Corona, Huntington Beach lose in tournament semifinals in North Carolina

Corona and Huntington Beach, the top two high school baseball teams in California, were beaten on Friday morning in the semifinals of the National High School Invitational in Cary, N.C., by two top teams from Florida.

Corona suffered its first defeat after 15 consecutive victories in a 5-0 loss to Venice. Ethin Bingaman gave up four runs in the the fifth inning. The Panthers were limited to five hits by sophomore pitchers Kasen Poplin and August Backman.

Huntington Beach was beaten by Jacksonville Trinity Christian 3-2 after giving up two runs in the bottom of the seventh on an error.

The Oilers took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh behind pitcher Tyler Bellerose. After two runners reached based with two outs, Ethan Porter was brought in. He walked the first batter to load the bases. A ground ball resulted in an error, allowing the tying and winning runs to cross home plate.

Trent Grindlinger and Porter had consecutive RBI doubles for Huntington Beach (14-2).

Both Southern California teams had to rise early because of the East Coast time change (the games began 10:30 a.m. EDT), which probably didn’t help.