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Woodbridge players including Nolan Stottlemyer (left) celebrate after Monday’s win. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Woodbridge High School’s baseball team survived a furious comeback by Foothill in the seventh inning Monday and held on for a 3-2 victory on the second day of the Ryan Lemmon Invitational at the Great Park Stadium.
Woodbridge is 2-0 in the tournament and is in the running to reach the championship game Wednesday night based on a tie-breaker point system. The teams in the finals will be determined after Tuesday’s games.
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The Warriors had what looked to be a comfortable 3-0 lead going into the top of the seventh inning against Foothill.
But Foothill pinch-hitter Adam Ujiie led off with a double. Woodbridge reliever Caden Camacho then struck out the next batter and got Ezekial Vargas to pop out for the second out.
However, the Knights kept battling.
Pinch-runner Jason Gugino scored on a single by Gavin Lauridsen to break the shutout. Then Aidan Colburn reached on what was ruled an infield error, allowing a run to score, cutting the Woodbridge lead to 3-2. The ball went past third base slightly down the left field line.
However, Woodbridge shortstop Nolan Stottlemyer, alertly backing up the play, threw to second baseman Vaughn Tase who made a tag to get the runner over-running second base to end the game.
“He’s (Stottlemyer) a three-year starter for us at shortstop so that was a big play by him to see that the guy at second base had wondered off too a little bit too far and threw behind him to get the out,” said Woodbridge Coach Ryan Brucker. “But we’re a young team, of the nine, we started seven underclassmen and four of them are sophomores so they’re learning in those big situations.
“Sometimes, things get big and you have to compose yourself and you got to rely on your seniors to keep you composed, so I was happy we were able to come out of the game with a win. (Foothill) Coach (Chris) Price always does a good job with his guys and you knew at the end it wasn’t going to be a one, two, three seventh inning.”
Price was pleased his Foothill team battled back.
“That’s what you want to see out of your club,” he said. “Guys just didn’t get the big hit there, we’ve been scoring a lot of runs lately, we’ve been a little bit challenged the last couple of games, but I thought the bats were really good all day, we really didn’t have too many ABs that were bad. The last inning we had the baserunning mistake, but we had a chance to tie it, that’s always fun.
“I had Adam (the pinch-hitter) lined up and I knew he was going to deliver there, that would have been really nice, but it just didn’t happen.”
Woodbridge starting pitcher Vincent DeMarco, who pitched four scoreless to earn the win, allowing two hits and striking out seven. Aiden Brady came on in the fifth and Camacho, who earned the save, relieved in the sixth inning.
“It was great, we had a really clean game up until pretty much the last inning,” said DeMarco. “We swung the bats really well. I feel like we played some great baseball today, it was a great win. It was fun finally catching some barrels again, it’s been a minute.”
DeMarco was thrilled with the ending.
“That’s why Stott’s plays shortstop because he always knows what’s going on, I see him practicing it all the time in practice, the pump fakes, happy it worked,” he said.
Foothill also loaded the bases with one out in the sixth inning, but Camacho grabbed a line drive back to the mound and turned it into an inning-ending double play.
DeMarco was also 2 for 3 at the plate with an RBI triple in the third inning to drive home Henry Uhrik, who walked to put the Warriors ahead 3-0. He also singled in the second inning and scored on an RBI single by Alex Johnson. Tase had a sacrifice in the inning.
Woodbridge took the early lead in the first inning. Stottlemyer walked and came around to score on a single by Caleb Camacho.
Lauridsen had two hits and walked twice and Sean Green had two hits for Foothill (12-5). The Knights lost their opener in the tournament to Yucaipa 2-0.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com