IRVINE – Woodbridge’s baseball team broke out of its offensive slump, blasting 16 hits in a 10-3 Pacific Coast League victory over Northwood on Friday afternoon at Ryan Lemmon Stadium.
The Warriors (6-4, 1-2) were held to one run in their first two league games but settled the issue early, scoring six runs in the first inning against the Timberwolves (5-5, 1-2).
“We never hit the panic button,” said Woodbridge coach Tim Murray. “We know we can hit, we know we can play the game. We just ran into two really good pitchers the first two games in league (Jacob Collins of University and Chazz Martinez of Corona del Mar).
“Today our offense led the way, and our pitcher (Scott Armstrong) did a great job of pounding the zone. Scott Armstrong can be really effective.”
Armstrong (2-2) pitched the first six innings, allowing two runs and six hits and striking out four.
Kyle Giberson came on in the seventh and allowed one run.
Woodbridge parlayed five hits and three errors into six runs in the first inning. There was also a fielder’s interference on the infield which allowed a run to score.
“I think everyone was frustrated; we just needed to let it out,” said Woodbridge outfielder Jackson Lyon, who opened the first with a single and came around to score. “We came out more aggressive and ready to hit the ball. It was really important for us to bounce back after two tough losses. We finally played our baseball today.”
Woodbridge scored another run in the third, one in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
Lyon had two hits, a walk, a double and an RBI, Spencer Weston had three doubles and scored a run, Will Rudy had three hits, scored two runs and drove in two runs, Caleb Anderson had four hits, an RBI and a run scored, Dylan Smith had two hits and a run scored and Towns King had a single, an RBI and a run scored.
Northwood scored in the fourth inning. Andrew Kim, Thomas Lee and Julian Tristan singled to load the bases. Chris Buting delivered a sacrifice fly and Jason Black drove in a run with a groundout for the two runs.
Jeffrey Pyne drove in Northwood’s other run in the seventh with a groundout, driving in Black, who had tripled.
But it was a rough day overall for Northwood, which had four errors.
“I don’t have an assessment,” said Northwood coach Rob Stuart. “We made some early mistakes. Look at the score. We’re not a very good baseball team right now.
“We have to find a group of kids who can at least be fundamentally sound and can compete when you need to compete, or they’re just that much better than us, and that could be the case.”
