Down One Big Bat, Mustangs Advance in Playoffs

Jake Jelmini is out in all likelihood for the remainder of the baseball season after his jaw was broken in two places when he got too close to a teammate swinging a bat in practice this week and was accidentally hit in the face.

But the Mira Costa High Mustangs produced compelling evidence Friday that they will be able to absorb the loss of one of their on- and off-field leaders and most productive hitters and still advance in the postseason, taking a 4-3 victory over visiting Santa Barbara San Marcos in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

Junior Bret Collins, who had been hitting in the No. 6 or No. 7 spots in the lineup, moved into the No. 3 spot to take the place of Jelmini, who is hitting a team-high .417. Junior Sean Isaac, who has been used primarily as a pinch-hitter, started as the designated hitter. Kris Cayton, who had been playing third base and used as a designated hitter, moved over to first base.

And all three made crucial plays in backing the solid pitching of Robert Parucha and Drew Van Orden, who were dominating at times against the Royals.

''The depth is just awesome, especially with Jake going down,'' coach Cassidy Olson said. ''If they said you lost your best hitter and you still won a playoff game, I think we'd be pretty happy with that. But Sean Isaac is just awesome. I mean, we were searching for a place to put him in, but we didn't want to mess with the karma and everything that was going on.

''We didn't and, of course, we don't want to lose Jake. But he gets a spot and almost hits a home run, that thing was a foot away from getting out of here, and his other at-bats were great too, so he came through. Same with Collins--he's been hitting sixth, seventh, and we asked him to step into Jake's three hole. We can't replace Jake--he's one of the best hitters around. We have to play as a team and try to win games for him.''

Collins helped produce the winning run in the fifth, drawing a one-out walk against San Marcos right-hander Shane Wieland. Ian Neal went in to pinch-run for Collins and stole second base, then scored one out later when Jackson Morrow singled to center.

Cayton, along with making some nice plays at first base scooping up low throws, gave Parucha a lead to work with in the second inning with an RBI single.

And Isaac doubled off the wall in left center field to drive in a run in the fourth inning, as Olson said, missing a home run by a foot or two.

''Jake is a big part of our lineup. I didn't want to try to replace him, because you can't replace Jake in our lineup. I just wanted to go out there and see what happens,'' Isaac said.

''I've known for two days [that I was going to start]. Mentally, it's been draining on me," he said. "I've been thinking about it all day. Not really a nervousness, but excitement, building up, pregame butterflies. It was crazy. You just have to be able to handle it and play the game.''

Isaac and the Mustangs did that well enough against the Royals, and will advance to the second round of the CIF playoffs where they will play No. 4-seed Cypress on Tuesday. The home team for that game is to be determined by coin flip.

Cypress, the Empire League champion, is averaging better than six runs per game. But Mira Costa has Parucha, Van Orden and Lucas Whitehill to throw at the Centurions.

Parucha nicked Wieland, the San Marcos leadoff hitter, with his first pitch of the game. But he opened with three no-hit innings before giving up a solo home run to Riley Moore with two outs in the fourth, then a solo home run to Nick Stathopoulos to open the fifth.

Van Orden came on to get the final five outs, crushing the Royals after giving up an intentional walk and RBI single to the first two batters that he faced.

He struck out three of those five batters, and the other two got out on ground balls.