The El Modena baseball team has a storied past that includes Freddie Freeman, who was the Orange County player of the year when he played for the Vanguards long ago and is now a future Hall of Famer playing for the Dodgers.
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El Modena baseball is good right now, too.
The Vanguards went 22-6 during the regular season and won the Freeway League championship this season. They begin the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs Thursday with a first-round game at Royal (23-3-1) of Simi Valley.
El Modena set a school record with 22 wins in the regular season.
El Modena coach Josh Kliner said good pitching and timely hitting have been strengths for the Vanguards.
Ryan Novajoski, a senior right-hander, is 6-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a team-high 53 strikeouts in 56⅓ innings. Cash Ferniac, a junior, is 5-0 with a 2.10 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 60 innings. Junior lefty Matthew Gutierrez leads the bullpen corps.
Novajoski also is batting .321 with a team-leading 21 RBIs.
Senior shortstop Logan Honikel has a team-high 31 hits with 16 RBIs and is batting .365. Honikel is a four-year starter at shortstop and has committed to Kansas. Junior third baseman and leadoff hitter Isaac Silva is batting .349.
Those are all players Kliner knew would be leaders this season.
“It’s always a crapshoot when it comes to how the role guys are going to fit in and mesh with a team,” said Kliner, in his 19th season as El Modena’s coach. “We did get great contributions from everyone, especially the guys down at the bottom of the batting order. We’ve always had guys on base when the top-of-the-order studs are coming up.”
The Vanguards go into the playoffs hot, having won 12 of their past 14 games.
NOTES
The CIF-SS baseball playoffs begin Tuesday with the pool play games in Division 1. First-round games in Divisions 2, 4, 6, and 8 are Thursday. First-round games in Divisions 3, 5, 7, and 9 are Friday. The championship games will be played at Cal State Fullerton (May 29 and 30) and at Loan Mart Field (May 30) in Rancho Cucamonga. …
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An interesting first-round game in Division 2 on Thursday (3:15 p.m.) is South Coast League champion Trabuco Hills (17-11), which is No. 8 in the Orange County Top 25, at No. 6 Newport Harbor (19-9), which finished second to Huntington Beach in the Sunset League. Newport Harbor’s projected starting pitcher is senior right-hander Gavin Guy, a UC Santa Barbara commit who is 7-0 with a 0.59 ERA and 57 strikeouts and only seven walks in 47⅔ innings. Trabuco Hills coach Brett Lavoie on Monday said he had not decided on the Mustangs’ starting pitcher, but he has some fine choices, including Josh Fitch (4-1, 1.82 ERA), Brady Meade (3-2, 3.95) and Skyler Sims (5-1, 1.58 ERA). …
In the middle game of Orange Lutheran’s three-game sweep of Mater Dei last week Lancers senior Cooper Sides pitched a three-hitter with seven strikeouts in a 3-0 win over Mater Dei. Eric Zdunek tripled, homered and drove in five runs in the 14-4 win over the Monarchs. …
Mater Dei lost its final eight games of the regular season and finished fourth in the Trinity League. Its overall record (13-15) fell short of the .500 overall record required for at-large berth consideration. No playoffs for Mater Dei. …
JSerra senior outfielder Blake Bowen was 5 for 10 with a home run in each of the Lions’ three game against Santa Margarita last week. Bowen (6-3, 215) is committed to Oregon State and projected to be an early-round selection in the MLB draft in July. …
Foothill won the 72-team Anaheim Tournament that started in February and ended in late April. Foothill and Great Oak each went 4-1 in the tournament. Foothill was crowned champion because the Knights gave up fewer runs, six, in their five games.
Read more Six Orange County divers to compete at CIF State championships on Thursday