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El Toro baseball makes it back-to-back shutouts against Beckman

April 2, 2026

LAKE FOREST – For the second time in two days, pitchers for Beckman and El Toro put on a show. And for the second day in a row, El Toro walked away with a shutout victory over the Patriots.

Left-hander Max Smith did the honors Wednesday in the Chargers’ 5-0 victory in the Sea View League.

Smith needed only 79 pitches, dispensing of Beckman on a seven-hitter – three of them in the seventh inning – with a walk and strikeout. He improved to 4-1 this season.

Smith’s performance came on the heels of Ethan Barro’s five-hit, one-walk performance Tuesday in a 1-0 victory at Beckman in which Gavin Broesamle hit a leadoff home run against Carter Head.

El Toro improved to 7-7-1 overall, 3-2 in the Sea View League; Beckman dropped to 6-5-1, 0-2.

Smith outdueled Beckman’s Kevin Patel, who probably deserved a better fate. Through four innings, Patel had allowed only two hits and faced only two over the minimum.

Then came a wild sequence in the fifth. He hit Dante Cipulli with one out, and then pinch-runner Isaac Lopez stole second base. It was thievery in the grandest style because Lopez appeared to be out easily on Moe McEvoy’s throw to shortstop Kai Carney.

When Lopez was called safe – a photographer at the game photographed him being tagged out by a wide margin – Beckman coach Kevin Lavalle made his way toward second base while heaving his water bottle over his head about 15 feet; the bottle landed on the back edge of the top of the visitor dugout.

Before Lavalle got more than a couple of steps over the third-base line, he was ejected by the home plate umpire.

The call at second base stood. Pinch-runner Garcia took third on Jason Lim’s single to left field and scored when No. 9 hitter Henry Maffetore bunted him home for a 1-0 lead.

“I thought, ‘That’s all I need,’” Smith said. “Big momentum shift. I was very surprised he was called safe.”

Said El Toro coach Mike Gonzalez, who is in his 26th season: “I don’t think the game ever comes down to one play. There are 21 outs, and you have opportunities from the first inning to the seventh. And things do happen for both teams. You just have to be resilient and not let it affect you. But it’s hard.”

The heart of the Beckman order went down 1-2-3 in the sixth inning – only the second time it happened – and then El Toro added four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Adrian Yepez, Cipulli, and Lim had RBIs, with Lim driving home two against reliever Vinnie Montes. Lim was the only Charger with two hits.

Doug Ireland took over the managing duties in place of Lavalle after the controversial call at second base.

“You have to expect that to happen and adjust,” Ireland said of the pivotal play in the fifth inning. “We have to put more pressure on them. If we put more pressure on them, maybe we’re getting those calls. That’s the way we have to look at it. When you’re struggling, that’s what you’re talking about. When you’re winning, it never comes up. … We just have to play better baseball, Beckman baseball.”

“The umpire explained that he thought the foot got in before the glove,” Ireland added. “I appreciate that they’re doing the best they can, but we didn’t do what we needed to do. We’ve got to score runs.”

For the second game in a row against El Toro pitching, that didn’t happen.

Orange County Register

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El Toro baseball makes it back-to-back shutouts against Beckman

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