Prep Baseball Report

McLain Brothers Boost Beckman In Wild Win


Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

NEWPORT BEACH, CA—Before taking in the 2018 Boras Classic South final, I snuck over to Corona Del Mar HS, CA, to see the Sea Kings take on the Patriots of Beckman HS, CA. Beckman has a talented lineup with Matt McLain (UCLA) and his younger brothers—Sean, a 2019, and Nick, a 2021—plus 2020 3B Alec Gomez (San Diego State) and 2019 2B Connor McGuire. On Corona Del Mar are SS J.T. Schwartz, LHP Chazz Martinez (UC Santa Barbara), 2019 SS Reece Berger (San Diego State) and OF Preston Hartsell (Southern California).

Nobody scored for six innings and a wild sequence of events began with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Martinez was at the plate and hit a missile to dead center field. It’s only 350 feet to straightaway center so it seemed like it was a no-doubt home run, but 2019 OF Ricky Teel made an unbelievable catch, robbing him of a home run. Teel then led off the seventh with a walk, but was replaced with a pinch runner after being banged up from his catch. The oldest McLain then laid down a drag bunt for a single, setting up his brother Sean with runners on first and second and no outs. He dropped a double down the left-field line to put Beckman up 1-0. Gomez hit a comebacker to the pitcher that held the runners and Corona Del Mar intentionally walked C Collin Villegas to load the bases. With an 0-1 count, McGuire squared to bunt and Matt McLain broke for home, but the ball was fouled off. After a ball made it 1-2, McGuire squared again, got the bunt down and McLain easily score just a second later. Another run came home on a sacrifice fly and Beckman held on for 3-0 win.

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