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Northwood players celebrate a Pacific Coast League victory over University Wednesday. (PHOTOS: Jacob Ramos, For OC Sports Zone).
University High School hosted Northwood for the first of an important two-game Pacific Coast League baseball series on Wednesday.
Both University (12-11, 5-6) and Northwood (10-14-1, 6-5) entered the matchup jockeying for a top-four Pacific Coast League finish which would guarantee a CIF playoff berth. The Timberwolves won the cross-town matchup 6-3, moving over .500 in league and into a three-way tie for third place.
Carter Liu, a senior, was on the mound for Northwood and started going seven innings and only allowing one earned run with seven strikeouts. The Timberwolves’ starter worked through three errors by his defense, but limited the Trojans to just three runs. Liu spoke to OC Sports Zone about working through adversity in his outing.
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“It’s always [about not losing] faith in your defense. They’re back there for a reason, and I think I just have to continue pounding the zone,” Liu said.
University entered Wednesday on a two-game losing streak. Northwood also came off a non-league defeat on Monday, but handed PCL champion Laguna Beach its first league loss of the season last week, 2-1 at Laguna Beach.
Playing its second game of three for the week, Northwood threatened early and put two runners on with one out in the top of the second inning against Uni starter Brennan Collins. Northwood’s seven-hole hitter Burt Chubb hit a sharp liner up the middle, but it was stabbed by Collins, who threw behind Robbie Thomas at first base to escape the inning scoreless.
Collins faced more trouble in the top of the fourth when two singles and an error loaded the bases for the Timberwolves with no outs. An RBI fielder’s choice by Liu broke the 0-0 tie, but Collins worked through the traffic again, striking out one batter before inducing a groundout to end the inning.
When asked about Collins’ near-complete game, Uni Coach Jesse Anderson spoke highly of his starter’s effort.
“[Collins] pitched his heart out, [he] pitched well enough to get the win,” Anderson said. “It’s baseball, and stuff happens.”
In the bottom half of the fourth inning, University answered back with a double to lead off the inning and an RBI single by Chase Nguyen to even the score 1-1.
A leadoff triple by Koji Yoshimizu and another RBI fielder’s choice put Northwood back up 2-1.
A game marred by errors on both sides culminated in a sloppy bottom of the sixth inning by Northwood. Nguyen got on via an infield error, Collins was hit by a pitch, a wild pitch advanced both runners and finally, the tying run for University came across after Nguyen beat out a fielder’s choice play at the plate. The call was close, and Northwood fans erupted after the home plate umpire ruled that the tag was missed.
Liu got a potential inning-ending double play groundball, but another throwing error by Northwood allowed a go-ahead Trojan run to score, putting Uni up 3-2.
Northwood Coach Ben Owens spoke about the errors.
“We talk about [it] every week, we have to protect the rock. If we can’t protect it on our side, it doesn’t matter what we do offensively,” Owens said. “It’s [about] continuing to protect everything [on defense].”
However, the mistakes didn’t demoralize the Timberwolves.
Northwood got two runners on in the top of the seventh inning and Colin Carlson brought them home with a go-ahead triple. The Timberwolves tacked on two insurance runs after Joseph Harper doubled Carlson home and a wild pitch allowed Harper to score, extending the Northwood lead to 6-3.
Liu got the Trojans to go down in order in the bottom of the seventh, securing the 10th victory of the year for Northwood.
“For us, everything’s a playoff game, ” Owens said. “We have to keep playing the way we know how.”
Paul Grossman reached on a double and a walk for Northwood. Grossman is expected to pitch Friday’s second game of the series with University at Northwood.