Canyon reliever Nathan Fuzzard is congratulated by teammates after getting the final out Wednesday. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Canyon’s baseball team withstood a seventh inning rally by Woodbridge to capture a 6-4 victory over the Warriors Wednesday afternoon in a consolation round game of the Ryan Lemmon Invitational at the Great Park.
Canyon led 6-3 going into the seventh inning before Woodbridge tried to battle back. The Warriors scored a run and threatened to tie the game but reliever Nathan Fuzzard got the final out to help the Comanches finish 2-2 in the tournament sponsored by the Ryan Lemmon Foundation.
“It was a good game, we really responsed well from yesterday, tough loss yesterday {5-4 loss to St. Paul} but they came back today,” said Canyon Coach Jason Smith. “They’re a pretty resilient group, I thought our pitchers pitched well today except we were trying to get some guys in who haven’t thrown a lot and get some other guys to swing some bats. I thought our bats were pretty good overall today.
“Our environment and competitiveness was there today, and the effort, overall it was a really good day and we will take that and get ready for our league play again next week.”
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It was a tough ending for Woodbridge, which finished 1-3 in the tournament. Woodbridge pitchers issued eight walks and hit a batter.
The Warriors had a chance to take the lead in the first inning when Caleb Camacho walked and Henry Uhrik doubled but starting pitcher Cooper Stevenson struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
“We battled, we always do, very proud of them, but again, we’re not capitalizing on our opportunities and today the pitching let us down a little bit, but sometimes that’s going to happen, sometimes you have to hit your way out for victories,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker.
“We just have to figure out how to compete better offensively and help our pitchers. Obviously our pitchers have kept us in games up to this point. But again today we just didn’t execute with runners in scoring position.”
Leading the way for Canyon were shortstop John Somerndike, whjo went 2 for 3 with a bases clearing triple in the second inning and center fielder Cam Goetz, who was 2 for 2 with two RBI and two walks and a run scored.
Goetz also had an RBI single in the second inning in which Canyon (9-8) capitalized on three walks by Woodbridge starter Kyle Underwood.
“They’re pretty consistent with their at bat and approach,” Smith said. “They’re guys who can really rely on and they have a really good understanding of the strike zone.”
Woodbridge (8-10) got on the scoreboard in the third inning. Underwood singled and came home to score on a groundout by Uhrik.
The Warriors added two more runs in the fourth inning. Ari Firestone drove in one run on a groundout and Vincent DeMarco had a sacrifice fly to score JJ Metcalf for the other run.
But Canyon added two insurance runs in the sixth inning. Goetz and Matt Simons both had RBI doubles.
In the seventh inning, Woodbridge made it interesting. Underwood walked to lead off the inning and scored when Uhrik was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. The Warriors loaded the bases with one out, but were unable to get a key hit.
“It was very important for us,” Goetz said. “We’ve had a couple struggles these past days so it was good for us to come out here and get a win. Our energy in the dugout was well, so I think that really helped us. We have to just keep doing this and hopefully we will do this next week against Crean {Lutheran}.”
“We just come out here and play and be a team and win games,” added Somerndike.
It was a big week for Somerndike, who had a home run this week and capped it with the triple Wednesday.
“I just went up there and see if I could get a fastball, I got it and I hit it well,” he said.
Canyon stuck to its plan of getting many pitchers in the game. Stevenson started the game. Jackson Walters came on in the second inning, Logan May in the fourth inning and Jesse Garcia in the sixth inning.
Kemuel Zhang also had a single, walk, a stolen base and a run scored for Canyon.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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