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Irvine standouts (from left) Adam Valencia, Drake Brito and Evan Tamayo after Friday’s win. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Irvine High School’s baseball team was clicking on all cylinders for a CIF Division 4 playoff opener at home vs. St. Bernard in front of hundreds of Vaquero fans who packed the bleachers.
The Vaqueros got timely hitting, excellent defense and strong pitching by starter Drake Brito to defeat St. Bernard 8-0 and move into the second round Tuesday against Pacific Coast League rival Woodbridge at Ryan Lemmon Stadium. A time has not been announced.
Brito, who earlier this season threw two consecutive no-hitters, scattered three hits and struck out seven in five innings. Roshan Patel and Jason Alderson completed the shutout with two scoreless innings in relief against St. Bernard (19-7). The Vikings had a memorable regular season winning the Camino Real League.
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Leadoff hitter Evan Tamayo led Irvine’s five hit attack going 2 for 2 with two runs scored and two RBI. In the third inning, Tamayo doubled off St. Bernard starter Juan Sandoval to drive in Hudson Hall, who singled to put Irvine ahead 1-0.
Teammate Adam Valencia followed with an RBI double and Owen Featherston drove in another run with a sacrifice fly to put the Vaqueros (16-12) ahead 3-0.
“Early on in the year, he was trying to find himself a little bit,” Irvine Coach Gabriel Cota said of Tamayo. “Toward the end of the year and obviously now, this is what he can do every day. It was a great day for him.”
“I just wanted to come out and start the game off right,” Tamayo said. “I did that with the hit to right field and then we just kept applying pressure by making good swings and playing good defense. I think Drake Brito did a really good job shutting them out and then our offense backed it up too and got it done with eight runs and we just kept it going with the good defense. It was good baseball all-around for us today.”
Tamayo said he’s looking forward to the next game.
“I’m really excited, especially since we’re playing Woodbridge,” he said. “We played them already this year, so that should be fun.”
Irvine took advantage of a hit batter, three walks and two wild pitches to break the game open with four more runs in the fourth inning. Smith Spivey was hit by a pitch starting the inning. Tamayo had a bases loaded walk and Valencia drove in another run on a groundout.
The Vaqueros added another run in the fifth inning. Featherston walked and came around to score on a single by Nico Macalino.
Then, Irvine looked to Brito and the two relievers to close it out.
“The guy is just steady as a rock,” Cota said of Brito. “As good as he is (on the mound), he’s a better kid. He’s just a really, really good kid, he comes from a great family and does everything the right way.”
Brito was pleased with his performance.
“I think it was good, I don’t think it was my best stuff but I got the job done, I struggled to get ahead a little bit,” he said. “I kind of settled in in the middle of the game. Nico behind the plate was helping me out a lot, throwing guys out and blocking balls. He’s been good all year. It felt good in the late innings, I think that’s when I felt the best, I started trusting my stuff and throwing everything with the same intent.”
Valencia, who is the likely starting pitcher for Tuesday, was also excited about the win.
“It was a good win and a pretty fun game,” Valencia said. “I just tried to do everything I can to contribute to the team. When Drake is pitching, we have all the faith in him. We’re just trying to move it along one game at a time.”
Valencia said the double he hit “might have been one of the hardest balls I’ve hit all year to be honest. I don’t know, there was just something in the air today, we were swinging it well and doing everything well all around. I think from the get-go we showed that we were ready to play, we were ready to go out and show what kind of team we are, that we are a team to beat.”
Next up, a rematch with Woodbridge.
“We know them pretty well, it will a fun team to play against, I think it will be a great day and a great game.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com