Los Alamitos warms up, runs off with Loara title

Comments |

Recommend

Steve Fryer reports on the county's baseball scene.

The coach was not dazzled by what he saw the first two games.

But that third game got Los Alamitos coach Mark Clabough excited.

“We scored 11 runs against Cypress,” he said, “and from that point we played very well.”

The Griffins played well enough in the Loara Tournament to go 5-0, including a 7-0 victory over Vista Murrieta in the tournament championship game Saturday at Glover Stadium.

They opened the tournament with an 11-7 victory over Woodbridge on Feb. 29, and followed with a 3-0 triumph over Millikan of Long Beach before the 11-4 victory over Cypress in the quarterfinals. Los Alamitos beat Marina, 7-4, in the semifinals before winning the final against Vista Murrieta, which was ranked No. 2 in California coming into the season (Long Beach Wilson, which went 4-1 in the tournament, was the preseason No.1 in the state; Wilson lost to Katella in the second round).

Los Alamitos' Travis Garrett went 8 for 15 and was 1-0 on the mound with 13 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Griffins pitchers Beau Wright and Kyle Simon were 2-0 and 1-0, respectively, and the team ERA over the five tournament games was 1.57. The Griffins were 11 of 12 on stolen base attempts.

AROUND THE COUNTY

Orange Lutheran won the Frank Lerner bracket of the Newport Elks Tournament by beating Tesoro, 1-0, in 10 innings in the Lerner championship game Saturday at Hart Park in Orange. Irvine won the Costa Mesa bracket of the three-bracket tournament. JSerra won its Foothill bracket. The Titans beat Esperanza and Foothill in the Lerner bracket. … El Toro finished third in the Loara Tournament by beating Marina in the third-place game. El Toro also beat Katella in the tournament.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com