Breakers frustrated in loss to Mustangs

The Laguna Beach High baseball wasn’t fundamentally sound Tuesday in its Orange Coast League game at Costa Mesa, and it was a performance that left Coach Dave Dopf frustrated.

And the Breakers came out of it with a loss.

Laguna jumped out to a 1-0 lead but couldn’t maintain it as the Mustangs went on to record a 5-2 victory.

It was the third win in as many games for Costa Mesa against Laguna this year.

“It was a very frustrating game,” Dopf said. “We had bases loaded in the third and fourth innings, and couldn’t score. He had runners at second and third with one-out in the fifth, and failed to score again.

“We were swinging at bad pitches and got caught looking at good pitches. We made errors on defense that led to some of their runs. We didn’t play good baseball, at all.”

Laguna, now 2-5 in league and 11-11 overall, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Dominick Robusto singled and later scored on a fielder’s choice by Dalton Sype.

Costa Mesa took the lead for good by scoring two unearned runs on a Laguna fielding error in the third inning, and scored again in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead.

The Breakers got a run back in the sixth when pinch runner Ryan Pigden scored on Alex Gillette’s single.

Rob Cortright had a lead-off single and Nick Bradvica also singled in the inning.

Robusto finished the game two for three with a run scored.

Laguna will attempt to end a three-game slide today when the Breakers host Costa Mesa at 3:15 p.m. in the fourth and final league meeting this year between the teams. Dopf will start senior Nathan Pickett (3-4) today.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, the Breakers will play a nonleague game at Laguna Hills. The game was previously was scheduled for last Friday but was rained out.

In an earlier game between the neighboring schools, Laguna Hills defeated host Laguna Beach, 6-2, on April 18.