Sunset League Champions; Oilers Power Their Way To Victory On Senior Day
Jared Grindlinger delivers his finest performance on the mound in his Huntington Beach career while Ely Mason provides the dagger with a game-winning home run
The Huntington Beach Oilers (19-6-1) find their way back to the win column against the Newport Harbor Sailors (19-8) by the final of 2-1, Wednesday afternoon from HBHS Stadium. This ends an overall three-game losing streak versus the Sailors and secures another Sunset League championship to stay at Huntington Beach for the 9th consecutive season.
For the second day in a row, a low scoring pitching duel broke out, this time between Jared Grindlinger and Keaton Anderson. Grindlinger, making his 11th start (a career-high in a single season) dominated from the jump, retiring the first six batters and 12 of the first 14. He also performed well at the plate early on with a single in the first and a walk in the third.
The Oilers offense still continued to struggle throughout the afternoon, failing to score in the first with runners on first and second with one out and a runner at third with two outs in the second. The scoreless streak would snap at 10 innings on one of the most wild and whacky plays of the season. With Parker Leoff on second and Grindlinger at first, Dane Cunningham flew out to Gavin Guy in center, but he dropped the ball and caused confusion. Umpires let the entire sequence play out as Newport Harbor thought they picked up an inning ending double play (began walking off the field) when tagging Grindlinger who was hung up between second and third. With no distinct signal, Leoff stormed home from third and eventually after a discussion, the run counted and the Oilers took an early 1-0 lead. This snaps a 10-inning scoreless streak dating back to the 7th inning last Friday versus Los Alamitos.
Looking like a man on a mission from that point, Grindlinger stayed poised and polished throughout the outing with the only blemish being in the fifth where he yielded two doubles to Brooks Francis and Oren Damush, which tallied the only run of the game for Newport Harbor.
In the next half inning, center fielder Ely Mason wasted no time connecting on his second home run of the year to right field (335 FT), giving the Oilers a nudge into the lead and proving to be the game-winning hit. When Grindlinger, the University of Tennessee commit, received the green light to go back to the hill in the sixth, he did not take the opportunity for granted. He sat down the final six Sailors batters in order, including a fly ball to left field which ended the game and closed out his first career complete game.
With this stellar victory, the Oilers improve to 15-2 in Sunset League play and officially can focus on the final two games of the regular season before the postseason. In terms of trends, today marked the 14th win when the Oilers score first and move their mark to 7-2 when recording a home run.
Oilers Scoring Plays:
Bot 3: Parker Leoff Scores on Fielder's Choice/Error (1-0 HB)
Bot 5: Ely Mason Home Run to RF (2-1 HB)
Stars of the Game:
Jared Grindlinger: 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 K (1st Career CG)
Ely Mason: 2-3, HR
Jared Grindlinger: 2-2, BB
The Oilers get back to the field on Friday (5/1) for the rubber match of this week's three-game series versus Newport Harbor. This will be the final Sunset League game for the 2026 season. You'll be able to listen to all the action on hbhsathletics.mixlr.com with the "Voice of the Oilers" Dominick Lorenz, with the pregame show at 3:00 PM, followed by first pitch at 3:15 PM (projected times).
LISTEN TO HUNTINGTON BEACH VS. NEWPORT HARBOR SAILORS HIGHLIGHTS HERE (CLICK IMAGE BELOW):
