ANAHEIM Being so late in the regular season and a potential playoff meeting looming in the coming weeks, neither Orange Lutheran nor Huntington Beach appeared all that interested in showing the other its actual hand.
Because of that gamesmanship, it took a few innings before the competitive juices really got flowing Saturday afternoon, and what felt like a nonleague game early, transformed into a playoff-like atmosphere late.
Alisen Endsley drilled a two-run double to left-center field in the fifth inning, breaking open a tie game and giving No. 1 Orange Lutheran the breathing room it needed in a 6-4 win over No. 6 Huntington Beach in the championship game of the Michelle Carew Classic at Canyon High.
The Lancers were out-hit by the Oilers (11-5), but a two-run double from tournament MVP Mackenzie Boesel in the second inning erased an early deficit, and Endsley’s gapper in the fifth put Orange Lutheran ahead, 5-3, before it tacked on an additional run later in the inning.
“It’s been really good team wins for us,” Lancers coach Steve Miklos said. “We’ve been pretty balanced. Different people are stepping up in different games. It’s a fun team.”
A day removed from an 11-run win over rival Mater Dei, the Lancers trotted freshman Mia Bagatourian out to the circle against a loaded Huntington Beach lineup. The Oilers (20-4) notched five hits in the first inning alone and drove in three runs to grab a 3-1 edge.
“I thought we came out really strong,” Oilers pitcher Ivy Davis said. “We really didn’t know how this game was going to go because it’s taken so long to play. But we came out with great energy.”
Lancers senior Amelia Van Orman came on in relief in the second and silenced the Oilers bats in three innings of work.
With the score still tied in the fifth, three consecutive walks loaded the bases for Endsley, who sat on and drilled an off-speed pitch for the go-ahead runs.
Junior ace Maddy Dwyer pitched the fifth, sixth and seventh innings for the Lancers (26-3), who have won 13 in a row. Dwyer worked herself out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, striking out a pair of her future Stanford teammates, Alyssa Horeczko and Kristina Inouye.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
