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Woodbridge starter Daniel O’Hanlon fires a pitch Tuesday at Ryan Lemmon Stadium. (Photos: Tim Burt,. OC Sports Zone).
Woodbridge High School’s baseball team got outstanding pitching again Tuesday, defeating Irvine 5-0 in a Pacific Coast League game on a cool afternoon at Ryan Lemmon Stadium.
It was the third shutout in a row for Woodbridge pitchers, who have two shutouts in the first two league game. Woodbridge won its league opener over University on Saturday 1-0. The scoreless streak started in an 8-0 non-league win over Tustin Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Woodbridge is trying to win its third league title in a row.
On Tuesday, Warrior starter Daniel O’Hanlon threw 2 2/3 innings striking out two and allowing three hits before coming out as a precautionary move after he felt pain in his arm, said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. Justin Durby, who was given extra warm-up pitches, came on and blanked Irvine on two hits until the seventh. Jacob Perez completed the shutout, allowing no hits.
“He pitched really well to start,” Brucker said of O’Hanlon. “He’s going to get it checked out and we’re hoping it’s nothing too serious. With the young guys, you have to take care of their arm.”
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Brucker believes the pitching staff will be the team’s strength.
“We have some guys who pitched last year who are coming back and I think pitching and defense will be what keeps us in games,” Brucker said. “If we can score some runs, we will be OK. We had Matt Kuromoto pitch really well on Saturday vs. Uni and obviously Daniel came in and Justin Durby has a lot of experience coming out of the bullpen. We feel real confident in our pitching staff because they’re pretty experienced.”
Irvine (2-2, 1-1) had a chance to strike first in the first inning.
Owen Featherstone singled and stole second base. With two outs, Adam Valencia singled but Featherstone was thrown out at home plate on a perfect throw by Perez, who started in center field.
Woodbridge (4-1, 2-0) then moved ahead with three runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Irvine starter Aiden Malave.
Chase Quezada walked and Brandon Abernathy singled. Anthony DeMarco and Perez followed with RBI singles and DeMarco later scored on a wild pitch.
In the second inning, Quezada walked, stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Abernathy to put the Warriors ahead 4-0.
Woodbridge moved ahead 5-0 with another run in the third inning. Perez walked, stole second and came home on a groundout.
Irvine was held in check the rest of the way.
“It was a typical Pacific Coast League game,” said Irvine Coach Gabriel Cota. “The balls fell in for them. They played a really good game. It just didn’t quite go our way today. It’s still early, we haven’t really figured it out fully, we’re a pretty young team. We’re just learning how to compete. I was actually happy with the way we competed. A couple balls fall in here and there and it’s a totally different score.”
Cota had no regrets about sending the runner home in the first inning.
“Two outs, you got to kind of push the envelope,” he said. “He makes a great throw and you tip your hat and say that’s a great play by them. They’re an experienced team, back to back league champs, so we knew it was going to be a tall task, but I was happy with the way we competed.”
Abernathy led Woodbridge’s nine-hit attack, going 3 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI.
Ryan Sellards and Evan Tamayo finished on the mound for Irvine.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
