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).
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