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Northwood coach Josh Keithly (left) with his team before Friday’s game against Irvine. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Northwood High School’s baseball team, behind the solid pitching and hitting of junior Paul Grossman, defeated Irvine 9-0 in the deciding game of a Pacific Coast League series Friday at Northwood to remain atop the standings.
Grossman (3-0) pitched the first five innings striking out nine and allowing four hits to lead Northwood (7-3-1, 6-2-1). He was also 3 for 3 with three RBI and two runs scored to help the Timberwolves take two of three games from Irvine (6-5-1, 5-4). Irvine is tied for third place with Woodbridge.
“We just came out swinging, we were aggressive with the sticks, Paul did his thing on the mound, we were confident, we let the last game (a 2-1 Irvine win) kind of get to us and this was our Northwood team that came out today, not like the other game, we did a good job of clearing that game and came out super positive. It was a good team win, good team ABs, we kind of did all the little things right.”
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Northwood took the lead with a run in the first inning off Irvine starter Adam Valencia. Grossman and Colin Carlson drew walks and Luke Hansen drove in a run with an RBI single. Hansen, who was back in the lineup after an injury, wound up with three hits, three RBI and two runs scored.
Northwood added two more runs in the second inning. Jordan Kim, who had two hits, delivered an RBI single to drive in Rylan Littlejohn and Grossman drove in two runs with a single. The Timberwolves broke the game open with four runs, two coming on a single by Hansen, in the fourth inning, to take an 8-0 lead and added another run in the fifth.
Irvine couldn’t get much going offensively. Sullivan Spivey tripled in the third inning, but Grossman worked out of trouble. The Vaqueros also stranded two runners in the fourth inning.
Andreas Hernandez finished the game on the mound for Northwood.
“We really needed this win,” said Grossman, a USC commit. “It was a tough loss on Wednesday, but the team was ready to bounce back. With the rubber match. I knew I needed to give my team the best shot at winning and we took care of business today. I think it was a solid game for me, I’ve been pretty sick all week, it felt good to get back out there on the mound with the boys and competing to win.
“Our team is doing well, our pitching is really good, Casey (Euper) is shoving, no runs all year. Our goal is to win every series and if we can do that, we have a good shot at winning.”
Irvine Coach Gabriel Cota credited Grossman and his teammates.
“They just played better than us today, obviously they have a guy on the bump, they hit one ball hard the whole day and that’s just how baseball works; they hit balls off the knuckles and found spots where we weren’t, you just kind of have to tip your hat and say they beat us today,” he said.
He’s hoping his Vaqueros bounce back next week.
“It’s simple, we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves, next game up, we talk about it all the time, every league game is created equal so this game is just as important as the next one and as important as the one after that,” Cota said. “I told them, by the time they get to the cars, we’re done with this game and moving on to the next one.”
Irvine has a three-game series with University while Northwood faces Laguna Hills next week.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
