IRVINE – They’re for real. And if they’re not, the Laguna Beach baseball program is playing an Oscar-worthy game of charades because the Breakers certainly look and act the part.
Their red carpetesque season continued Wednesday with a bravura 7-0 victory at Northwood. The Breakers took down the defending Pacific Coast League champion in a well-rehearsed scene of clutch hitting and dominant pitching.
Pitcher Branson Wade gave up only one hit in six innings, and Lincoln Adams drove in four runs in a tidy victory that required only about 100 minutes on a cool, windy afternoon.
Wednesday’s performance was a masterclass as Laguna Beach improved to 18-2 overall, 9-0 in the PCL. It’s believed to be the best start in school history; they once got off to a 13-0 start, but went downhill after that.
These Breakers, who appeared in the Orange County Top 25 this week for the first time at No. 18, seem to have some legs under them.
The Laguna Beach coach thinks the Breakers are for real. The Northwood coach thinks they’re for real. And the pitcher who gave up one hit and struck out 11 in six innings thinks they’re for real.
The verdict is pretty clear.
“They’ve been real from the jump,” said first-year Northwood head coach Ben Owens, whose program won the PCL title last season but is 8-13-1 this season, 4-5 in league. “It’s who you played and who you beat, and if you look at a lot of their non-conference stuff, it’s not the top-tier schools that everybody thinks of. But I don’t put a lot of stock in that. If you’re good, you’re good, and an 18-2 record shows to me that you’re plenty good.
“Credit to them, I think they are 100 percent for real.”
The victory moves the Breakers another step closer to their first league title since 2018. There are five league games remaining, including a home game Friday against Northwood.
Laguna Beach’s two losses this season were 8-4 to No. 7 Villa Park, and three days later, a 2-0 setback to No. 5 Foothill. The loss to VP ended a 12-0 start, but that tournament performance was a good indicator that the Breakers were competitive.
Their victories include No. 24 Crean Lutheran, and a two-game sweep of No. 19 Woodbridge in league.
“We had a lot of guys coming back from last year,” Laguna Beach coach Ryan Belanto said, “and we had some success early, and I think they started to buy into what we’re trying to do. We pitch really well, and we’ve hit the ball extremely well – over a .300 batting average on the year. And we have five guys on the mound that we trust to do their thing.
“I think we believe in what we’re doing. We’re still Laguna Beach, so people are going to write us off, but we’re playing with confidence. They bought into the goal of winning a league title.”
Wade, a 6-foot-4 junior who is committed to Loyola Marymount, lowered his earned run average to 0.81. Remarkably, it’s not the best ERA on the team. Sybirski is 6-0 with a 0.56 ERA. Other pitchers include Jake Martinez (1.05, 26 2/3 innings pitched) and Thomas Gonzales (1.85, 11 1/3 IP).
Wade (8-1), who gave up a clean single No. 8 hitter Ethan Tsou in the third inning – in the second of three innings in which he struck out the side – didn’t walk anyone but did hit one batter.
“Today was one of my better starts,” Wade said. “I think we are still trying to prove ourselves. Laguna Beach hasn’t been that much of a big name in high school baseball, and we want to change that this year. We came out with a different attitude. We want to be a team that’s remembered, want to win a CIF championship. That’s the goal. We have a good squad this year, I’m happy with this team.
“We haven’t been good in recent years. We were 10-17 last season, we’d lose 1-0, 2-0, 3-1. But I love being on this team. It’s good to pitch when you know your hitters are getting more runs for you.”
Wade praised the offense this season which has been steady from top to bottom. “Last year, if one guy went into a slump, the whole team went into a slump,” he said.
The slumps are short this season. And the runs were plentiful on Wednesday. Otis Boultinghouse leff off with a single, Becker Sybirski was hit, and Adams doubled over the left fielder for a 2-0 lead. Adams later scored on the first of five Northwood errors. A walk to Thomas Gonzales in the No. 8 spot, and an error on a Boultinghouse grounder, set up Adams for a two-run single to right-center field.
Lucien Reed singled and scored on Gonzales’ double to make it 6-0 in the third inning. Boultinghouse scored another unearned run in the fifth.
Reed pitched the seventh and gave up a leadoff single to Colin Carlson, the last of Northwood’s two hits.
Then it was time for the high fives. But the award for best performance by a team is still several weeks away. The Breakers are hoping they’ll be in attendance. Right now, they certainly look like nominees.
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