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Sports

Whitehill Finds His Own Groove in Costa Victory

Senior right-hander stifles Temecula Valley, striking out 10.

The thing is, Temecula Valley is a young team. The Golden Bears had six sophomores in their starting lineup on Tuesday and have had trouble scoring runs all season.

And Mira Costa senior Lucas Whitehill—he has a live right arm, good movement on a fastball to the high 80s, and nice curveball to confound opposing batters.

Yet, in the first inning, Whitehill was on the mound with the bases loaded, one run already across the plate and only one out. Scott Arrasmith, one of the Mustangs' two pitching coaches, went out to the mound to meet with Whitehill and catcher Ian Neal for a subtle chat and a significant change.

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That right there helped thwart any further threat to Mira Costa in what became a 12-3 victory on Tuesday over the Golden Bears in the Classic Division of the Lions Tournament.

''When he went out there it was just, like, 'Oh, hey, how are you feeling, man?' And Lucas [said], 'I'm feeling fine.' So he said, 'Well, you want to call your own game?' And he was like, 'Yeah, that would be great.' That's it. From there on, he called his own game and pounded the zone,'' Neal said.

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Whitehill ended up getting out of that first-inning mess by inducing a tapper back to the mound by Temecula Valley left-fielder Dylan Rother, which the Mustangs' right-hander turned into a double play. He then went on a strikeout binge that got him through the third inning, fanning five of the next six batters that he faced as the Mustangs built a lead that at its peak reached 11-1.

''It made me a little more confident and let me know what I wanted to throw, too. It's a comfort level. I don't know, I've been doing it for a long time. It's probably one of my favorite things about baseball—me versus them,'' said Whitehill, who went on to strike out four of the final five batters that he faced and finished with 10 strikeouts in a complete game victory.

''I had to try to figure out what their likes and dislikes were," he said. "I had a hard time getting the curveball over and then once I started getting the curveball over, it's a lot easier working backwards. Once you have them off-balance, it's a lot easier. You can throw what you want.''

Neal often will get signals from the bench on what pitches to throw during a game, but he stuck his fingers down and Whitehill just went to work with that fastball and breaking pitch.

''Lucas is the kind of guy, he likes to take charge of his own situation,'' Neal said. ''We've been playing together for, I was going to say four years, but it's been something like eight years now because we played Little League and stuff together."

''I've developed a feel for how all of our guys throw, not just Lucas, and our other two catchers," he added. "By this time, we've gotten into a rhythm with our pitchers and know what they like to throw.''

After that first, Whitehill definitely found a rhythm.

''Some games we call it and they're comfortable and in other games, you know, (Monday) we called every pitch and then today, for whatever reason, sometimes they feel more comfortable if they're calling it and we're not against that,'' Coach Cassidy Olson said.

''We'll let them go after it, and if it's good for the team we'll do whatever helps. He did (thrive with it), but we don't want them to use it as a crutch, either—we don't want them to think, 'Oh, I only do well when I call my own games,'" Olson said. "The fact is, he's throwing the same pitches that we're calling, he's just throwing them with more confidence and we want him to have that confidence. We want their mentality to be, whatever sign I get I don't care, I'm going to throw the best pitch that I can every time.''

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