Baseball: Sea Kings feels generous against Laguna Beach

Joseph Boo

CORONA DEL MAR - It was like a modern reenactment of O. Henry’s

“The Gift of the Magi,” in which the husband sells his pocket watch to

buy his wife a comb while she sells her hair to get him a chain for his

pocket watch. Corona del Mar High’s baseball team botched two pickoff

throws that led to Laguna Beach’s first two runs, but the Artists almost

made those gifts irrelevant.

At the end, the Artists still got the better end of the deal and they

took the Pacific Coast League opener, 5-4, over the host Sea Kings

Friday.

The two errors came in the second inning with Laguna Beach runners on

first and second base. A pick off throw to second got past a CdM (3-2,

0-1 in league) fielder and ended up in center field.

On the same batter, an errant pickoff throw to third went into CdM’s

dugout, scoring one runner to score and moving the other to third. Laguna

Beach (2-4, 1-0) drove in its second run on a sacrifice fly.

“This was a frustrating game,” CdM Coach John Emme said. “We gave them

their first two runs. We had them picked off. But we couldn’t play a

basic game of catch.”

The Sea Kings went down 3-0 in the third when the Artists’ Kirk Ziegler

hit his second home run of the year, a solo shot to right-center.

Feeling benevolent themselves, the Artists gave CdM its first run. CdM

freshman shortstop Keith Long hit a towering fly ball to right that the

right fielder lost in the sun, resulting in a three-base error. The next

batter, Dave Knecht, hit a routine grounder that the shortstop threw

away.

Laguna Beach scored twice in the fourth to make it a 5-1 ballgame, but

CdM closed the game to 5-4 in the fifth with the help of a botched double

play. Right fielder John DiCesare, who went 3 for 3 at the plate, and

leadoff hitter Alex Swanson were safe at second and first when Laguna

Beach’s shortstop failed to hold onto the ball on a double play attempt.

After two walks resulted in one CdM run, third baseman Derek Loe crushed

a double to the wall in left-center, scoring two more Sea Kings.

CdM relief pitcher Cavan Cuyler shut down Laguna Beach for the final

three innings, getting three strikeouts.

Cuyler really did a nice job in relief,” Emme said. “He completely shut

them down.”

But CdM could not scratch out another run in its final three innings, and

the defending Division IV champs dropped their first league game of the

year.

“It’s only our first loss. There’s a whole bunch more to go,” Emme said,

“but our guys now understand that we have to go out and execute if we’re

going to win.”

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach

Score by innings

Laguna Beach 021 200 0 - 5 9 3

Corona del Mar 001 030 0 - 4 5 3

Verdugo, Dy-Buncio (5) and Gagneti; Martinez, Cuyler (5) and McKeever. W

- Verdugo, 2-1; L - Martinez, 1-2. 2B - Anu (LB), Loe (CdM), DiCesare

(CdM). HR - Ziegler (LB).