Schaeffer (GG). HR -- Torrey

(NH)

*--*

*--*

Fifth-place semifinal Newport 7,

Santiago 6

Score by Innings

Santiago 000 060 000 000 -- 6 8 4

Newport 000 600 000 001 -- 7 10 3

Silva, Perez (6) and Rodriguez;

Torrey, Keehan (6) and Sanchez. W

-- Keehan, 1-0. L -- Perez. 2B --

Bernal (S), D. Erickson (NH), Perez

(S), Torrey (NH). HR -- Perez (S)

*--*