Baseball: Flory, Eagles turn tables

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA - In the final start of his high school baseball career,

Estancia High senior pitcher Paul Flory had his greatest moment and, with

one token left, hit the jackpot Monday in the Eagles’ 12-1 Pacific Coast

League victory over crosstown rival Costa Mesa.

Flory, who had never won a pitching decision in high school, improved

to 1-11 this season, while the host Eagles ended Costa Mesa’s hopes of

gaining the league’s third and final guaranteed playoff spot.

Estancia (4-17-1, 2-12 in the PCL), which pounded out 15 hits against

three Mesa pitchers, lost to Mesa, 16-0, March 28 and enjoyed every

moment of Monday’s big win.

Flory, a right-hander, tossed a four-hitter and gave up a run only

because of a bad-hop single in the second inning.

The Eagles scored five runs in the first inning, two in the second and

five more in the fourth to build a lead worthy of a five-inning

mercy-rule ending, but the PCL does not have a mercy rule. “We should

know if there’s a mercy rule,” quipped Estancia assistant coach Mike

Scheafer.

Flory, who played on the offensive line last autumn on the Eagles’

0-10 football team, went winless on the mound his sophomore year on the

junior varsity -- starting every other game -- and didn’t win a game last

year in five varsity decisions. “I didn’t pitch my freshman year,” said

Flory, who spots his pitches and changes speeds well.

Estancia Coach C.K. Green said last month after a loss to Corona del

Mar that Flory was “the best 0-8 pitcher” anywhere and certainly pitched

well enough to win on several occasions, but was usually snakebiten on a

young and inexperienced team.

But Monday was different.

“As soon as we started getting runs, I really started feeling good and

I was able to relax and just pitch,” said Flory, who added a two-run

double in the fourth, a soft liner over Costa Mesa first baseman Dan

Bitler’s head that squirted down the line with the bases loaded.

Green, who said this was his team’s biggest win of the season, felt a

bit of vindication from the last time these rivals faced each other, when

Green was upset because Costa Mesa’s Nick Cabico attempted to steal

second base with a 10-run lead.

“We were 10 runs up (Monday) and we stopped running,” Green said. “We

played it the way it should be played. When (my players) came into the

dugout that (fifth) inning, they wanted to keep running, because of last

time. You know, to get a little revenge. But I told them no.”

Costa Mesa (12-13, 6-7), hoping to beat Estancia at home Wednesday

night at TeWinkle Park at 7 p.m. and earn an at-large berth into the CIF

Southern Section Division IV Playoffs with a .500 record, had 3 of 4

runners trying to steal second base thrown out by Estancia catcher Justin

Lund.

“If felt good, because (Cabico) has a reputation as one of the fastest

guys in the league,” said Lund, who threw out leadoff hitter Cabico (who

walked) and Nathan Hunter in the first inning. He then gunned down Cabico

again in the fifth (with Mesa down 11 runs).

In the Estancia first, Jeremy Hauser, Casey Gates, J.B. Goff, Lund and

Jordan Hart had consecutive singles to open matters, including three

infield hits and a bad-hop single.

“They got a lot of infield hits and bloopers,” Costa Mesa Coach Kirk

Bauermeister said of the Eagles, who received an offensive boost from

Hart, who became eligible to play Monday and went 2 for 3 with three

RBIs, two runs scored and a walk.

Hart, a 6-foot-4 first baseman, delivered a two-run single in the

second as Estancia built a 7-1 lead.

In the fourth, Hauser walked, Gates singled to right, then an out

later, Lund crushed a pitch off the left-field fence for an RBI double.

Hart followed with a walk, then Flory scored Gates and Lund with his

double.

After the inning’s second out, Jermaine Snell singled home Hart, then

Flory came around to score from second base on a throwing error.

Right-hander Adam Jorgenson pitched the final two innings for the

Mustangs and shut Estancia down, yielding only two hits and no runs,

while striking out four.

Flory, who struck out three and walked four, tightly gripped the game

ball afterward.

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Estancia 12, Costa Mesa 1 Costa Mesa 010 000 0 - 1 4 1

Estancia 520 500 x - 12 15 2

Cooper, Vargas (1), Jorgenson (5) and Hunter; Flory and Lund. W -

Flory, 1-11. L - Cooper, 2-4. 2B - Flory (E), Lund (E).