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Costa can't come through in the clutch
by John Tawa
The Mira Costa Mustang baseball team didn't do the little things Tuesday afternoon and it cost them big time, as the Santa Barbara Dons ended Costa's CIF hopes, 8-2, in a second-round Div. II playoff game at Costa.
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Greg Kish was the lone offensive bright spot for Mira Costa in the Mustangs' 8-2 playoff loss to Santa Barbara Tuesday. Here, he watches as his drive to right center sails over the fence in the third inning. Photo by Ray Vidal. |
On offense, Mustang hitters failed to put the ball in play enough against Santa Barbara's soft tossing starter Jose Trujillo and fireballing reliever Matt Vasquez. Defensively, while the team didn't have any charged errors, mental letdowns seemed to hurt time and again as lack of proper positioning and miscommunication resulted in one seeing eye hit after another, accounting for six of the Dons' eight runs.
"I guess the little things look big now," said a disappointed Costa head coach Jim Beaumont after the game.
The first two innings set the tone for the entire game. Santa Barbara broke on top in the first inning against ace David Johnson. A walk and single put runners on the corners with two out. With a 1-1 count on DH Jon Combs, Sam Campa took off from first on a delayed steal. Costa catcher Brian Striff threw to second baseman Henry Pearson, but Pearson neither attempted to apply the tag on the base runner nor throw home to try and nail Gabe Mann. His steal of home gave the Dons a 1-0 lead.
"Our guy was late breaking to the bag and it just confused the whole play," Beaumont explained.
The Mustangs came back with a run of its own in the bottom of the frame to tie the score at one. Taylor Klosowski led off the inning with a solid single to right center and stole second. He scored one out later on a line drive laser by Greg Kish. But Trujillo escaped further damage when he caught power hitter Brady Koch looking at a knee-high fastball with two men on base.
Three runs crossed the plate for Santa Barbara in the second inning. Johnson loaded the bases against the bottom of the order on two walks and a hit. A one-out ground out brought home one and a ground single between third and short plated two more.
Costa had a chance to pull close in the second inning, putting two runners on with just one out. But a double play off the bat of Klosowski ended the threat.
Both pitchers settled down in the middle innings. Johnson was in complete control in innings three, four and five, while Trujillo baffled anxious Costa hitters with off speed stuff on the outer half of the plate. Trujillo made just one mistake, to Kish, and he rode it out to right center field in the third inning to cut the advantage to 4-2.
Costa squandered a great scoring opportunity in the bottom of the fifth inning. Mike Wilhite and Kish singled back to back to open the inning and were sacrificed to second and third by Johnson. After Striff was hit, loading the bases, Koch and Freddie Perez batted with the chance to do some damage against Vasquez, who came on in relief, but they both struck out.
The Dons added three runs in the sixth against Johnson and reliever Taylor Arnett to extend the lead to 7-2. Two-out bloop hits that should have been caught and ground balls that somehow found their way through the infield did the trick. Santa Barbara tacked on a single run in the seventh to make the final score 8-2.
"We thought we could score on them," Beaumont said, "but that didn't happen."
"But we had a lot of great moments," added Beaumont, reflecting on a season that saw Costa beat Redondo and El Segundo twice, upend national number one West Torrance and beat Mission Viejo and their Stanford-bound star pitcher John Hudgins. "We've got a bitter taste in our mouth right now, but overall it was a fun year." ER