Mesa draws first blood

Bryce Alderton

Chalk one up for Costa Mesa High’s baseball team toward this year’s

Paul Troxel Trophy.

The Mustangs (3-2) scattered 11 hits all over TeWinkle Park

Thursday night as the designated home team upended its crosstown

rival Estancia, 11-1, in a nonleague game.

The Troxel trophy is awarded to the winner of the three-game

season series. Mesa has also defeated Estancia (1-5) in a tournament

game earlier this season.

Mustang starter George Vargas went the distance, allowing only

five hits while striking out five.

But it was the play of Mesa’s defense that made up for Vargas’ six

walks.

“We had runners on early, but couldn’t get the big hit,” said

first-year Estancia Coach Jon Green. “We had (Vargas) on the ropes,

but we couldn’t get that knockout punch. I tip my cap to (Vargas).”

Vargas walked five in the first inning, but settled down after

that, said first-year Mesa coach Doug Deats, who coached at Estancia

for a little more than two years before resigning three games into

last season.

A microcosm of the Estancia-Mesa rivalry occurred in the bottom of

the sixth, when a Mesa runner attempted to score from second on a

passed ball that had rolled to the backstop. Eagles’ freshman starter

Mike McDaniels ran to retrieve the ball and tossed it to catcher

Cullen Crom, who applied the tag to the sliding runner. The Mesa

player threw his helmet to the ground and stood up hastily.

Words appeared to be exchanged between the runner and Crom,

causing members from both teams to scatter onto the field. Deats and

Green each kept their teams under control. Deats then ejected his

player from the game.

“We don’t need any problems,” he said. “We want to play good,

hard-nosed baseball without doing any stupid things.”

Green took the incident in stride as a gritty play in a heated

rivalry.

“That’s hard baseball,” Green said. “In a rivalry, there is going

to be some emotion.”

Green said he went with McDaniels the entire game because he had a

low pitch count early and “Mesa wasn’t hitting him hard.”

But the Mustangs’ ability to hit the ball where the Eagles weren’t

provided the difference Thursday. There were no extra-base hits in

the game.

Mesa scored five runs in the first two innings, and added four in

the sixth.

Senior catcher Nate Hunter went 4 for 4 at the plate with four

RBIs while younger brother Dylan had two hits in two at bats with

three runs scored. Right fielder Derek Garcia went 1 for 2 with a run

scored as well.

“I was just waiting back on the ball and trying to come out of my

slump,” Nate Hunter said.

Hunter said he places the most emphasis on the games against

Estancia.

“We’re expecting not to lose this year,” he said about the

rivalry. “I want that trophy.”

Estancia single came from Jeremy Hauser, Tyler Hoffman, Tony

Ippolito, Jose Juaregui and Eric Scheafer.

Mesa senior first baseman Dan Bitler dove to make a backhand spear

of a grounder hit to his left in the top of the seventh and added

some offensive pop of his own, tallying three singles in four at bats

with two runs scored.

Senior left fielder Tyler Waldron also displayed a defensive gem

when he made a sliding catch of a pop fly hit into shallow left, and

then alertly threw to Bitler at first for a double play in the top of

the sixth.

Hunter said the difference in the two wins over Estancia this year

has been defense.

“If we can hold teams to one run, we’re going to win the game,” he

said.

*--*

Nonleague

Mesa 11, Estancia 1

Score by Innings

Estancia 100 000 0 -- 1 5 1

Mesa 230 204 x -- 11 11 2

Vargas and N. Hunter; McDaniels and Crom.

W -- Vargas, 2-0. L -- McDaniels

*--*