High School Sports Update

Laguna Routs Costa Mesa

Baseball (24-2, 15-0)

 

Breakers scored early and often to record a 26-1 win against Costa Mesa, the third most lopsided game in 80 seasons of Laguna baseball. The 98^th meeting between the two schools was Laguna’s 34^th consecutive league victory and the Breakers now lead the Mustangs 52-46 in the series. Grant Wilhelm set the school season record with his 11^th victory while Steven Harrison tied the school career record with his 20^th home run in the second inning after blasting No. 19 in the first.

The remarkable feat about this record is the significant rule change in bat composition that has resulted in a reduction in home runs in high school baseball compared to the pre 2012 era. For the season, the 2014 Breakers have shattered the regular season runs scored record with 272 runs in 26 games (10.5 runs per-game average). The 2011 squad scored 273 runs in 30 games that included three playoff contests.

 

Looking ahead: Breakers faced Nordhoff (Ojai) this past Thursday at Laguna in the first round of the D-IV playoffs. The Rangers (13-8) defeated El Segundo 2-1 on Tuesday, May 20, to advance to meet Laguna. If the Breakers win, they would most likely see Almont League Champion # 10 Alhambra (21-3) on Tuesday, May 27. The Moors are led by their pitcher Marco Briones (8-0. 0.23 ERA).

 

Statistical Leaders through May 15 (26 games)

Batting Average:                         .500         Grant Wilhelm, .495 Richie Nunis, .418 Dante Faicchio, .412 Preston Grand Pre

Hits:                                              47          Richie Nunis, 44 – Grant Wilhelm, 40 – Preston Grand Pre

Runs Scored:                              37          Preston Grand Pre

RBI’s :                                           41          Richie Nunis

Doubles :                                                         17          Grant Wilhelm (NEW SCHOOL RECORD)

Triples                                             2           Grant Wilhelm, Dante Faicchio

Home Runs:                                   6           Steven Harrison

Walks (BB)                                     24         Steven Harrison

Hit-by-Pitch                                   11         Steven Harrison

Slugging %                                   .772          Grant Wilhelm

On Base %                                   .569          Steven Harrison

Stolen Bases                                  33          Preston Grand Pre (NEW SCHOOL RECORD)

Pitching Wins:                            11          Grant Wilhelm (NEW SCHOOL RECORD)

Innings Pitched                             60          Gant Wilhelm

Strikeouts                                       65          Grant Wilhelm

Earned Run Ave:                         0.93          Grant Wilhelm,

Team ERA                                     1.73

Team Batting Average:               .394          (12 of 14 players hitting above .300)

 

Updated detailed individual baseball statistics are posted on the MaxPreps web-site:

http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/laguna-beach-breakers-(laguna-beach,ca)/baseball/home.htm

 

SSCIF D-4 FINAL POLL: 1 – Kaiser, 2 – Sonora, 3 – San Dimas, 4 – Torrance, 5 – Oaks Christian, 6 – South Torrance, 7 – Laguna Beach, 8 – California, 9 – Don Lugo, 10 – Alhambra

 

Boys Golf (5-11, 4-5 Third Place)

Laguna’s John Grayden tied for seventh with a 74 score in the CIF-SS Southern Individual Regions held on May 12 at Skylinks Golf Course in Long Beach. Graydon, a junior, advanced to the CIF Individual Finals that will be held on May 27 at Mission Lakes CC.

 

 

 

Girls Sand Volleyball (7-4, 5-1)

Briana Boyd and Sabrina Stillwell represented Laguna Beach in the IBVL pairs championships held on May 17 at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles. Boyd/Stillwell advanced out of pool play with wins over Valencia(Valencia) and Winward High School. They then defeated the Palos Verdes team of Bark/Brandt 21-18 in the first playoff round advancing to the quarter finals. In the quarters, Boyd/Stilwell went up against defending and repeating champions Skylar Caputo and Lan Nguyen of Mira Costa losing 21-15.

 

For more information see the IBVL website at: http://www.ibvl.org/.

 

Softball (6-19, 4-6)

Breakers closed out the season with a 6-0 loss to second place Godinez on May 13 at Thurston Field and completed the season with a 12-4 win at Costa Mesa on May 15 to finish fourth in the Orange Coast League.

 

Swimming (Boys 5-0 League, Girls 5-0 League)

Laguna swimmers had another strong showing in the D-III Southern Section CIF finals as the both teams equaled their best showing with a second place finish completing their D-III run (2009-14). Laguna girls have recorded four D-III second place finishes while the boys finished second twice. Breakers will return to D-II next season. The outstanding team from Crean Lutheran ran away with the girls title while JW North of Riverside won the boys.

 

Laguna boys earned a school record as CIF champions in two relays and two individual events:

200 Yd Medley Relay: (Erik Juliusson, Cameron Karkoska, Max Morgan, Cade Baldridge) 1:36.30

200 Yd IM – Erik Juliusson 1:50.52

100 Yd Back – Erik Juliusson 50.28

400 Yd Free Relay – Max Morgan, Cade Baldridge, Cameron Karkoska, Erik Juliusson 3:09.05

 

Complete results and scores can be found at:http://faculty.polytechnic.org/cifss/

 

Boys Tennis (12-8, 8-0)

Laguna’s 42^nd run in the playoffs ended with a 10-8 loss in the second round on May 16 at the local courts. Coaches did not provide details on the scores.

 

Track & Field

The CIF preliminaries for Division 4 were held at Carpinteria High School on Saturday, May 17, with Laguna qualifying the following athletes (place) for the finals at Cerritos College on Saturday, May 24:

 

Boys:

400M Run                Nathan Lancaster (5)

High Jump                Kailer Pike (2)

Girls:

800M Run                Brielle Budroe (2), Janie Crawford (4)

300M Hurdles        Coco Putnam (9)

3200 M Run            Brenna Merchant (4)

4 x 400 Relay          Janie Crawford, Coco Putnam, Natalie Kimball, Brielle Budroe (6)

Shot Put                    Jackie Cenan (9)

 

Boys Volleyball (23-5, 10-0)

Laguna Escapes Lakewood – Advanced to Semifinals

On Monday, May 19, the Breakers held off a talented Lakewood squad led by BYU-bound hitter Storm Fa’agata (34 kills) 25-18, 25-19, 20-25, 18-25, 15-9 to advance to the D-II semifinals against El Segundo this past Wednesday night at Dugger Gym. If Laguna won on Wednesday, the finals will be Saturday, May 24, at Cerritos College. Exact start time will be posted at www.cifss.org.

 

Against Lakewood, the first two set scores are not indicative of how tight the match really was. Down 17-15 in the first set, Breakers scored six straight points behind tough serving by Alec Wulff to take control. In Set 2, the match was tied at 19 before a tough kill by Jake Hexberg put the Breakers into the lead for good. JP Wollam’s hot serving closed out the set with five straight points. The Lancers never trailed the third set and their rotation shuffle in the fourth set really had the Breakers struggling as they gave up the first nine points before a bad Lakewood set into the net gave Laguna a point. Breakers came back to outscore Lakewood 18-14 after the initial deficit and took that momentum into set five.

In the final set, Breakers got the first point as a Jack Wyett kill from a JP Wollam bump set was too difficult to handle. This seemed to energize Laguna as Lakewood shifted into a more tentative stance. The breakthrough lead came with the Breakers leading 6-5 as Wyett dug a Lakewood hit that Wulff delivered to Hexburg for the two point advantage. Laguna was also assisted as the Lakewood’s rotation had Storm in the back row where he was less effective to stop the Lancer meltdown. Jack Burgi and Noah Blanton were unstoppable as Laguna pulled away even with Storm back on the front line. Match point was delivered when a Jake Hexburg serve was mishandled into the back wall as the Breaker bench stormed the court. Jack Wyett led Laguna for the match with 19 kills, Jack Burgi had 15, Noah Blanton had 14, Tyler Alter 11, and Jake Hexberg 10. Alec Wulff had three aces and 52 set assists. Cameron Defyffer had 10 assists, JP Wollam led the defense with 11 digs while Jake Hexberg, Jack Wyett and JP shared serve receive duties.

The victory was Laguna’s 92^nd victory all-time in Southern Section CIF playoff history and sent the program for their 20^th trip to semifinals, tying the Breakers with Mira Costa for a CIF best all-time playoff wins and semifinal appearances.

Section D-I and D-II finals will be web-cast by Fox at www.foxsportswest.com/prepzone

Laguna local Steve Obradovich will be the color analyst on the broadcast for those who can’t make it to Cerritos.

In the early playoff rounds, Breakers defeated El Modena 25-14, 25-18, 25-20 on Tuesday May 13 and La Sierra

25-11, 25-18, 25-15 on Thursday May 15 at Dugger Gym. Quarterfinals were to be held on Saturday but Lakewood accommodated the Breakers for a Monday date so the conflict with prom could be avoided.

STATE PLAYOFFS

Breakers did not find out if they qualified for the State Regional Playoffs until after the El Segundo match this past Wednesday. If they qualify, Breakers will probably host games on Tuesday May 27 and Thursday May 29, 7PM at Dugger Gym. Finals will be 3PM at Cerritos College on May 31. Laguna won this event in 2009, 2010 and in 2011.