A look at Orange County baseball …
• Trabuco Hills is 12-2 overall and 2-0 in the South Coast League, but Mustangs coach Michael Burns thinks the team still has yet to find its groove. “We’re still a little bit of a work in progress,” Burns said. “We haven’t swung the bats like I think we can.”
• So it’s been pitching and fielding that have paved the road. Trabuco has four reliable pitchers – seniors Cameron Aufderheide, Matt Majors and Eric Neeley and junior Matt Torretto. The Mustangs have two challenging South Coast League games this week, home against Capistrano Valley on Wednesday and at Mission Viejo on Friday.
• Other top games of the week (all afternoon games unless noted): Tuesday, San Clemente at Dana Hills; Wednesday, Esperanza at Foothill, Capistrano Valley at Trabuco Hills, JSerra at Mater Dei (6 p.m.); Thursday, Newport Harbor at Huntington Beach; Friday, San Clemente at Aliso Niguel (11 a.m.), Tesoro at Capistrano Valley, Trabuco Hills at Mission Viejo.
• Servite’s Nigel Ward pitched a no-hitter last week against Laguna Hills in an 8-0 Friars win in the Anaheim Lions Tournament.
• Pacifica’s Tyler Franzman recently completed a stretch of 10 hits over 10 at-bats. He also was the winning pitcher when the Mariners beat Tesoro last week in the Anaheim Lions Tournament. Another player leading Pacifica’s recent surge of seven wins in eight games is Chris Gilbody who pitches, catches and plays all four infield positions.
• Huntington Beach pitcher Noah Davis took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against Los Alamitos. Davis is 5-0 with a 1.12 ERA.
• Mater Dei catcher DC Clawson had seven RBI during the Boras Classic.
• Temecula Valley beat Vista Murrieta, 4-1, Saturday at Mater Dei in the championship game of the Boras Classic’s Southern California bracket. Temecula Valley, No. 9 in CalHiSports.com’s state top 20, will play the Northern California bracket winner in the Boras Classic championship game May 3 at University of Pacific.
• Former Irvine and Woodbridge head coach Bob Flint is pitching coach at Northwood. He spent the past few seasons as pitching coach at El Toro.
• Corona, which beat Tustin in the championship game of the Anaheim Lions Tournament last week, is coached by Andy Wise who was the first baseball coach at Segerstrom.
• San Clemente’s 10-game winning streak is the longest in county baseball this season.
• Huntington Beach has won eight in a row since back-to-back losses to Trabuco Hills and JSerra in the Newport Elks Tournament.
• San Joaquin League-leader Capistrano Valley Christian (10-6 overall, 4-0 league) has beaten large, public-school teams Corona del Mar, Los Altos of Hacienda Heights, Pacifica and University.
• Huntington Beach replaced Harvard-Westlake of Studio City as the No. 1 team in the CIF-Southern Section’s Division 1 poll. Crean Lutheran and Capistrano Valley Christian are 1-2 in the Division 6 poll.
• County statistical leaders (based on stats submitted by coaches): RBI, Kimo Hinton of Rancho Alamitos, 25; Home runs, Taylor Fajardo of Capistrano Valley Christian, 5; Strikeouts, Robert Hill of Saddleback Valley Christian, 48.
• The Ryan Lemmon Invitational begins Saturday. It is a 16-team tournament, featuring most of the Irvine schools and also including El Modena, Pacifica, Trabuco Hills and Valencia.
• The National Classic begins Monday. It has one team in it that is in Baseball America’s national rankings, Greenway of Phoenix. County teams in the 16-team tournament are Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Santa Margarita and host schools El Dorado and Esperanza.
