Prep baseball: Oak Grove's title defense off to good start

Admittedly, the optics were somewhat unexpected for the Oak Grove Classical Academy Owls.

It had, after all, only been six days since Oak Grove pounded Laguna-Acoma in a district doubleheader, winning the two games by a combined 30 runs, and the Owls understandably might have been thrown off their axis, at least a little, after the Hawks turned a first-inning home run Wednesday into an early three-run lead.

“I think our boys really showed some maturity there,” Oak Grove coach Jay Rush said. “The whole year, we’ve been talking about playing steady, and playing even keeled with less emotion, or steady emotion. They had something they had to overcome.”

The Owls patiently waited for their chance. Their four spot in the third inning put them in front, and No. 7 seed Oak Grove pulled away for an 8-3 victory over No. 10 Laguna-Acoma in the first round of this year’s 2A baseball playoffs at Eastdale Little League.

The Owls (10-10), who were in a co-op with Menaul last year but went on their own this spring, advanced to the 2A semifinals on May 15 against second-seeded Santa Rosa.

But Laguna-Acoma (12-12) seemed intent on flipping the script after 15-2 and 18-1 losses to Oak Grove last Thursday. Curtis Paytiamo’s three-run homer to left staked Laguna-Acoma to the early 3-0 lead.

“I wasn’t concerned about it,” coach Rush said. “It’s a long game.”

Oak Grove senior starter Isaac Rush, one of the team’s top two starters last season, was stingy after making a couple of mistakes early. The 6-foot-4 righty finished with a complete-game five hitter, striking out nine.

“I felt support behind me and I felt like I could get up there and get ground balls and pop flies,” he said.

The Owls’ offense finally awakened with four runs in the third, with the go-ahead run scoring on a ground ball.

The bats started to really heat up in the fourth, led by seniors who were around last May to help the Owls win state. Rush had an RBI double, followed by another RBI double from Grayson Grebe, and Brody Prochnow scored Grebe with a single for a suddenly comfortable 7-3 lead.

Isaac Rush said the Owls are in a good mindset as they get ready for Week 2.

“We’re feeling really confident, all we can do is come out and give it everything we’ve got. We’re feeling ready.”

But coach Rush knows they’ll be underdogs, perhaps for as long as they stay alive in the tournament.

“That’s where we want to be,” coach Rush said. “We want to be under the radar.”

The four higher seeds each won Wednesday in the first round, including No. 5 Loving, No. 6 Rehoboth Christian and No. 8 Raton, which scored two in the bottom of the seventh to walkoff McCurdy 11-10.

No. 3 Logan and No. 5 Grady on Wednesday won first-round games to open the Class 1A postseason. Those two move into the 1A semifinals on May 15.