POMONA – Baseball is a beautiful game, with cruelty sometimes just around the corner.
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Newport Harbor turned that cruel corner Tuesday.
The Sailors lost to Ganesha, 2-1, when the Giants scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning on a bases-loaded hit batsman in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 semifinals.
Newport Harbor had taken a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning. The Sailors were three outs away from advancing to the school’s first trip a CIF-SS baseball championship game.
Ganesha (23-9) will play Loyola (19-12-1) in the final Friday or Saturday. The game will be played at Cal State Fullerton or LoanMart Field, the home of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. The CIF-SS will announce the dates, times and locations for all of the finals Wednesday.
Newport Harbor finished the season 22-10.
The Sailors had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning. With one out, Cameron Hatfield sent a drive into the right-center field gap for a double. Hatfield went to third base on Oren Damush’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a wild pitch.
Sailors senior pitcher Gavin Guy held Ganesha to two hits through six innings. Both hits were by senior center fielder Logan Schmidt, an LSU commit who is projected to be an MLB early-round draft choice.
Schmidt, who bats and throws left, led off the bottom of the seventh with a sharp single to right field. Ford Stoen followed with a chopper that bounced off of the glove of Newport Harbor third baseman Henry Mann for an infield single.
Bryan Loo’s similar chopper to the right side skipped into right field for a single that loaded the bases for the Giants.
Ganesha’s next batter, Jeremiah Myers, singled to center field to drive in pinch-runner Dominic Cathirell to tie the game 1-1.
Giants pitcher AJ Moreno fouled off four pitches before, on a 2-2 count, he was hit by a pitch to send in the winning run.
Newport Harbor coach Josh Lee talked about how the Sailors’ coaches should have placed players in better position to make plays to get outs in the final inning.
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“This program is all about accountability,” Lee said. “We as coaches didn’t do a good enough job and our players didn’t do a good enough job and we lost.”
Ganesha coach Jared Sandler’s summary of Tuesday’s game, and baseball in general, echoed Lee’s. Sandler said, “Most games are not won. They’re lost.”
Newport Harbor had baserunners in all seven innings.
“If we handle our business,” Lee said, “we win that game by four or five runs and we don’t have to worry about it.”
In the top of the seventh inning, Newport Harbor had Grant Horsley, who singled, on second base and Hatfield, who walked, on first with one out. After a strikeout for the second out, Newport batter Noah Whitaker, with Horsley breaking for third base and Hatfield for second, was called out for batter’s interference on Ganesha catcher Dyson Grant’s throw to second base, a throw that sailed into center field.
Whitaker’s follow-through on a swing-and-a-miss had Whitaker leaning toward home plate enough for the umpire to make the interference call.
Lee questioned the home plate umpire about the interference call.
“The (catcher) threw a perfect strike to second base and nobody covered (second base),” Lee said. “I’m not sure how you throw a perfect strike if you’re obstructed significantly.”
Lee quickly followed with, “It doesn’t matter.”
“It’s our issue as coaches for not having prepared our players better for that last inning,” Lee said. “We’ve got to go out there and execute.”
Guy, a UC Santa Barbara commit, went into the game with an 8-0 record and 0.61 ERA. He finished with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Moreno pitched 6⅓ innings for Ganesha. He allowed six hits, one run, with three strikeouts and no walks.
Moreno was impressed by Guy.
“He pounded the zone,” Moreno said. “He’s a good pitcher. It was a good game between both of us.”
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It was a good ending, a beautiful ending, for only one of them.