Noticeably absent from Huntington Beach’s dugout Thursday afternoon was Oilers coach Jeff Forsberg.
“His son is getting married (Friday), so we went ahead and allowed him to miss a game for a pretty big event,” his assistant coach Tony Rico joked.
While he might not have been there to witness it in person, Forsberg will assuredly be ecstatic when he hears how his team performed in his absence.
Shortstop Kristina Inouye’s bases-clearing double in the fifth inning broke open a close game and catapulted the fifth-ranked Oilers to a 5-2 win over host Edison in the Sunset League.
Huntington Beach (16-3, 4-0) has won six straight contests and stands alone atop the league standings with wins over the Chargers and No. 4 Marina earlier in the week.
“I think we as coaches are most proud of the team because they came back after a week break, got some family time, then went into two visiting territories and came away with wins,” Rico added. “That’s a big statement. It feels good right now, but this is the kind of league where it can turn around very fast.”
Oilers pitcher Micaela Vierra pitched four innings of no-hit ball to open the game, and Huntington Beach took a 1-0 lead into the fifth inning.
Catcher Callie Saccacio reached base to open the fifth on a throwing error by Edison. Outfielders Sammie Vandiver and Alyssa Horeczko followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases for Inouye.
The senior shortstop capitalized on the bases-loaded opportunity, drilling a 3-1 fastball to the fence in left-center field, clearing the bases and extending the Oilers’ lead to 4-0.
“It was really reassuring because we haven’t done so well in the past (at Edison),” Vierra said. “So it’s really satisfying to see our improvements paying off.”
The Chargers (7-8, 2-2) scored runs in the fifth and seventh innings on RBI base hits from Makenna Doose, but never came within three runs of the Oilers.
Also in the Sunset League:
Los Alamitos 3, Newport Harbor 0: Katie Neary and Hailey Swanson combined to throw a three-hit shutout for the Griffins (13-10, 2-2), who won back-to-back league games this week after starting out 0-2 in league.
Sophomore Ella Brandenberger and senior Nicole Denehy each had three hits for Los Al, which travels to play Huntington Beach on Tuesday.
In the Empire League:
No. 3 Pacifica 2, Kennedy 0: Senior ace Kaylee Carlson struck out 13 and limited the Fighting Irish (6-12, 3-3) to two hits for the Mariners (17-4, 6-1).
Second baseman Brooke Marquez accounted for both of Pacifica’s runs, doubling in Nicole Wise in the sixth inning and later scoring on a run-scoring single by Irieanna Naea.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
