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Sports

Sea Hawks Season Ends With a Shutout

Redondo Union goes down in the Bay League finale, as Peninsula right-hander Sammy Moore allows only four hits; Sea Hawks senior Chris Jump has two of them.

The Peninsula High Panthers came into Thursday's game against Redondo Union desperately needing a win for a chance to make the postseason, and they got it as pitcher Sammy Moore was superb shutting down the Sea Hawks in a 7-0 win.

Redondo showed some life early against the Panthers' right-hander in the first inning, when Nick Ridio singled and stole second. But he was caught off the bag after teammate Chris Jump lined out, and the double play ended the inning. 

Then in the second, Dylan Hatch was hit in the helmet by a pitch. Jake Jimenez followed with a single to give the Sea Hawks two base runners with no outs.  But Moore settled in and struck out Alex Mistuloff, Kyle Esparza and Shawn Sokolsky in succession to shut down a great opportunity.

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Hatch, who started for Redondo, struggled in the second as he allowed hits to Peninsula's first two batters and then suffered from a lack of control, walking Mark Okuma to load the bases. He would also walk No. 9 hitter Cameron Leigh, forcing a run across the plate.  The problems continued when Hatch walked Luke Streeter and a second straight run in, forcing Coach Bradey Thurman to turn to the bullpen and right-hander Drew Kozain.

Kozain induced a ground ball out, but the third runner of the inning crossed the plate.  In an attempt to pick off the runner at first, Kozain then made an errant throw allowing runners to advance and the fourth Panther run to score. The Sea Hawks would not surrender any more runs in the inning, as Kozain, who would pitch six innings in relief, was able to contain the damage to 4-0.

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"In the past Drew has had some struggles confidence wise, but he has been motivated and worked really hard," Thurman said. "We gave him a big challenge today and he met that challenge. He will be big for us looking to next year."

Peninsula was not finished. Leigh hit a two-run home run over the left field fence and the Panthers would add a run in the fourth, bringing their lead to 7-0. That was more than enough for Moore, who allowed just four hits on the day while striking out 10 Sea Hawks' batters. 

"We couldn't get in sync today. [Moore] worked quickly and did a good job of changing locations and speeds on us," senior captain Joey Hoy said. "Like today, our record didn't really show our potential. We can be a good offensive team; today just was a struggle."

Senior Chris Jump collected two of the Sea Hawks four hits, with a single in the third and a double in the sixth. Along with Jump, the Sea Hawks will go into next season without Ridio, Esparza, Mistuloff, Hatch and Daniel Marquez, who will have graduated.

"The coaches have helped everyone and we improved in a lot of areas, particularly hitting," Marquez said. "It didn't end up being as good a season as we wanted, but we fought hard." Marquez hit under .200 last season and finished over .300 for this season.

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