CdM carved up in first round
LAKE ELSINORE — The backdrop for Corona del Mar High’s baseball game featured a carved up rock quarry. The first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs at Lake Elsinore Temescal Canyon was quite the view.
“I don’t know if they’re digging cement or granite,” Temescal Canyon Coach Patrick O’Grady said while looking at the excavated hills behind the outfield fence. “They’ve been working on that for about five years now. They start blowing it up.”
There was a blast during Friday’s game at Temescal Canyon, but this one came off the bat of Tyler Hardman. With one swing in the bottom of the sixth inning, the University of Oklahoma commit crushed the ball and any chance the Sea Kings had of coming back.
What was a one-run game for the Titans turned into a four-run advantage because of Hardman. The junior hammered a three-run home run to right-center field off Cal State Fullerton-bound senior Evan Larsen, sealing Temescal Canyon’s 7-3 win.
For the second year in a row, the Sea Kings exited the postseason in the first round. The last time they advanced to the second round was seven years ago.
The season wasn’t supposed to end so early again for CdM (21-5). The way Friday’s game started, the Sea Kings taking a 3-0 lead, things looked more than promising. They had one of the best pitchers going. A three-run lead with Larsen (9-2) on the mound usually translates into a win.
The lead didn’t hold up, and two miscues by CdM’s infield helped Temescal Canyon get back in it. The Titans scored once in the second inning, and two errors in the third inning resulted in another Temescal Canyon run, cutting the deficit to one. In the fifth inning, the Titans scored twice and took a 4-3 lead, marking the first time they were ahead.
Temescal Canyon (20-9) is moving on to the second round for the third time in as many years because of timely hitting and a complete game turned in by Elijah Davis (4-0). The Titans play at El Segundo (15-16) on Tuesday.
After the first inning, in which Davis gave up three runs and four hits, the junior right-hander shut down CdM. During the final six innings, he struck out eight, gave up only three hits, two of which were infield singles, and walked none.
“Their pitcher made a great adjustment on us after the first inning,” CdM Coach John Emme said. “He basically [threw changeups] and [curveballs]. Our hitters didn’t adjust.”
Three players, Kevin McCarthy, Preston Hartsell and Nick Premer, produced two hits apiece, accounting for all but one of CdM’s seven hits. The rest of the lineup went one for 18 with six strikeouts.
The three-run effort was the Sea Kings’ lowest since April 29, when they lost at Woodbridge, 2-1, in Pacific Coast League action. Before the playoffs, CdM’s four setbacks came against league opponents, losing to champion Woodbridge once, and falling twice to Beckman and once to Northwood.
Those losses left CdM in a tie for second in league with Beckman, which was the league’s No. 2 playoff representative because it won two of its three games with the Sea Kings. Being the No. 3 team out of the league forced CdM to travel and face Sunbelt League champion Temescal Canyon, instead of playing host to a first-round game.
“You want to win league, you want to get as high of, you know, a place in [league] for the playoffs, to get a better seeding and a better draw,” Emme said. “We didn’t do that for ourselves. We were close [with] Beckman and us being a game behind Woodbridge. We didn’t do it, so we made it tough on ourselves and these guys beat us.”
Temescal Canyon knocked off a talented CdM team that featured 14 seniors. The Sea Kings entered the playoffs with at least 20 wins for the first time since 2004, when they went on to claim the section title.
There would be no run by CdM 12 years later.
The Titans rallied by swinging early against Larsen, who allowed six earned runs and eight hits, both season highs, and walked four, matching a season high, to go with six strikeouts. Hardman, who went two for four, doubled to right-center field on the first pitch he saw from Larsen in the fifth inning. Then Dylan Alhanati and Karel Wade each singled in a run, either by hitting the first or second pitch, and the Titans caught and surpassed the Sea Kings.
“We’ve been coming back like that all year,” O’Grady said. “When we got this draw, I had to work like a cheerleader all week because everybody was like, ‘Tough draw! Tough draw! Look at their rankings! Look at this! Look at this!’ I just kind of started pecking away and going, ‘Well, let’s take a look at Irvine and University and who [Larsen is] pitching against [in the Pacific Coast League],’ and just trying to get some guys to think positive that it’s not the end of the world [facing Larsen]. You can tell he’s a good kid and he’s going to have a bright future. We just kind of got the best of him today.”
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CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs
First round
Temescal Canyon 7, Corona del Mar 3
SCORE BY INNINGS
CdM 300 000 0 – 3 7 3
TC 011 023 x – 7 8 0
Larsen and Di Ferdinando; Davis and Harris. W – Davis, 4-0. L – Larsen, 9-2. 2B – Di Ferdinando (CdM), Hartsell (CdM), Bruno (TC), Hardman (TC). HR – Hardman (TC).
