Pieces Have Tumbled Into Place For Mustangs

They started 0-3, were 2-4 and 3-7 and 4-11 and didn't even hit the .500 mark until the final week of the regular season and yet, the Mira Costa High Mustangs on Tuesday will play at Glendora in the CIF-Southern Section Division II semifinals.

There is no easy answer to how that happened, how it all came together. There were team meetings—''More than I care to admit,'' Coach Cassidy Olson said. And there was an important four-game road trip to San Diego for the 60th Lions Tournament, which produced more in the way of amity than it did victories. But it might have been during and after a player's meeting before the start of Bay League play where the Mustangs figured one thing out.

''I think eventually we just realized that we just needed to play for each other more than anyone else, not for anyone else's expectations or even our expectations for ourselves,'' catcher Jackson Morrow said. ''We just needed to play together as a team.

''You look back at the CIF championship teams and a lot of the time they're not the teams with the best talent. They're the teams that have overcome adversity and had to come together and start playing baseball how it's supposed to be played. As much as it seems like one guy can change a game, it's a team game and I think we kind if lost track of that.''

There isn't a team remaining in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs, in any division, that has as many losses as the Mustangs—the Tartans, El Toro and Yucaipa, the other semifinalists in Division II, have 14 losses combined. But there also might not be a team playing as well as the Mustangs have in winning a league title and on through the playoffs.

They have blown out opponents, beaten others in close games. The starting pitching has been outstanding, the defense solid. The offense has scored an average of seven runs in playoff victories over Santa Barbara San Marcos, Cypress and La Mirada, which is more than Glendora has scored, more than El Toro or Yucaipa have scored.

''The coaches would always bring us up in the clubhouse and they'd have their talks, like, 'What is going on with you guys?' '' Morrow said. ''And, finally, we just took it upon ourselves … me, Kyle (Demarco), Robert (Parucha) and Jake (Jelmini) and some of the other seniors just called everyone in there and we just said, 'You know, forget all of the stuff we've been thinking about, we need to play for each other now and if you can't swallow your pride and be selfless, then we're never going to turn this thing around.'

''Just got it out in the open, kind of called a few people out on, 'You've got to work hard,' and 'Stop being lazy.' And you can see it, I think baseball brings that out. If a guy is selfish, you're going to see it. But if you have 20 guys working to a common goal, I mean, you can't stop us now I don't think. I think we're set now.''

Notes:

Glendora has allowed only 57 runs in its 28 games and has a team ERA of 1.58. The Tartans' top three pitchers by innings worked are Jacob Cage (62 innings), Adam Plutko (60) and Jacob Smigelsky (47) and they have ERAs of 2.03, 1.28 and 0.89. … Jelmini, who has been eating meals through a straw since he had his jaw wired shut after it was broken in two places just before the playoffs in a practice accident, did get some cake on Saturday for his 18th birthday. He doesn't recommend throwing it in a blender and hitting the liquify button—the way he had it. ''Some things are just meant to be eaten in their normal form,'' he said. … The Tartans also are 13-0 on their home field and have allowed two runs or fewer in nine of those 13 games. They advanced to the Division II semifinals with victories over Palos Verdes Peninsula, North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake and Placentia Valencia. … The Mustangs have 14 losses, but five of them came to some pretty good teams. They lost twice to El Segundo, and once to Torrance, Torrey Pines and Rancho Bernardo. All four of those teams still are alive in their playoff brackets—El Segundo and Torrance in CIF-SS Division IV and Torrey Pines and Rancho Bernardo in CIF-SDS Division I.