Breakers fall to Estancia

LAGUNA BEACH --- Hard-hit balls seemingly went right at Estancia High fielders throughout Friday’s Orange Coast League game.

But Laguna Beach baseball coach Jeff Sears wasn’t about to blame bad luck for the Breakers’ 4-1 loss at home.

“You make your breaks,” Sears said. “You set the tone with pitching and defense, and we didn’t set a very good tone early. You don’t set a turn early, it makes it tough. Their guy [senior pitcher Gavin Montague] did a good job; they didn’t boot the ball around. They pitched and played defense.”

Laguna Beach (14-11, 7-3 in league) can still win a share of its first league title in 46 years by winning both games from Costa Mesa (9-1 in league) next week. The teams play Tuesday at Laguna Beach and Friday at Costa Mesa. But the bats will need to be more alive than they were against Estancia.

It was the Eagles’ bats that were alive early, as they scored their first run on an error in the second then two more on an RBI double down the left-field line by Andres Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was the guy the Breakers had knocked around three days earlier in their 17-3 win. This time, they got on the board in the fifth on Jake Sganga’s RBI double off the center-field wall, scoring Keaton Jones and cutting the lead to 3-1. But runners were left on second and third in that inning.

Estancia scored an insurance run in the seventh and finished off playing the spoiler role. Steve Contursi got a leadoff single for the Breakers in their half of the seventh, but he was eventually picked off first on Jones’ hard line-out to third base to end the game.

Laguna Beach has clinched a CIF playoff spot for the first time since 2001. But with the Orange Coast League title still within reach, the Breakers want to come out focused next week in the huge series.Costa Mesa had not won a league title in 31 years, but Laguna Beach wants to end its streak this year, too.

A pair of wins over the Mustangs would also give Laguna Beach a school-record 16 wins in a single season.

“It has a lot of significance,” Sears said. “We have to win out to win the league title, but first we have to win Tuesday. We have to win Tuesday for Thursday to mean something.”