Eagles off to a good start with DH victory in baseball
By Steve Ames
Special to The Acorn

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn MOUND ACE-Oak Park's Garrett Ozar delivers a pitch in the season opener vs. Malibu.

As the league baseball season begins this week, the Oak Park High Eagles (2-1) are ready and head coach Eric Pryor is looking forward to the possibilities.

After the Tri-Valley League opener game against Santa Clara High on Tuesday this week, Oak Park will host St. Bonaventure High in league play on Friday in a 3:30 p.m. game. Then the Eagles will be at Calabasas High of the Frontier League on Saturday at 2 p.m. and team will be at Fillmore High for a league game on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.

"I think we’ll challenge," the coach said this week. "We will challenge for the title. In the Tri-Valley League there’s not one clear cut favorite. We’ll be up there."

Meanwhile the Eagles must contend with the loss of one of their players for at least the early part of the season.

Junior shortstop Seth Binder dislocated his shoulder on the first play of the first game against Santa Paula on Saturday.

"He may be back (in) as early as two weeks, or as late as two months," Pryor said. "We’re hoping for somewhere in the middle. We don’t have much time to find out. As of now we will go from there and try a few others out at practice. I think the team will pull together and take care of it."

Regarding the players on the team, the coach said they are dealing with it.

"They are responding well. Obviously they are disappointed and disappointed for Seth. He loves the game and works real hard. The team will realize it has to pull together and I think they will do it. We had a pretty good practice today (Monday)."

Andrew Gocke and Cory O’Brien played shortstop during double-header wins, 6-5, 10-5, Saturday against the visiting Cardinals of the Frontier League.

Oak Park won the first game over Santa Paula as Blake Nelson went 3 for 4 including a homer and an RBI single and Matt Koller went 2 for 4 with an RBI. The Cardinals got off to a 2-0 first inning lead, but the Eagles got back into the game with three runs in the second inning. However, Santa Paula struck in the third inning for two more runs to go ahead 4-3. But Oak Park bounced back with a run in the third inning.

The Cardinals’ last score was a single run in the fifth. The Eagles tied it at 5-5 in the fifth and went ahead to stay in the sixth. Garrett Ozar (1-1) went the distance on the mound scattering 11 hits and was Oak Park’s winning pitcher.

The Eagles won the second game keyed by John Hurford’s 2 for 4 plate effort that included a double and a homer and Morgan "Mo" Williams’ three-run triple. Dustin Baxley went 2 for 2 and had two RBI. O’Brien started for Oak Park and was relieved at the beginning of the fifth inning by Peter Burns (1-0) who picked up the win.

Once again the Eagles gave the visitors a first inning run advantage. In this game the Cardinals scored four. Oak Park got on the scoreboard in the bottom of that inning on Hurford’s towering homer over the left field fence.

The Eagles scored two in the second inning including one on Ozar’s double and four in the fifth inning with Hurford’s double to left field the big hit that inning. Santa Paula spiked the plate one last time in the sixth, but Oak Park added its final three runs the bottom of the sixth.

"Everybody played a great game. All played their roles well," Pryor said. "We have a lot of seniors and seven players returning from last year. It’s an athletic team. We want to play well and we want to be consistent."

Commenting on Williams, who took two balls off the right field "green monster" wall and caught the other three balls to right during the fourth inning for outs, Pryor said he was impressed with how Williams has handled that field.

"The sun in right field gives a lot of people a challenge, (but) Morgan has embraced right field," the coach said.

Pryor, in his fifth year as head coach at Oak Park, where he graduated in 1992, said as he looked ahead to the 2002 league season that his philosophy is that the players should enjoy the game.

"I had a wonderful time playing baseball here. It’s a close game. We had a great tradition and a great time. In this game you build life-long friends."