With many juniors in its lineup this season, the Huntington Beach baseball team could be a year away from having a special team.
Why wait?
The Oilers advanced to the Boras Classic South semifinals Wednesday with a 6-1 win over Maranatha in the second round at Mater Dei High.
Huntington Beach (13-4 overall), ranked No. 4 in the Orange County Top 25, will play La Mirada or Mater Dei in the semifinals Thursday.
Maranatha, ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division 2, dropped to 10-4.
There were several juniors who made key contributions for the Oilers: designated hitter Trent Grindlinger, who had two hits, drove in a run and scored twice; center fielder Trevor Goldenetz, who went 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI; right-hander Tyler Bellerose, who pitched the first four innings, allowed a run on two hits with four strikeouts and four walks; and right-hander Jake Frohn, who shut out Maranatha over the final three innings.
Huntington Beach has won six in a row, including three Surf League wins that have the Oilers at 4-1 in league, after being shut out in back-to-back games.
What’s behind the improvement?
“I don’t know what happened, honestly,” Huntington Beach coach Benji Medure said. “We changed up practice just a little bit.”
Including an unusual brain exercise for the players …
“We made them lay out on the grass with their shoes off and made them visualize for a little bit,” Medure said. “I’m not saying that’s everything but it did make them settle on the mental side a little bit and understand just how good they are.
“When they struggle and they don’t see results then they start to get in their own heads. So we just tried to get them out of their heads and focus on the process and it started to work.”
Maranatha took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Josh Proctor hit a one-out single and advanced to third base when Thomas Lieb and Zach Strickland walked. Proctor scored on Eric Zdunek’s ground out.
The Oilers took the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the first. Goldenretz doubled into right-center field, took third on Linkin Garcia’s deep fly out to left field and scored on Grindlinger’s team-leading 10th double of the season. Grindlinger, who committed to Miississippi State, scored from second on Jayton Greer’s single to left field for a 2-1 lead.
Tony Martinez reached on an error to lead off the Huntington Beach half of the second inning. Travis Curry’s sacrifice bunt moved Martinez to second base and Martinez scored from there on John Petrie’s single to left to make it 3-1.
The Oilers sent nine batters to the plate in the third inning to score three runs to stretch the lead to 6-1. Grindlinger started it with a single, Greer was hit by a pitch, Martinez singled to load the bases and Petrie was hit a by a pitch to send home Grindlinger. Ethan Porter and Goldenretz hit back-to-back RBI singles.
Porter, like Garcia and Greer, is a junior.
Huntington Beach will go even younger in the semifinals Thursday. The Oilers’ starting pitcher will be freshman Jared Grindlinger.
“We have a little freshman going for a couple.” Medure said. “Then we’ll try to piece it together and try to finish this thing out.”
In the National Classic:
Gahr 4, Santa Margarita 3: The Eagles (11-5-1) lost in the quarterfinals when the Gladiators scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Ben Finnegan had two hits and drove in three runs for Santa Margarita.
The Eagles, ranked No. 1 in Orange County, defeated Damien 12-4 in the first round Tuesday.
In the Freeway League:
Fullerton 7, Sunny Hills 4: Christian Robinson drove in two runs for league-leading Fullerton (14-5-1, 3-0).
