Baseball: Huntington Beach pounds No. 1 Mater Dei, 8-1

It's time to start paying attention to Huntington Beach as one of the top baseball teams in the Southland this season after the Oilers hit three home runs in an 8-1 victory over No. 1-ranked Santa Ana Mater Dei to improve to 3-0.

Adam Daymude hit a two-run home run in the first inning, Brett Urabe had a solo home run in the fifth and Jake Caron hit a three-run home run in the sixth. Shane Grace started on the mound and threw five shutout innings.

Huntington Beach has 12 returnees back from a 10-15-1 team. The Oilers also have beaten Bishop Amat this season.

Esperanza's Brad Anderson went four for four in his team's 8-3 victory over Irvine Beckman. Ayala defeated Laguna Hills, 2-0. Palm Desert defeated Capistrano Valley, 4-3. Brian Serven went three for three with three RBIs.

Blake Anderson was the winning pitcher in Tesoro's 6-1 win over JSerra.

Rio Ruiz had a double, single and picked up the save on the mound in Bishop Amat's 4-2 win over Gahr.

West Ranch rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat El Camino Real, 4-3, in eight innings at USC. JC Cloney pitched two scoreless innings of relief and Josh Heinz had two hits.

-- Eric Sondhiemer