High School Baseball: CdM wins battle, 8-5

CORONA DEL MAR - The Corona del Mar High baseball team answered

Redondo Union’s four-run third inning rally to earn an 8-5 nonleague

victory Wednesday.

Sea Kings senior Eric Snell smacked his first home run of the season

to lead off in the fifth inning with the score tied, 5-5, giving CdM the

lead for good.

“He mashed that thing, too,” CdM Coach John Emme said. “It cleared the

screen in left field. There was no doubt about that one.”

The win was a welcome relief for Emme, who is a former coach of the

Seahawks (1-3-1).

“We are now 2-2 against (Redondo) since I’ve been at CdM,” Emme said.

“Our pitchers held them, we put runs on the board and took care of

business.”

Snell pitched four innings to earn the win and sophomore Nick Rhodes

collected his first save of the season as he held the Seahawks scoreless

in the seventh.

“He was due to get in a little bullpen work,” Emme said of Rhodes.

“He’s only allowed one unearned run over 15 innings with 16 strikeouts

and only two walks. Not too shabby.:

CdM junior Billy Eagle added a clutch RBI double in the sixth.

CdM (3-2) got the offense going right away, jumping out to a 4-0 lead.

Sophomore Keith Long had an RBI double, scoring Dave Knecht, Andrew Johns

(3 for 3) added a two-run double and Wes Hockinson came through with an

RBI single.

Johns finished the game with three RBIs, while Long, Snell, Knecht,

Hockinson and junior Derrick Lewis each had two hits.

Defensively, the Sea Kings committed an error, but the miscues have

come few and far between this year, according to Emme.

“It’s been a long work in progress, but it’s nice to know when

grounders are hit we’re going to make the plays,” Emme said. “We have

five errors so far. We had almost 70 errors last year and we took our

lumps, but we knew down the road, the experience would pay off.”

The Sea Kings open Pacific Coast League play at Laguna Beach, Friday

at 3:15 p.m.

“We’ve had an extremely tough preseason schedule and we’ve gotten

better because of it,” Emme said. “Laguna Beach has a couple of tough

pitchers and they’re playing much better defense than last year, so it

should be interesting. I’m looking forward to getting the PCL underway.”

NONLEAGUE

Corona del Mar 8, Redondo 5

Redondo 004 010 0 - 5 10 1

Corona del Mar 400 112 x - 8 14 1

Guy, Gerarde (6) and Sloey, Chairez (5); Knecht, Snell (3), Rhodes (7)

and McKeever. W - Snell, 1-0, Rhodes, Sv (1). L - Guy, 0-2. 2B - Knecht

(CdM), Long (CdM), Eagle (CdM), Louis (CdM), Hockinson (CdM) 2. HR -

Snell (CdM).

Andrew 3 for4 3 RBIS...hitting 11 for 17....Billy