Whiteside Fuels Mission Victory

Harold Whiteside ran through a stop sign, but in doing so he put his Mission College baseball team in the driver’s seat Tuesday against Valley.

With the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, Whiteside hit a line drive into deep center, blithely blew through his third-base coach’s sign to hold at second and slid in (barely) with a triple.

“I wasn’t going to stop,” Whiteside said. “I saw the ball go to the wall and the center fielder turning and running for it.”

It was a gamble, potentially a double or nothing, but it put the winning run at third with none out. The next two batters were intentionally walked to load the bases, but then Tony Ljubetic unintentionally walked Roy Lozano on four pitches to force Whiteside in with the winning run in Mission’s 3-2 nonconference victory at Valley.

“That’s our only shot,” Valley Coach Chris Johnson said of his decision to load the bases. “You’re asking (Ljubetic) to do a tough thing there, but we’re in a tough spot.”

Indeed. Lozano has struck out only twice this season and leads Mission (13-16) in runs batted in.

The game was at Valley, both teams’ home field, and Valley (7-16-1) was considered the visitor.

Aaron Horstman had a chance to break the tie in the top of the ninth when Valley attempted a double steal with a runner at first and Horstman at third. Horstman beat the throw but tried to plow into catcher Whiteside rather than slide. Horstman popped over the plate and was tagged by Whiteside to end the inning. “If he slides, he’s pretty safe,” Johnson said. “We played as badly as we can play, and I’m embarrassed.”