The colors of the Marina Vikings athletic program and the Milwaukee Brewers both include navy blue and gold.
That’s likely just a coincidence. What is no coincidence is that there are plenty of baseball fans in Huntington Beach who will be rooting for the Brewers when the World Series begins on Friday night in Milwaukee.
These Brewers have two key players who were once Vikings.
Milwaukee closer Trevor Megill attended Marina for two years before leaving early in 2012 to go to Loyola Marymount. A year later, first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers graduated, and was selected by San Diego in the seventh round of the Major League Baseball Draft.
Now, these two former prep standouts have helped lead the Brewers to their second World Series, and first since 1982. Bauers, who totaled six runs batted in during the National League Championship Series and had a key two-run home run in Game 3, earned NLCS MVP honors after the Brewers swept the Dodgers.
Former Marina first baseman Jake Bauers, who now plays for the Milwaukee Brewers, helped the Vikings reach the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship game in 2013.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Marina baseball coach Andrew Bynum said other programs at the school are all of a sudden paying more attention to the World Series, just because Marina is involved.
“Hopefully, they get a ring,” Bynum said. “I’m a Dodger fan, but at the same time, we were at a Marina booster club meeting when Bauers hit the home run [in Game 3]. I actually videotaped it. I was like, ‘All right guys, this is the one time I’m going to say ‘Go Brewers’ because Marina is up to bat.’ Then sure enough, he hits the go-ahead [home run]. I’m like, ‘Yay,’ but also, ‘shoot.’ But it was cool.”
Megill, 32, has 81 saves in three years as the Brewers closer. The bullpen has been nasty in the postseason, with a 1.33 earned-run average.
Megill also stayed involved with the Huntington Beach community.
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Trevor Megill (29) celebrates after striking out Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers during the ninth inning of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Oct. 14.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
A couple of years ago, he came to the Marina baseball alumni game, Bynum said. He treated it as a bullpen session, with spring training coming up.
“He got competitive with the boys,” Bynum said with a laugh. “Some of the boys in the dugout were kind of chirping him, like, ‘Throw me harder! Throw me harder!’ He was like, ‘Oh really?’ He came set, and we didn’t have a [radar] gun on him, but I’ve seen 100 [miles per hour] multiple times in my life. I want to say he hit 100 that day, which was pretty funny.”
Bauers, who turned 31 earlier this month, was born in Newport Beach. As a senior at Marina in 2013, he led coach Robert Marshall’s Vikings to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship game, where they fell 1-0 to Harvard-Westlake at Dodger Stadium. When this year’s Vikings made a CIF quarterfinal run, they notched the first playoff wins for the program since that team.
Bauers hit .266 during the regular season this year for the Brewers, with a team-best 26 home runs and 86 RBIs. Hitting in the middle of the order, Bauers helped Milwaukee go 103-59, best in baseball and a franchise record for wins.
Jake Bauers of Marina gets a high-five from then-head coach Robert Marshall after hitting a home run against Agoura in 2013.
(File photo)
But he nearly walked away from the game after the 2024 season, when he hit just .199. His wife Lauren had their daughter in late 2023.
“I was beat up after a long season, Bauers told ABC News. “We had our daughter. We didn’t necessarily know what was next. I was a free agent, there wasn’t a lot of interest around the league. So, I just felt like it could have been time to move on.”
But then Lauren found out she was pregnant with their second child, a boy.
“I have a vivid memory of just making a decision that if I go back and if I continue playing, it’s going to be different,” Bauers said in the ABC News interview. “I’m going to do it different. And that was really to me where just making that decision and commitment to myself and to her and our kids, is where things kind of started to really turn around.”
Now, he and Megill are key cogs on a team that’s hoping to bring the franchise its first championship.
During the NLCS, television announcer Joe Davis used the term “Marina Brewers.” The Brewers have other Orange County connections too — Garrett Mitchell played at Orange Lutheran and Joey Ortiz prepped at Garden Grove Pacifica.
Marina’s Trevor Megill (29) delivers to the plate against Edison in 2010.
(File photo )
Like Megill and Bauers, Bynum is also a Huntington Beach baseball product, graduating from Ocean View in 2009. He is using that term, Marina Brewers, as well — and he hopes his current players are paying attention.
“I don’t think too many high schools in the area have two kids from the same program competing in the World Series,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s good ‘juju’ for us … If anything, it’s just more inspiration for the guys to understand and realize that [Bauers and Megill], in a sense, started at the same spot they are. Same fields, same area, and look where they are now.
“If that’s not motivation, then I don’t know what is.”