After 2 Days of Play, Palos Verdes Beats South

It might have taken two days, but the Palos Verdes Sea Kings baseball team beat the South High Spartans, 10-6, Thursday at home.

The game, which saw players shoes muddied and their uniforms soaked Wednesday afternoon, was called after four and a half innings due to wet conditions.

The final two innings, played Thursday, saw neither team give up a run—a far cry from the offensive outpouring both teams had a day earlier.

Pouncing on Spartans starting pitcher Matt Bunch, the Sea Kings got out to an early 7-0 lead through three innings. The team had a two-run first inning, thanks in part to Chad Mensinger’s RBI single. Yet, they weren’t done.

Plating four runs in the second inning, the Sea Kings got some long ball action, when Mensinger hit a three-run home run over the fence in right center field. Michael Montpas then knocked in another run with an RBI double to right field.

“When you score 10 runs, what more can the team do offensively, not much,” said head coach Evan Fujinaga.

Tacking on another run in the third, David Basen hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Jeremy Barth.

The Sea Kings scored another three runs in the fourth inning off of a solo home run by Bobby Stahel and a two-RBI double by Sam Carmack, giving Palos Verdes a commanding 10-1 lead.

“It seemed liked South was just trying to throw strikes, so we just stayed patient and attacked the zone,” Barth said.

While the weather caused issues for both starting pitchers, Palos Verdes pitcher Matt Smith didn’t get much help in the fifth inning, when two errors by the Sea Kings first and second basemen plated two runs in an eventual five run inning for the Spartans.

“I really felt like we lost our intensity in the fifth inning,” Fujinaga said.

Smith became familiar with the Spartan hitters when the Sea Kings played them March 12 and won 5-0, but it became difficult for him to pitch consistently in the weather conditions.

Throughout the game, the right-hander scraped mud off of his shoes and wiped the wet ball on his jersey.

While Smith battled through four and two-thirds innings, giving up six runs, Fujinaga said Smith didn’t have his best stuff, but made pitches when he had to.

“I think my mind may have become carried away when it started to rain and gave me a mental excuse to not throw as well,” Smith said. “I think I was a lot more confident in the beginning innings then I was in the end.”

Wyatt Caldwell pitched the final third of an inning Wednesday and J.D. Scharffenberger threw two scoreless innings Thursday to secure the win.

Palos Verdes has now won six games in a row after losing its first two of the season, outscoring its opponents 48-21.

Yet, Fujinaga would still like to see more consistency from his team, especially when they begin Bay League play in less than a month.

“This game was sort of in a nutshell who we are thus far this season,” Fujinaga said. “We need to face adversity and deal with it and that is sort of the challenge we are faced with right now.

“We have shown to be a decent offensive ball club, but it is about putting the other fundamentals together and then we can be a very dangerous team.”