“I hope every inning is like that for us,” said Carpenter, a sophomore first baseman who hammered a three-run home run over the fence in left field in the first inning. “We’ve come together so much more as a team. This year everyone talks to each other and hangs out outside of baseball too. We feel like much more of a family. We feel like we are pushing each other more now.”
Murphy, who was a pitching coach at Los Alamitos the past two seasons, has been the source of the Sailors’ rise. He was part of the Griffins’ Sunset League title in his first year with that program. He’s also no stranger to reclamation projects. When he was the head coach at Valley Christian of Cerritos in 2007, he led that program to a 20-10 campaign, 13 more wins than the season before.
When he was at Magnolia in 2002, he inherited a two-win team and had that squad finish with 15 victories.
Now at Newport Harbor, where the community is abuzz about the coach and the school’s gorgeous diamond improvements, Murphy is already halfway toward surpassing last year’s win total, as the Sailors went 9-16 last season.
“I’m really excited,” Murphy said about his team’s undefeated start. “I think our guys are buying into our system. They’re getting excited and their confidence is growing. I couldn’t be happier.”
Murphy went right to work after being hired in late July. He said he has used simple concepts. He wants the players to concentrate on executing the fundamentals. He wants them to compete as a team, with each player fulfilling their role.
