Mustangs Continue to Rack Up Runs

The Mira Costa High Mustangs continue to crush the baseball, on Wednesday taking apart Leuzinger and starter Amir Garrett in a 14-0 Bay League blowout.

Garrett, long and left-handed, has piqued the curiosity of some area scouts. But he had trouble locating his pitches early on and when he did get one over the plate, it was mashed. Lucas Whitehill hit the first of his two home runs in the second inning against Garrett and Jake Jelmini chased him in a seven-run third inning with a titanic two-run blast to center field.

''By my third at-bat, I kind of knew what his pitching rotation was,'' Jelmini said. ''I knew he was going to come with a first-pitch fastball because he was having control problems and stuff like that. I was just sitting on the fastball and he threw it right down the middle.

''I hit it and I felt it. It felt really good coming off the bat. I got all of it.''

Whitehill did as well. Twice. He sent a fastball over the wall in left field on a line in the second inning and hit his second home run on a hanging curveball in the fourth. In between the home runs the Mustang right fielder had a RBI double in that decisive third inning, and finished the day 3 for 3 with a walk, three RBIs and four runs scored.

''I just waited for my pitch,'' Whitehill said. ''The second one it was 3-1 and the first one it was 1-1. I had seen his fastball and his curveball and I was just sitting waiting for my pitch.''

Those were not the only shots the Olympians absorbed.

Jackson Morrow started that third inning with a wind-blown triple and scored on the double by Whitehill. Anthony Lombardo then reached on a walk and Bret Collins drove in a run with a double to left center. Lombardo later scored on a sacrifice fly by Dalton Barge and Kyle DeMarco drove in a run with a double ahead of Jelmini.

Chris Cayton also hit a homer for Mira Costa, a two-run shot in the fourth.

The victory pushed the Mustangs to 9-11 and 3-0 in the Bay League, in a tie for first place with Palos Verdes. During a five-game winning streak they have averaged nine runs per game and outscored their opponents by a 45-7 margin—this run coming after weathering a four-game losing streak in which they scored a total of nine runs.

''I think we've been hitting the ball a lot more in practice and I think it's really transferred onto the field,'' Jelmini said. ''We've been really focusing on line drives back through the middle and into the gaps and I think that's our main goal each game and I think it's really been paying off. From one to nine, we're hitting the ball hard, and it's made our defense better as well, knowing that we have runs, that we have insurance runs. It makes our defense better.''

It also has made pitching a tad easier, too. Given runs to work with early, Mustang starter Robert Parucha went right after the Olympians, who have scored the fewest runs this season of any team in the Bay League. Parucha went five innings, allowing only two base hits and a walk. He struck out seven and retired nine batters in a row at one point.

''At the beginning of the year we weren't hitting the ball too well,'' Parucha said. ''We were facing good pitching and we still are facing good pitching, but our hitters are just outstanding right now. They're really good. My job today was to just keep us in the ballgame and let the hitters swing the bat.''