Prep baseball: Mustangs mishandle Bearcats

Barry Faulkner

LA VERNE - The Costa Mesa High baseball team revealed a chink in

its Teflon Friday as the normally resilient Mustangs found a CIF Southern

Section playoff foe they could not overcome: Themselves.

Mesa (17-10-1), which had stepped past pitfalls all season, committed

eight errors and allowed five unearned runs in a 5-4 Division IV

quarterfinal loss in eight innings at Bonita High.

The Mustangs executed flawlessly on offense to post single runs in the

first, third and fourth innings. They also rallied valiantly to tie it in

the seventh, temporarily postponing elimination. But, when they took the

field, the visitors turned the Bearcats (18-8-1) into benevolent

benefactors.

“We probably should have won, 4-0,” Mesa Coach Kirk Bauermeister said,

just moments after the winning run came home on, what else, a Mesa

throwing error.

“We didn’t do the most important thing in baseball, which is play

catch. That’s the thing that got us here, but we didn’t do it today. All

their runs were unearned, so we pretty much gave them everything they got

today.”

Bonita Coach Chris Romero acknowledged his team’s good fortune.

“In a single-game elimination like the playoffs, you’re going to have

to get some breaks,” said Romero, whose team won in the first round on an

eighth-inning error, 4-3. The Valle Vista League runners-up also cashed

in some clovers in a second-round upset of No. 3-seeded Monrovia, scoring

four times in one inning without hitting a ball out of the infield and

collecting four double plays in the 6-1 triumph.

“Costa Mesa is a great fundamental team, which moved its runners

around and got some timely hits,” Romero said. “We’re living a charmed

life.”

The day began with promise for the Pacific Coast League’s third-place

team, when Josh Feldman reached on a leadoff error, moved to second on a

sacrifice bunt by Nick Cabico and scored on a two-out single by Carlos

Franco. But that was the only Bonita error and lone unearned run of the

day for the Mustangs.

With senior left-hander Jeremiah Haubrick doing his job on the mound,

Mesa took a 2-0 lead in the second with a little diamond deja vu.

Feldman led off with a single, moved to second on Cabico’s sacrifice

and scored on Franco’s two-out single.

Bonito halved the deficit when Michael Jacobellis singled, moved to

third on a sacrifice and a groundout, then scored when a routine throw to

first was dropped on an apparent groundout. That was Mesa’s first error,

but it set a trend that will likely haunt the Mustangs all offseason.

Mesa padded its lead with four singles in the fourth, with a Cabico

collecting the RBI on an infield hit behind second base. But Bonita right

fielder Mike Moore averted further damage by throwing out a runner trying

to score from second on a bloop single near the line to end the inning.

The Bearcats posted single tallies in the fourth, fifth and sixth,

cashing in, respectively, a two-out throwing error, a pair of miscues on

the same aborted pickoff play, and a sacrifice fly that scored a runner

who was not erased at second because a routine throw to the bag for a

would-be force was dropped.

“We may have been a little too aggressive,” Bauermeister said.

“Sometimes our guys play with a little bit of a football mentality and we

have to work to calm them down. And, when your team makes a couple

errors, I think it’s human nature not to want to make another, which can

make you a little tentative.”

Showing the trademark mental toughness which helped it set a new

school single-season victory record, Mesa rallied in the seventh to force

extra innings.

Michael McGuire walked with one out, moved to third on a hit-and-run

Franco single, then scored the equalizer on Steven Shores’ RBI single.

Romero relieved senior starter Mike Medlock, who came in with eight

wins in nine decisions this spring, and Daniel Hunter was hit by Scott

Nestor’s second pitch to load the bases.

Nestor, however, worked out of the jam with a strikeout and a

groundout and Franco, who came on in relief to start the sixth, worked a

perfect seventh to extend the suspense.

Cabico and McGuire walked with two outs to put Mesa a clean single

away from the lead in the eighth. But Nestor, who did not have a pitching

decision but had earned two saves, induced a grounder to third to end the

threat.

Moore opened the winning rally by reaching on a booted ground ball,

then Nathan Surina’s hard-hit grounder went through a Mesa infielder’s

legs for the second error of the inning.

With Mesa executing a wheel play (sending the shortstop to cover

third, allowing both corner infielders to charge a sacrifice bunt

attempt), Patrick Donegan bunted down the first-base line, apparently

giving the Mustangs a chance to nail the lead runner at third. But the

throw was low and bounded away into the spacious foul territory, allowing

Moore to score and leaving some dejected Mustangs to shuffle off the

field for the final time in 2001.

“I’m proud of my team,” Bauermeister said. “We rallied to tie it in

the seventh, which shows the kind of character these guys showed all

year.”

Franco and Shores, both seniors, bowed out with three and two hits,

respectively, while junior shortstop Billy Halverson added two hits and a

run for Mesa.

Mesa, which bowed out in the quarterfinals for the second time in

three years, outhit the Bearcats, 11-6, and left 11 men on base.

Medlock and Nestor had two hits apiece for the winners.

CIF DIVISION IV PLAYOFFS

Quarterfinal

Bonita 5, Costa Mesa 4

Costa Mesa 101 100 10 - 4 11 8

Bonita 001 111 01 - 5 6 1

Haubrick, Franco (6) and Hunter; Medlock, Nestor (7) and Logan. W -

Nestor, 1-0. L - Franco, 5-3.