Baseball: Cabico blanks Northwood

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - Amazing what a little pep talk from Kirk Bauermeister

can do.

The Costa Mesa High baseball coach used his words of wisdom to inspire

Mustangs’ starting pitcher Nick Cabico and the junior followed his

instructions to the letter.

Cabico pitched a complete-game gem en route to a 1-0 Pacific Coast

League win over visiting Northwood Friday night at TeWinkle Park.

“I told him before the game to go out and dominate this game,”

Bauermeister said. “Nick has been good all year, but he hasn’t had that

unbelievable performance yet. I told him not to treat these guys like the

1927 Yankees. ‘Respect the hitters, but trust your stuff.’ ”

Mission accomplished.

Cabico struck out nine and allowed only six hits to improve his record

to 3-1.

Cabico’s brilliant performance nearly went by the boards in a wacky

top of the seventh inning.

Northwood’s leadoff hitter Lee Watanabe hit a slow roller and appeared

to beat the throw to first, but was ruled out for lowering his shoulder

into Mesa’s first baseman Carlos Franco.

“You don’t see that call very often, but it was pretty obvious,”

Bauermeister said.

The call proved costly for the Timberwolves (3-9 in league). The next

batter, Mike Delong ripped a double to left field, but got a little

greedy and was thrown out at third on a nice relay from left fielder Mike

McGuire to shortstop Billy Halverson to third baseman Brent Stevens.

After those two “routine” outs, Andrew Morrison ripped a double down

the left-field line, but was stranded at second when the next batter

grounded out to end the inning.

“It got a little exciting, that’s for sure,” Bauermeister said. “But

we found a way to get the job done.”

Mesa’s lone run came in the second inning. Dan Hunter was hit by a

pitch and with two outs, attempted to steal second base. The theft was

successful and when shortstop Ryan Miller fell on top of Hunter

attempting to corral a low throw, the umpire awarded Hunter third base

for obstruction.

Brent Stevens then came through with a two-out single to center field,

scoring Hunter.

In a mirror image of Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to the Timberwolves, the

Mustangs (6-5-1 in league) managed to get nine hits, but stranded 10

runners on base.

“We’re not getting cheated at the plate,” Bauermeister said.

“Northwood managed to make some big plays to halt our rallies. Some luck

here and there and we’ve got four or five more runs tonight.”

Josh Feldman and Steven Shores each had two hits for the Mustangs, who

remain in third place in the PCL, one game behind second-place

University.

Costa Mesa will play at Laguna Beach on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. before

hosting the Artists at TeWinkle Park Friday night at 7.

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Costa Mesa 1, Northwood 0

Northwood 000 000 0 - 0 6 1

Costa Mesa 010 000 0 - 0 9 0 Kuykendal and Gragnano; Cabico and Hunter. W - Cabico, 3-1. L -

Kuykendal. 2B - Delong (N), Morrison (N), Shores (CM) 2.