Saturday, March 30, 2019

Hennessey slugs walk-off grand slam as Marina baseball stuns Corona del Mar

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HUNTINGTON BEACH – Leave to a pitcher to end a pitchers’ duel with a grand slam.

With Marina’s Cory Lewis and Corona del Mar’s Tommy Wilcox each throwing shutouts Friday, Marina put Wilcox in a corner in the seventh inning.

Pinch hitter Chase Hennessey stepped into the batter’s box with the bases loaded and no outs. Known for hitting deep fly balls in practice, Hennessey put a little extra on his hit.

The pitcher hit a grand slam to center field to give the Vikings a 4-0 Surf League victory over Corona del Mar at Marina High.

After pitching Wednesday in a 1-0 loss to the Sea Kings, Hennessey was waiting for a chance to get some sweet revenge.

“I’ve been waiting for that at-bat since Wednesday,” Hennessey said. “That one felt really good. That is probably my best hit of all time.”

For the first 4 1/3 innings, Marina couldn’t figure out Wilcox. He had a no-hitter going in the fifth inning until Troy Kent drove a triple to the wall in right field.

Marina (12-7, 3-2 in league) got another triple in the next inning, by Rocco Peppi, and a third one in the seventh inning, by Dylan Holt.

An intentional walk to Andrew Sojka followed Holt’s triple. The bases became loaded on an infield error on Kent’s bunt. That set up the heroic moment for Hennessey.

“He’s been showing signs in batting practice,” Marina coach Toby Hess said. “If we need a long ball, we’ll put Chase in. We didn’t necessarily need a home run, we just needed a sac fly. We knew he was confident with hitting the ball in the air. I didn’t expect anyone to hit a long ball off Wilcox.”

Wilcox, a Tennessee commit, pitched six innings for the Sea Kings (12-5-1, 2-3), allowed four hits, walked one and struck out seven.

“I’m just proud of the guys,” Corona del Mar coach Kevin McCaffrey said. “They competed their tails off and they have been doing it for two weeks. We can take a loss like that. We played hard, but we do need to capitalize on opportunities. We had chances for three innings. Tommy pitched his tail off. That was such a great outing and give credit to their guy (Lewis). He got out of some jams. He did a great job and that is a great clutch hitting team.”

Lewis, a UC Santa Barbara commit, pitched seven innings, gave up four hits and one walk, and he struck out six.

Marina will take on Pacifica on Saturday in the Ryan Lemmon Invitational at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine.

Kieran Sidebothom went 2 for 3 for the Sea Kings.

 


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