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Anthony DeMarco of Woodbridge gets ready to slide in the with the go-ahead run Tuesday. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Woodbridge High School’s baseball team pushed across a run in the top of the eighth inning then shut down a rally by Irvine in the bottom of the inning to notch a 2-1 extra inning Pacific Coast League win over the Vaqueros Tuesday at Irvine.
The two teams came into the game tied for third place in the Pacific Coast League. It was the first of three games between the two teams with the second game Wednesday at Ryan Lemmon Stadium and the final back at Irvine Friday.
“It was just a good high school baseball game, I thought obviously their guy starter (Drake Brito) threw really well, we couldn’t do much against their starter,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. “But I thought all the guys who came in for him were effective, we just got some key hits and put the ball in play.”
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Woodbridge (12-7, 8-5) pushed across the go-ahead run in the eighth. Anthony DeMarco reached on a leadoff walk. Alex Serafin sacrificed him to second base and DeMarco scored on a base hit by Henry Uhrik with outs.
In the bottom of the inning, Evan Tamayo and Ryan Sellards drew walks but reliever Vincent DeMarco (Anthony’s younger brother) struck out Owen Featherston and got Sullivan Spivey on a flyout to right field to end the game.
“I really like the way we play, we execute, we play catch and we get timely hits and we’re just going to take it one game at a time and hope we end up with a playoff spot or maybe better down the road,” Brucker said.
Woodbridge moved ahead 1-0 with a run in the top of the fifth inning. Nevan Namgoong beat out an infield single to drive in Skyler Miura, who had reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced to third on two wild pitches.
But in the bottom of the inning, Irvine (9-9-1, 7-6) evened the score. Adam Valencia singled, went to second on a sacrifice by Josh Gutierrez and scored on a wild pitch.
Irvine Coach Gabriel Cota thought the Vaqueros scored another run when Rodriguez broke from third with two outs on an attempted steal, but Rodriguez was tagged out to end the inning. Cota argued a balk should have been called, but after a review by the umpires, the play stood.
Both starting pitchers were outstanding. Nolan Stottlemyer pitched into the fifth inning allowing one run and four hits for Woodbridge. He struck out four and also made a back-handed play at shortstop in the sixth inning, robbing Gutierrez of a single.
Vincent DeMarco then came on in relief in the fifth and blanked the Vaqueros on one hit. He struck out four and walked four to earn the win.
Irvine’s starter, Brito, pitched the first three innings, striking out eight and allowing one hit. He struck out the side twice.
“He is just coming back from an injury, when he’s going, he’s dominant,” said Cota, the Irvine coach.
Ethan Kim, who came on in the fourth and Jack Flanagan, who was used in the sixth, finished on the mound for Irvine.
“Every time we play them, it’s pretty much the same, it always comes down to one or two plays,” said Cota. “Credit to them, they did enough to win, we’re kind of snake-bit right now I feel they had two runs that don’t leave the infield, then we hit a shot and it goes off their knee and bounces to the bag (at first base). That’s baseball, best part is there is another game tomorrow.
“There was great pitching by both, a good high school baseball game. It should be a fun one tomorrow. This one we erase, hopefully by the time they go to sleep they won’t be thinking about it anymore.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
