Breakers bow out in quarterfinals

Perhaps it was just delaying the inevitable, but the Laguna Beach High baseball team refused to go down quietly Friday afternoon at its home field.

The Breakers batted around in the bottom of the seventh inning against visiting Etiwanda. Will Bonn, Dustin Angus and Kolton Freeman had consecutive two-out walks to load the bases, before Cutter Clawson and Grady Morgan had run-scoring singles. Connor Coscino’s grounder up the middle scored two more.

“We competed very well,” Breakers coach Jeff Sears said.

But the rally ended there, and so did the season.

Etiwanda blitzed Laguna Beach early and earned a 16-7 win in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoff quarterfinal game, ending the Breakers’ season.

Laguna Beach (22-9) gave up five runs in the first inning, allowing five hits, including a home run by Etiwanda senior catcher Chris Jimenez leading off the game.

The Breakers struck back for two in the bottom of the frame, on a two-run home run by Angus. Connor Coscino scored in the bottom of the second to bring the hosts within two runs, at 5-3.

But the Eagles (25-3), ranked No. 10 in California by Maxpreps.com and the fifth-ranked team in the final Division 2 poll, struck for five more runs in the top of the third. This time, the Breakers were unlucky.

Leading off the inning, Brad Massaro hit a shot back in the direction of Laguna starting pitcher Jack Loechner. The ball hit Loechner hard on his right (pitching) hand. He managed to flip it to first to record the out, but he had to leave the game. Sears was forced to put Clawson, a sophomore left-hander who started the game at first base, on the mound.

“[It was tough] not coming out of the pen, just having to go out to the mound and get ready,” Sears said. “He’s coming from first base, and we were just kind of stuck behind the eight ball in that situation. All of a sudden, now you’re playing puzzle pieces the rest of the game.”

Etiwanda loaded the bases against Clawson, with a walk, hit by pitch and another walk. Jimenez cleared them with another home run, a grand slam to center that gave Etiwanda a 10-3 advantage. Steven Rivas followed with a solo homer to center, before Laguna’s Blake Burzell came on to limit the damage.

It was a welcome big lead for the visitors, who won their first CIF game against Beckman on a walk-off home run by Rivas and then won another close game against Village Christian, 4-3, in the second round.

“It was big,” said Jimenez, who added a two-run single in the fourth inning and finished with seven RBIs. “We knew these guys were going to come out here and compete, and the only way we were going to be able to win is score runs. And that’s what we did … it felt nice to get a good lead and jump on these guys early.”

Etiwanda senior starting pitcher Vincent Mughannem improved to 10-0 this season, allowing three earned runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings of work.

“I talked to him after the first couple of innings and just told him to trust himself and trust his pitches, not get too overanxious, just settle down and throw more strikes,” Jimenez said. “Plus, it’s a lot easier for him to pitch with the lead.”

The Etiwanda No. 2 hitter, Rivas, also had a big day at the plate, going four for six with a pair of home runs and five RBIs.

After the second inning, the Breakers couldn’t score again until their rally in the bottom of the seventh. But Sears said he was proud of this group, which was making just the sixth CIF quarterfinal appearance in the program’s 79-year history.

Senior third baseman Dante Faicchio finished his four-year career with a program-record 50 doubles, and his 49 runs scored and 21 doubles this year are tops in Breakers single-season annals. Angus had seven triples this season, again a Laguna single-season record.

This season, the Breakers went 15-0 in the Orange Coast League to capture their fifth straight league title, and their playoff run included an upset of No. 4-seeded Newbury Park in the second round. Friday’s loss ended a 13-game winning streak.

“I told the team, ‘You guys are guys that put us on the map,’” Sears said. “You’ve got nine seniors that are going to walk out of here with a CIF ring [after winning Division 4 last year]. We made the Division 2 quarterfinals, beating some teams that were extremely highly ranked. Giving us that effort that they gave us, that’s something that we can build on, the tremendous foundation that they built.”

Etiwanda will play host to top-seeded St. John Bosco in a Division 2 semifinal game on Tuesday.

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CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs

Quarterfinal

Etiwanda 16, Laguna Beach 7

Etiwanda 505 202 2 – 16 17 1

Laguna 210 000 4 – 7 5 2

Mughannem, Amaya (6), Ponce (7) and Jimenez; Loechner, Clawson (3), Burzell (3), Sweet (5), Mackel (6), Stewart (7) and Booth. W — Mughannem, 10-0. L — Loechner, 8-3. 2B – Freeman (E). HR — Jimenez (E) 2, Rivas (E) 2, Angus (LB).

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