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Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker meets with his players after Tuesday’s win over Northwood. (Photo: OC Sports Zone, Tim Burt),
Woodbridge High School’s baseball team kept within striking distance of Pacific Coast League leader Beckman with an 8-0 victory over Nortwood Tuesday afternoon on a windy day at Ryan Lemmon Stadium.
Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker was pleased with the effort of his squad. The Warriors (15-6, 9-2) had a rocky night Wednesday losing to El Modena 7-1 in the championship game of the Ryan Lemmon Invitational.
Woodbridge was solid in all phases Tuesday and was led by pitchers Sean McCance, who pitched the first five innings and Jake Perez, who finished the game for a combined shutout. McCance (4-2) struck out 11, walked two and gave up five hits. Perez allowed a hit and struck out one.
Woodbridge had eight hits and did not make an error.
“I’m very happy, especially the last time we talked, it was not a very good effort on Wednesday from us so that’s the beauty of baseball, there is always another game and I was very happy we turned the page on probably the worst game we played all season and I think we played one of our best today,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker.
“Sean pitched really, really well and defensively, Dylan Blakely played a heckuva game at first, and picked us up on some throws across that could have given them some opportunities and opportunities.”
Blakey also blasted his second home run of the year over the center field fence in the third inning driving in McCance, who tripled, to put the Warriors ahead 5-0. Nathan Perry also had an RBI single in the inning to give Woodbridge a 6-0 lead.
Perry went 3 for 3 with two RBI and two runs scored and third baseman Matthew Kuromoto drove in two runs with a double.
McCance also had a triple and scored a run and catcher Anthony DeMarco had a double and scored two runs for the Warriors, who are in second place behind Beckman (15-5, 12-1).
Northwood (9-13, 7-6) had a chance to take an early lead in the first inning. With two outs, Bobby Bangs reached on a triple after a line drive took a bad hop over the Warriors center fielder. But Bangs was stranded there. Woodbridge responded with two runs in the bottom of the first, one unearned to move ahead 2-1.
The Timberwolves also had two runners on in the second and third innings but could not get the key hit when they needed to. Bangs started for Northwood before being relieved by Cal Euper in the third inning. Jon Cilderman came on to pitch the sixth inning.
“Woodbridge is a very, very good baseball team,” said Northwood Coach Doug Euper. “Sean was fantastic, he worked out of some trouble in the second and third and that was it. He was the difference in the game. Dylan Blakey is so strong and is a great baseball player.
“I’ve coached those boys along with others (on the youth level) and I really love those kids, so I’m happy for them, but I would like for us to be able to put up a better game. But all credit to those guys, that’s a really good baseball team.”
The teams play again Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Northwood. Northwood is still in contention for a playoff berth.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
