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Sports

All-Stars' Patience At Plate Leads To Another Rout

Manhattan Beach Senior League All-Stars pound Oregon champion Cascade 13-4 at Western Regionals in Ontario and are 2-0 in pool play.

Before the Western Regionals started, Carlos Rojas, manager of the Manhattan Beach Senior League All-Stars, gave his team a detailed list of statistics highlighting everything they had done in reaching this point for the first time. Offense, pitching, defense—he had it all covered. And there were some pretty impressive numbers on those three sheets of paper, the Mustangs winners in all nine of their tournament games.

Then, in front of them all, he tore those stats into tiny pieces. ''I threw them in the trash can next to me and I said to them, 'That means nothing. We're starting new,' '' Rojas said. ''And then there was a fourth sheet of paper that had five things on it that we needed to do to win this tournament.''

One of those five things was to be selective at the plate, to work counts and prey on teams lacking pitching depth. And in a 13-4 victory on Wednesday over the Cascade Senior League All-Stars, the Oregon state champions, the Mustangs could not have been much better at it.

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It started with Ryan Erickson igniting a three-run rally in the first inning with a 10-pitch at-bat that started with him down in the count two strikes and ended with a sharp single to left field. It was perfected by Bret Collins, who went 4 for 4 with a walk while working his way deep into counts, and has yet to be retired in seven plate appearances in this tournament.

Even when it the opportunity really didn't present itself, the Mustangs made it work.

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Cascade burned through four pitchers, and happened to make a change in the sixth inning when Jackson Lipps was at the plate and already down in the count 1-2. He went from one pitcher to another—both right-handers, but with distinct deliveries and different arm slots.

Lipps still came through, drilling a triple to the wall in left center field for one of his three hits in the game and to drive in one of four Manhattan Beach runs in the inning.

''I was watching him really closely when he was warming up,'' Lipps said. ''I saw it, it was such a flat fastball and it was coming in just a little bit above a high strike, so I thought, just wait back and pull it and that's what I did.''

The four-run sixth gave Manhattan Beach a 10-3 lead and from there they cruised to their second victory in pool play at the Western Regionals, with games on Saturday against Washington and on Sunday against the tournament host District 23 champions.

With strict pitch limits and mandatory days of rest rules—if a pitcher throws 31 to 45 pitches he must sit out one calendar day, 46 to 60 pitches two calendar days, 61 to 75 pitches three calendar days, and 76 to the limit of 95 pitches four calendar days—the Mustangs can do some damage to opposing pitching staffs in this tournament.

But, that is one of their goals. Collins, who is 5 for 5 with five RBI in this tournament and also walked once and been hit by a pitch, took full advantage of the pitches that he saw. The Mustangs' left fielder was a very aggressive hitter last season when he hit .398 for the varsity at Mira Costa High—he walked only three times in 99 plate appearances. But in becoming more selective, he has become a crazy tough out for opposing pitchers.

''I'm trying to take advantage of that pitch-count situation, so I'm trying to take a lot of pitches,'' he said. ''Coach Dean [Jelmini] wants me to see a lot of pitches for next year, because I'm probably going to be the No. 3 hitter for next year. He wants me to see a lot of pitches, a lot of curves. That's probably all I'm going to get. I'm just trying to be patient.''

Against Cascade, all of the Mustangs were that selective. They drew six walks. Austin Henning had two of those walks, as well as an RBI double in that four-run sixth. Ian McLoughlin had two hits. Jackson Casady came off the bench and started that sixth-inning rally with a single. They racked up 11 or more runs for the fourth game in a row, counting victories over San Diego North Park in winning the Southern California state championship.

In the past four tournament games, Manhattan Beach has scored 59 runs.

Keep doing that, and the Mustangs can take care of another thing on the list Rojas gave them before the Western Regionals, which includes winning or pushing in every inning and making sure their own pitchers keep their pitch counts down.

And, what exactly would that be? ''Have fun,'' Rojas said.

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