SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : 5-A ROUNDUP : Stovall Outpitches Ward, Cypress Upsets Huntington Beach

As expected, the crowd and the half-dozen or so scouts at the Cypress-Huntington Beach playoff game Friday saw a masterful pitching performance.

But there was a twist to this first-round Southern Section 5-A meeting at Huntington Beach: The masterful pitching performance came from Micah Stovall of Cypress, not Huntington Beach’s highly touted Jon Ward.

Stovall pitched a one-hitter and struck out eight to lead Cypress to a 9-0 victory over the third-seeded Oilers, who finished the regular season as Orange County’s No. 1-ranked team.

Cypress (14-12-1), making its first playoff appearance in 13 years after a third-place finish in the Empire League, advances to Tuesday’s second round against Bishop Amat. The first-round jinx continues for Sunset League champion Huntington Beach (22-4), which has lost six consecutive playoff-openers.

“I woke up this morning and saw that big article on Ward in the paper and I knew I had a job to do,” Stovall said. “I wasn’t intimidated having to pitch against Ward because I play in scouting leagues and I’m used to all the radar guns and stuff, but I knew I’d have to pitch as well as I have all year if we were going to beat the No. 1 team in the county.”

For four innings, both Stovall (7-3) and Ward had no-hitters, but Cypress scored seven runs in the fifth to take control. The Centurions took advantage of three Huntington Beach errors.