Baseball: Hunter hits game-winning homer, Mesa wins 5-4

COSTA MESA - Junior Daniel Hunter’s three-run homer in the bottom

of the seventh inning gave Costa Mesa High’s baseball team a stirring 5-4

win over visiting Brentwood Tuesday in pool play of the Costa Mesa

Tournament.

Hunter’s blast came with the Mustangs down, 4-2, with two men on and one

out. It was a line drive that cleared the 340 mark in left field by

inches.

“The ball was hit hard,” Costa Mesa Coach Kirk Bauermeister said. “The

only question was whether it was high enough.”

Not only was it just high enough, but the ball almost hit Hunter’s father

standing behind the fence.

Billy Halverson and Galel Fajardo drove in the two Mesa (1-1) runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Fajardo went 2 for 2 with a double, and

Halverson was 2 for 3. Brentwood (1-1) scored two in the top of the fifth

to take a 4-0 lead before the Mustangs launched a furious comeback that

was capped off by Hunter in dramatic fashion.

“You don’t see many seventh-inning home runs to win games,” Bauermeister

said. “He was definitely excited.”

Costa Mesa junior Carlos Franco pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh

innings to pick up the win.

COSTA MESA TOURNAMENT

Costa Mesa 5, Brentwood 4

Score by innings

Brentwood 011 020 0 - 4 8 2 Costa Mesa 000 011 3 - 5 8 3

Hernsberger and A. Ritter; Stevens, Haubrick (5), Cabico (6), Franco (7)

and Fajardo. W - Franco, 1-0; L - Hernsberger, 0-1. 2B - Cooper (B), Weg

(B), Shores (CM), Fajardo (CM), Cabico (CM). HR - Hunter (CM).