Ocean View finishes strong to earn key Golden West League victory over Segerstrom

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Ocean View’s Samual Arrendondo takes a lead at first base after a single in the fifth inning. Segerstrom’s first baseman is Derek Higareda. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Ocean View High School’s baseball team fell behind in the first inning, but responded with five runs in the next two innings to defeat Segerstrom 5-3 in a key Golden West League game at Segerstrom Tuesday afternoon.

Segerstrom, Ocean View (the defending champion) and Katella went into this week’s play undefeated atop the league standings. Tuesday’s game was the first of two this week between Ocean View (10-5, 3-0) and Segerstrom (7-5-1, 2-1). The teams meet again Friday at Ocean View.

“Any time you can come to this place and get a win win, they’re always tough at their home field, it doesn’t always have to look pretty where you have to dominate but if you can come out of here with a win, I’ll take it every single time, especially a rivalry league match-up with them,” said Ocean View Coach Tanner Van Maanen.

“It’s been a battle every single year I’ve been here.”

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JT Lewis pitched the first five innings, got the win, allowing three runs (two earned) and seven hits while striking out six to improve his record to 3-2.

“JT pitched well,” Van Maanen said. “Honestly, he had good stuff today, that’s not the most electric stuff I’ve seen of him but I think it was better than what they’ve seen in a while and he pitched well enough to get his team a win. He pitched and competed when he needed to compete.”

Peyton Perry, who has been the Seahawks closer, finished the game with two shutout innings.

Segerstrom jumped ahead with a run in the first inning. Adrian Covarrubias reached on a bunt single and scored on a double by Derek Higareda.

Ocean View took advantage of three walks, three errors and a wild pitch to score three runs off Segerstrom starting pitcher Rodrigo Rivera in the second inning. Lewis had a double and scored.

The Seahawks added three more runs in the third inning, two coming on a single by Lewis to take a 5-1 lead.

Segerstrom cut the lead to 5-3 with two runs in the sixth inning, one coming on an RBI double by Anthony Quinonez. But Perry shut out the Jaguars in the seventh and the Seahawks turned a double play to end the game.

“We fell apart in a couple innings defensively,” said Segerstrom Coach Erasmo Ramirez. “Rodrigo Rivera has pitched outstanding all year and I just got done telling him, there are going to be times where we don’t have our best stuff and we’re going to have to find a way to dig deep and get through it. We gave them some free baserunners with the bases on balls and we couldn’t play catch.

“If we play our game like we’re capable of playing and what we’ve done this season, it might turn out to be a closer game and we’re not trying to crawl back in the end. The two guys who came in and pitched great and gave us a chance to win: Adrian Leon and Aiden Reyes, they gave us a chance to try and comeback.”

Ramirez said his players know what’s on the line Friday.

“It makes Friday that much more important for us to go over to their place and try and even the series, we’re going to need it,” Ramirez said. “If these guys want to accomplish what they want to accomplish and have a legitimate crack at a league championship, we’re going to have to go over there and get a win, just like they did coming over here.”

Frankie Armente had three hits and Samual Arrendondo scored two runs for Ocean View.

“We had some guys score some runs and we stole some bases and kind of got things moving to push some runs across,” Van Maanen said.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com