Baseball: Newbury Park wins Division 1 championship

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Riding the right arm of Luke Eubank, Newbury Park won its second Southern Section baseball championship on Friday night at Dodger Stadium, and the Panthers did it winning five consecutive playoffs games in one of the toughest divisions in the nation _ Division 1.

Eubank (11-0) threw a three-hitter in Newbury Park’s 2-1 win over Corona. He struck out eight and walked none. The game took 83 minutes.

Newbury Park scored two runs in the third inning on RBI doubles from Taylor Zander and Ricky Davis, then asked their senior ace to make the runs hold up. Zander had two doubles on the night.

And Eubank did just that in his usual quick fashion, throwing strike after strike. He retired the first nine batters of the game, gave up a run in the fourth, then closed out with a flourish.

Eubank, who threw three no-hitters this season and six shutouts, ended up winning three playoff games and saving two others. One of the unsung heroes all season for the Panthers was junior catcher Colton Waltner. He called all the pitches from the first game to the last.

Newbury Park improved to 21-7. Corona, the fifth-place team from the Big VIII League that won five consecutive playoff games to reach the final, dropped to 19-15.

Attendance was 8,761 for the three championship games on Friday night.

-- Eric Sondheimer