Corona baseball team defeats Norco, keeps Big VIII League title hopes alive

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CORONA - Corona senior center fielder Anthony Murphy was labeled a five-tool player the very moment he arrived on campus.

All of those tools were on display Monday afternoon in the opener of a three-game Big VIII League baseball series against Norco.

Murphy homered in the first inning, made a spectacular diving catch in the fourth inning and used his speed to score another run in the fifth inning. If that wasn’t enough, Murphy took the mound in seventh inning and recorded three outs to preserve a 6-4 win.

Corona (19-4 overall, 11-2 in league) extended its winning streak in the series to 12 games and cut Norco’s lead in the standings to only a half game. Norco (21-3, 11-1) hosts the second game Wednesday, and the series concludes back at Corona on Friday.

“We know we need all three to win the title, but we’re not feeling pressure about that,” Corona coach Andy Wise said. “As cliché as it sounds, it’s one pitch, one inning, one game at a time. We’re not asking them to do more in these game that any other game. We’re just pressing for good, quality at-bats. We’re trying to do a good job on the mound. And we’re trying to play good defense.”

Murphy struck the first blow, leading off the bottom of the first and hammering a fastball from Landon Hovermale over the fence.

“It’s a fun feeling being a leadoff hitter,” Murphy said. “I know if I can get something started, it’s just going to feed down the order.”

Norco leveled things in the second inning, as Jacob Melendez drew a leadoff walk and scored on a groundout by Jayden Serna.

Corona regained the lead with two outs in the third, as an error extended the inning and Adrian Ruiz walked with the base loaded. It could have been a much bigger inning for the Panthers, but Hovermale recorded his fourth strikeout to leave the bases loaded.

Murphy made sure the scored remained 2-1 when he made a diving catch to take away an RBI double from Serna in the fourth.

And it was Murphy who led off Corona’s fifth-inning outburst with a single. He raced around from second and scored on a single by Logan Pascarella. Ruiz then turned on a fastball and launched a three-run homer to left field to give the Panthers a 6-1 lead.

“It was my count (1-0), and I was just looking to putting the ball in play,” Ruiz said. “I got a fastball and I put a good swing on it.”

Christopher Woodson limited Norco’s offense to only one run and three hits through five innings, but he was lifted after allowing back-to-back singles to Codey Brown and Zion Martinez to open the sixth. Melendez singled off Corona reliver Jack Janewicz to bring home Brown, and the Cougars later trimmed that deficit to 6-3 when Martinez scored on a sacrifice fly by Marcus Blanton.

Murphy threw only a handful of warmup pitches in the bullpen, but he made his way to the mound for the start of the seventh.

Zach Fielder tripled to lead off the inning and later scored on a one-out single by Brown. But Murphy settled down and ended Norco’s comeback attempt with his second strikeout of the frame and a game-inning fly ball to left field.

“I’ve always love pitching. It’s been a blast being able to get back on the mound and shut teams down at the end,” Murphy said.

Norco finished the game with eight hits, but five of those came during the final two innings.

“We didn’t hit enough today. We let their pitcher (Woodson) off the hook too many times early,” Cougars coach Gary Parcell said. “We have two more cracks at them. We know it’s going to be a battle, but I don’t want them getting too worked up over this one.”

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This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 11:51 PM.