NEWPORT BEACH >> The Servite baseball team scored all of its runs in the third inning of a CIF SS Division 1 first-round playoff game against Corona del Mar on Friday at Corona del Mar High School.
From that point on, the game was in the hands of Servite starter Mikiah Negrete.
The left-hander went the distance, scattered five hits and finished with a season-high 11 strikeouts in a 3-2 victory over the Sea Kings
“He’s our horse,” Servite coach Shawn Gilbert said. “He was dialed in. That’s a really good performance on his part.”
The Friars (18-10), who are ranked No. 7 in Orange County, will play Cypress in the second round Tuesday. Cypress had a first-round bye.
The Sea Kings, winners of the Sunset Wave League, finish at 18-11 overall.
Negrete didn’t appear to have his best stuff early.
Sea Kings No. 2 hitter Van Sidebotham hit a home run in the bottom of the first to put his team ahead 1-0.
Corona del Mar’s next two hitters flied out on balls hit to the warning track.
“In the first inning I was missing spots,” Negrete said. “I feel like I didn’t have my best stuff. I settled in by the third and the fourth. I got my heart rate down and my stuff just got better and better.”
In the top of the third inning, Servite loaded the bases on two walks and an error.
Trevor Schmidt hit a sacrifice fly for the Friars’ first run.
Negrete singled home the second run and Camden Clewett stroked an RBI double to give the Friars a 3-1 lead.
After allowing a leadoff single in the second, Negrete retired the next 12 batters in a row.
The Sea Kings’ Dillon Lane snapped Negrete’s streak of consecutive outs with a leadoff double in the sixth.
Negrete struck out the next two hitters, but then CdM’s Ethan Watson delivered a clutch double to score Lane and make it a one-run game with an inning to go.
There was never a doubt that Negrete wouldn’t take the mound in the seventh, and the 6-foot-1 senior showed why.
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Negrete gave up a one-out single to Dillon Gomez before retiring the next two hitters to end the game.
“I know there is no such thing as a good way to go out, but this is probably the sweetest way to go out, seeing a great battle,” Watson, a senior, said. “Everyone competed, both teams. Unfortunately, we just weren’t on the top.”