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Huntington Beach baseball extends win streak by beating Mater Dei in Boras Classic

April 13, 2023

SANTA ANA – There is a buzz around the Huntington Beach baseball team.

That buzz is the sound of an electric razor.

Huntington Beach has won 14 in a row since the players and coaches went to the buzz cut look.

The 14th win came Wednesday when the Oilers beat Mater Dei 6-2 in a second-round game of the Boras Classic South tournament at Mater Dei High.

The Oilers (16-6) will play Aquinas (14-2) in a semifinal Thursday at 6 p.m. at Mater Dei.

Aquinas beat Huntington Beach 4-2 in eight innings on Feb. 16 in the Prep Baseball Report California Preseason Invitational.

Orange Lutheran will play Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks in the other semifinal Thursday at 6 p.m. at JSerra. The tournament championship game is Friday at JSerra at 6 p.m.

Huntington Beach’s loss to Aquinas two months ago was part of a four-game losing streak and a 2-6 start for the Oilers.

When the team’s record dropped to 2-6 the shearing began.

“We started buzzing our heads right after that,” said senior left fielder Colby Turner, who had two hits, including an RBI triple, Wednesday. “We started playing really good. Great pitching, offense, everybody contributing.”

Oilers coach Benji Medure did the shearing.

“I gave about 20 haircuts,” Medure said. ”I didn’t tell them they had to. Actually it was Ralph’s idea.”

Ralph is Ralph Velazaquez, the Arizona State-signed senior who hit a seventh-inning solo home run Wednesday that had an exit velocity of 101 mph. It was his third home run of the season and gave him his team-leading 17th RBI.

And there was more juju than just the haircuts.

“We had a pow wow one time and wrote down everything that happened that was negative this year,” Medure said. “And we put it in a bucket and we burned it. And that bucket sits outside our clubhouse right now, and it’s a reminder that all of the negative stuff at the start of the season is over and it’s time to move on.”

Part of that 14-game winning streak were four wins in North Carolina that earned the Oilers the championship of the National High School Invitational.

Huntington Beach, ranked No. 1 in the Orange County Top 25, scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning on back-to-back singles by Bradley Grindlinger and Turner, an error, a bases-loaded walk by Brian Trujillo and a fielder’s choice.

Turner, who went into the game with a .381 batting average, drove in a run with his RBI triple into left-center field in the fifth inning. He scored on a wild pitch for a 4-1 lead.

No. 4-ranked Mater Dei (13-5-1) will play at home in a Boras Classic game Thursday at 3 p.m. against Etiwanda.

The Monarchs got their runs on a Huntington Beach error in the fourth inning and a solo homer by Brody Connors in the seventh.

Huntington Beach junior right-hander Nathan Aceves pitched the first four innings to get the win. Sophomore righty Tyler Bellerose struck out four over two innings and junior righty Colin McNiven handled the final inning.

Orange County Register

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Huntington Beach baseball extends win streak by beating Mater Dei in Boras Classic

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