HUNTINGTON BEACH – When coaches place their teams in far-away tournaments, they hope the experience will increase team camaraderie.
That happened to Huntington Beach.
The players got closer on a North Carolina trip and the team got better. On Friday the third-ranked Oilers continued a hot streak with an 8-0 win over Los Alamitos in a Sunset League game at Huntington Beach High.
The Oilers have won 10 of 11 games since playing in the National High School Invitational in North Carolina. They have won seven league games in a row since returning from the NHSI.
Athletes on such trips spend more social time together, instead of just interacting at games and practices.
“After the Carolina trip our team really came together,” said Oilers senior first baseman Cooper Moore who homered and drove in four runs Friday. “Now we’re playing as a family and having fun.”
Huntington Beach is in first place in the Sunset League with a 7-1 record. Fountain Valley is in second place at 6-3. Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley play each other on May 6 and 8.
After playing in the NHSI, the Oilers went 3-1 in the Boras Classic which ended with a 7-0 win over then-state ranked Alemany of Mission Hills. They beat Edison twice in league games last week and beat Los Alamitos twice in league games this week. Huntington Beach outscored its league opposition, 37-8, over the past two weeks.
Moore, who signed with Utah, hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning. He had a run-scoring single in the fifth and doubled in the first.
Junior outfielder Dominic Abbadessa, who committed to Long Beach State, hit a triple, scored twice and made the defensive play of the day, a running, leaping catch at the left-field fence. Junior third baseman Logan Pouelson, a UCLA commit, reached base on all four of his at-bats and scored twice.
Oilers senior right-hander Noah Davis pitched a four-hitter and improved to 7-1. He struck out five, walked two and let his fielders do their jobs.
“Los Alamitos is very aggressive,” said Davis, a UC Santa Barbara signee. “They’re looking to put the ball in play. So I went with the plan of using our defense, just throwing fastballs for strikes and using my offspeed stuff to upset their timing a little bit.”
Los Alamitos is 10-9 overall and 4-4 in league. The Griffins are in third place, one-half game ahead of Edison and Marina which are 4-5 each. The top three finishers in the six-team Sunset League receive guaranteed playoff berths.
Moore and his teammates know they are a hot team. But they aren’t thinking about a league championship or the playoffs, which begin May 19, just yet.
“Our motto is ‘one game at a time,’” Moore said. “Today was only about this game.”
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com