Mira Costa Wraps Up Bay League Title

The Mira Costa High Mustangs already had proven that they can bludgeon a baseball, scoring at least 10 runs in six of their first seven Bay League victories. But until this week, the tight game, the tense game, the tester, that was the type that had gotten away from them.

That all turned into clinching a league championship with a pair of victories this week over Palos Verdes, including a 7-1 victory Thursday in which the Mustangs struggled to produce much in the way of offense and trailed by a run going into the bottom of the sixth inning.

Couple that win with a 3-2 victory over the Sea Kings earlier in the week, and that turnaround and a trio of stellar starting pitchers in Robert Parucha, Drew Van Orden and Lucas Whitehill, put the Mustangs' playoff prospects on a definite upswing.

''We were playing those close games and we kind of struggled, but we've been playing some playoff-caliber teams and those games in the beginning that we lost have made us a better team right now,'' catcher Jackson Morrow said.

"At the beginning, we were playing for ourselves, honestly. We didn't really know what we were playing for but now, now we know that we're playing for each other. We can't be selfish here. Like any sport, you have to sacrifice for the guy next to you if you want to win.''

Mira Costa won the Bay League with a 9-1 record, with the Sea Kings two games back at 7-3. But just last week the Mustangs dropped a non-league game at St. Paul 2-1 and their only Bay League loss was at Peninsula, 3-2 in eight innings. Before that, they had lost games by 3-2, 3-0, 4-2 and 3-1.

On Thursday they found ways to win, all of it starting with Van Orden, who allowed only five hits and one unearned run and kept giving the Mustangs chances to figure out Sea Kings' sophomore left-hander Sam Carmack.

In the sixth, they finally did. With one out, Sean Isaac came off the bench to pinch-hit for Danny Rojas and lined a curveball into left field for a base hit.

That curveball had been giving the Mustangs fits, but Isaac had been watching and waiting. ''The first pitch I was waiting for a fastball and if he doesn't give it to me, then that's fine, because I know that curveball is coming … I can sit on that all day,'' he said.

Kyle Demarco followed the base hit by Isaac with a single to center, just over the head of Palos Verdes shortstop Matt Blankenship. Carmack, who had allowed only two hits through the first five innings, then walked Jake Jelmini to load the bases.

Palos Verdes coach Evan Fujunaga went to his bullpen, bringing in the right-handed Harrison Steckler to face the right-handed hitting Whitehill.

But Whitehill won that matchup, tying the score with a single to center. Morrow then walked, driving in the go-ahead run. And the Sea Kings' went back to the pen, summoning lefty Brendan Dornblaser to face the left-handed hitting Bret Collins.

Collins won too, lining a two-run double to left field to give the Mustangs a 4-1 lead, and by the time the Sea Kings could get out of the inning Mira Costa was up 7-1.

''It's games like these that really make us a good ball club,'' Jelmini said.

When the CIF playoff pairings are released Monday, Mira Costa is likely to receive a bye in the first round and play its first game at home Friday, with a chance to prove just how good and how much they have improved over the course of the Bay League season.

When league started, they had lost seven of nine games and were just 5-11.

''The theory was that learning from our mistakes and not controlling our emotions then was going to pay off in the end and hopefully that's what's happening,'' Coach Cassidy Olson said. ''The at-bats where we came through today, we weren't at the beginning of the year because guys tried to do too much. Now, they're playing as a team. They're realizing that they can rely on a guy like Sean Isaac to come off the bench, Ian Neal to make a great slide at the plate, Collins to come up with a big double even though he's hitting sixth for us. 

''That's kind of the difference right now and it's a great way to head into the playoffs. … It's not done. We've got a list of goals, this was goal No.1, and then goal No. 2 is to go deep into the playoffs … hopefully all the way. I'll say this, momentum-wise and pitching-wise, we're set up as good as anyone.''