HUNTINGTON BEACH — The Huntington Beach baseball team has been on a roller-coaster ride over the past five days.
This past Thursday, the Oilers made headlines with a huge upset of Mater Dei, which was ranked fifth in the nation by USA Today.
Tuesday afternoon, however, Huntington found itself on the other end of the scoreboard, as the Oilers were downed by Riverside Poly, 3-2, in a CIF-SS Division 1 playoff game at Huntington Beach High.
“I told my guys to look around at the atmosphere and what they’ve accomplished,” Huntington coach Benji Medure said. “Ten games ago we were done. The fact that we battled back, and had a big win in the playoffs, I couldn’t be more proud.”
Huntington Beach, which ends its season with a 15-14 overall mark, will return most of its major contributors next season, and as shortstop Jack Kuet said, he feels next year will be even better.
“We’ve really matured throughout this season,” he said. “Towards the end of the season we started playing together, and next year will be great.”
The Oilers ran into a few bad breaks throughout the game in potential run scoring situations.
Kuet led off the game for Huntington with a double to right field, followed by a single from Anton. After a fly out from Logan Poulesen, Poly (19-7) starter Tanner Roa got Jake Brodt to ground into an inning ending-double play.
In the sixth, trailing 2-1 with runners at first and second with one out, pinch runner Daniel Amaral got caught leaning off of second base, which was followed by a fly out from Marcus Mayorga.
“This is a team of character,” Medure said. “Sometimes you get breaks and sometimes you don’t, and that’s baseball.”
Riverside Poly opened the scoring in the third as Matthew Ybarra drove in Tristan Mercadel with a RBI single off of Huntington starter Andrew Arledge.
Huntington tied the score at a run apiece in the bottom half of the third as Clint Jack led off the inning with a single, and advanced to third on a single from Jarrett Anton.
Jack then scored on a Poly past ball — one of the few mistakes made by the Bears on the day.
Poly added a run in the fourth and seventh innings to take a 3-1 lead heading into the Oilers last chance at the plate.
The Oilers showed some fight in the bottom of the seventh as Dillon Millar led off the inning with a home run to deep left field, bringing the deficit down to just one run, but Poly closer Yousef Koutnik got Jack and Jessie Kuet both to fly out to end the game.
Millar finished 2 for 3 with a home run, one RBI and a run scored, while Anton went 2 for 3 with two singles.
